Author: Asuman Bisiika. PHOTO/FILE.
I am a member of a WhatsApp group of National Resistance Movement (NRM) cadres. Except me, all members of this group are government employees or former government employees. I am not a government employee; neither am I a former government employee. And I am no NRM cadre.
I once ‘cadred’ for RPF. When RPF discarded me, I quit political ‘cadrering’. So, I’ve been enjoying the debates on the said WhatsApp group as a disinterested outsider. Since these are senior people (in age and public service positions held), some of their arguments border on government policy.
Young Ugandans wanted to participate in the march to Parliament to fight corruption. But the senior ones were very cautious about what they called something that carried all elements associated with insurrectionist attitudes, verve and vigour.
The issue of corruption in Uganda is well known. It is all over the place like measles. But the dilemma for an NRM cadre is the way to respond to it because some of them assume that President Museveni’s statements against corruption may not go as far as the population would want.
However, President Museveni would not like (and many political leaders would not) the initiative of a good cause of such national interest and popularity to be led by a group that says it is leaderless and faceless.
Mr Museveni is a political leader. And most political leaders prefer to engage known quantities with known non-negotiable positions. Without that, a political leader would be denuded of any incentive to even engage. It would be like probing in the darkness.
Another problem Mr Museveni has to deal with is the 2026 General Election. He is heading for election campaigns within this financial year and any concessions to a leaderless group could signal a weakness and likely to have a domino effect. It is even “un-Museven” to concede under pressure.
So, in the result, an NRM cadre faces a challenge of balancing his loyalty to Mr Museveni and the patriotic morality of fighting a vice exhibiting Uganda as a failed state.
Ugandans may sacrifice a few individuals like Ms Anita Among (the Speaker of Parliament of Uganda). But corruption is now so endemic in Uganda it actually needs a Museveni who no longer asks for evidence and court prosecution. Fighting corruption now requires a Museveni who will look at the cost of public administration as some form of corruption.
It requires a Museveni who is willing to reduce the number of Cabinet ministers to about 20 and fighting corruption requires a Museveni who will call for the writing of a new constitution.
And then the NRM cadre will ask: do you have such a Museveni? My answer: “No, we don’t have such a Musevení”.
Does an NRM cadre then need to participate in public protests against corruption or any other cause of public interest? “No. An NRM cadre should not participate because he or she is not in possession of the initiative. An NRM cadre cannot and should not join a group that claims to be leaderless and faceless. A leaderless and unstructured group is likely to trip and transform into a riotous and violent one. And such a group is likely to harbour insurrectionist tendencies.
If Speaker Among were to resign under the pressure of the protestors, the next demand, as has been the experience elsewhere, would be to call on the entire establishment to go.
With a leaderless group holding the initiative, that would be a ‘formal’ invite to the men of metal (the military) to take charge. And with that, the lies and promises of 1986 would begin with freshness.
Mr Asuman Bisiika is the executive editor of the East African Flagpost. [email protected]
