Letter to a Kampala Friend

By Munini K. Mulera

Abandon the illusion, democracy is dying
March 5,2007
Dear Tingasiga: Ugandans face a decision of awful moment. They must choose between democracy and dictatorship. The illusion that Uganda is a democracy vanishes when one reflects on the state of its five pillars, namely, the citizens, the news media, parliament, the executive and the judiciary.

Citizens have been beaten into fearful submission. Yes, there is an illusion of relative freedom of speech and the people participate in periodic farcical elections. Yet if you listen carefully, you hear a very loud silence across the land, where people gladly whisper their disgust in private, but live in mortal fear of the state.

Fear for future
They fear loss of jobs and other crumbs that fall from the high table of the land. They fear the wrath of Gen. Yoweri T. Museveni’s armed courtiers who have repeatedly unleashed vicious dogs, tear gas and lethal ammunition upon citizens in a show of force that is designed to remind them who is boss.

They fear each other, no longer sure whom to trust, everyone suspecting everyone else of being a state informer, a circumstance that has always worked perfectly in favour of dictatorships. Kitandugaho [don’t quote me] is the motto of the land.

Of course, there are many Ugandans who genuinely support the dictatorship. The groceries are flowing their way, the illusion of kasita twebaka otulo [enjoying peaceful sleep] remains vivid in their imagination, and their shared kinship with the most powerful rulers feeds a bizarre belief that they too are in power.

Some, of course, agree with Gen. Museveni’s actions and policies, while others support the dictatorship because they are too cynical to believe that there is a better alternative. We respect their choice.

Yet shutting their eyes against the painful truth that democracy in Uganda is dead will not alter the fact that democracy is really dead. If you doubt me, Tingasiga, consider the following:

Parliament has been bought with cash in a cynical move designed to neuter MPs, whose role must be to continue to provide the cosmetic appearance of a parliamentary democracy at work.

Not even the MPs from the Forum for Democratic Change [FDC], the main opposition party, could resist the temptation to exchange their freedom and moral authority for a few shillings that they, like the ruling party MPs, are drooling over with deep gratitude to the executive branch.

The executive branch itself was stolen again on February 23, 2006 when Gen. Museveni retained the presidency not by free choice of the citizens. And to erase all doubt, Gen. Museveni, the retired soldier, prefers his military uniform to his Saville Row suits.

The news media, while continuing their valiant struggle for some air, swim in shark infested waters and will soon be drowned by an increasingly intolerant military regime. Ongoing efforts to muzzle Daily Monitor, KfM radio and its sister television network, NTV Uganda, are examples of the regime’s determination to suffocate the freer press.

For their part, many journalists, unwilling to risk loss of their “freedom” or groceries, engage in understandable self-censorship. Others gleefully cheer the assault on their own profession, blinded by short-term interests and transient groceries.

And the single most important pillar of a democratic state, the judiciary, has been desecrated and raped. Last week’s invasion of the court house was the latest of the regime’s acts of complete contempt for the rule of law. It was a clear missive from the president to the people of Uganda telling them the simple truth that the military rules supreme and all else is pretence.

Happily, the judges read and understood Gen. Museveni’s missive. Rather than continue to play along as enablers of the dictatorship, they have laid down their gavels and gowns in an act of defiance that has earned them the respect of freedom lovers around the world.

Their action challenges all Ugandan citizens who desire the rule of law to stand up and be counted on the side of justice and democracy.

Students join struggle
News that Makerere students are laying down their pens in solidarity with the judges and magistrates gives us hope that the younger intellectuals may be ready to answer the call of duty in defence of their freedom.

But it will take more than the noble actions of the judges and the university students to defend freedom and the rule of law. All citizens must make a choice, either to accept military rule and all that it brings, or to join advocates of freedom and the rule of law in a peaceful and non-violent resistance against the military dictatorship.

The time for fence-sitting which has, for far too long, been the refuge of those who have chosen to remain silent in exchange for groceries is long gone. Today it is the High Court under attack. Tomorrow it will be you, Tingasiga.

mkmulera@aol.com