Detached govts destroy themselves from within

Thus, the Minister in charge of the Presidency and KCCA (what he does in the latter post is anybody’s guess) misled Ugandans by distorting what was a clear and unmistaken slur inflicted on MPs by the President. The unambiguous words used by President Museveni, himself, an intelligent leader, did not mean what Frank Tumwebaze said because an idiot is an idiot and a fool is a fool.

It is a well known historical fact that most governments destroy themselves from within. Those which live longer than their usefulness perish quicker and more dramatically than others because they are detached from the real world.

A historical member of the NRM party was recently heard to say that the manner in which the government mishandled the reports and rumours about the death of the late Member of Parliament, Cerinah Nebanda, had, without doubt, totally undermined the people’s mandate and the moral authority of this government. A scan of the proverbial screen of politics will reveal a string of successive governments that self-destructed.

From the rulers of ancient Egypt and Rome, to the emperors of Japan, Ethiopia, and Mexico, to the rulers of the British, French and German empires, there were no external forces or opposition within the country that destroyed or undermined them. They all suffered from internal bleeding through political cancers. Most destructive of all has been disregard of people’s wishes and expectations, fuelled by acts of selfishness, greed, lust and impunity.

The catalogue of the iniquitous rulers of the world and their internal causes of their downfall is as old as mankind’s span of life on earth. The worst behaved of these rulers considered themselves indispensable or endowed with divine power to rule over other people with impunity. They deliberately and unconstitutionally excluded compatriots who wished or were preferred by the people to attain the same rank of leadership in society. They imprisoned or murdered political opponents.
In Africa we know governments which destroyed themselves. All of them forgot the reasons why they had come or been elected to office. In nearly every case, they overthrew, abrogated or violated the legal instruments that had propelled them into power. As the saying goes, they killed the goose that lays the golden egg in the forlorn hope that they would still enjoy more and fresher eggs from the same but now dead goose.

Mr Alan Tacca, a fellow columnist, in the Sunday Monitor of January 6, 2013, reminded readers of the Luganda proverb which President Museveni forgot when calling MPs idiots and fools. Which is “Kamwa kabi katta ssiroganga” or in English “Evil talk can lead to suspicion of wrong doing”.

Ugandans have asked themselves again and again, why, if the government believed as many Ugandans suspected that the young Parliamentarian died from alcohol and drug related causes, did it and the police panic and mess up the search for the truth? Why were they not contented with just stopping the expert doctor from travelling to South Africa? Was it necessary to imprison him as well?

If the government had nothing to hide, the results that could have been properly obtained from South Africa would have been the same as those it got from London. By calling MPs who were endeavouring to discover the cause of death of their colleague idiots and fools and arresting and imprisoning the expert who was only carrying out what he believed to be his duty merely fuelled the suspicion that government knew more about her death than they were revealing.

The flight, then arrest, detention and “confessions” of Kalungi, that he murdered his friend and their subsequent retraction leave a great deal to be desired. Credence of rumours is heightened by the knowledge that the deceased who was a member of the ruling party, had become an irritant critic of the party’s top leadership.

Even a government which is losing support of its population continues to enjoy fanatical support of those who benefit from it. Supporters’ exuberance is founded in fictional utopia. Thus, the Minister in charge of the Presidency and KCCA (what he does in the latter post is anybody’s guess) misled Ugandans by distorting what was a clear and unmistaken slur inflicted on MPs by the President. The unambiguous words used by President Museveni, himself, an intelligent leader, did not mean what Frank Tumwebaze said because an idiot is an idiot and a fool is a fool.

Unfortunately, there have been and always will be, millions of Tumwebazes in all sorts of failed governments of the world.

Justice Kanyeihamba is a retired
Supreme Court Judge. gwkany@yahoo.com