The NRM regime is a shame to Bush War heroes - Besigye

Having retired as party president for Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), and now involved in anti-regime crusades, Dr Kizza Besigye remains a vocal critic and above all a fearless man who has put the government on the defensive. Sunday Monitor’s Richard Wanambwa caught with the former Bush War hero, who fell out with the regime he helped to establish.

Of course he does all those while he is the First son with direct access to his father, so where can Aronda be in all that? He is nowhere and you have a power structure which doesn’t depend on appointments.

Aronda today salutes Saleh (Gen. Salim), yet he is the Chief of Defence Forces; nobody is higher than the CDF in the defence forces. If you are a civilian, with higher appointment, Aronda is right to salute ministers because the army is under a ministry led by a minister, but nobody in uniform. But he also salutes Gen. Tumwine (Elly). This is not a professional Force to talk about. Whereas Muhoozi may be a brigadier, exercise of power does not follow those things [ranks].

The National Resistance Movement (NRM) party, which you once belonged to, on Wednesday last week celebrated 27 years in power. What is your take on such an occasion and was it worth celebrating?

No, absolutely, none and I actually think a debate should come up that if it is just celebrating change of governments, then the other landmarks where government changed would also be celebrated. Amin’s coup of 1971, which was also on January 25, should be celebrated; Tito Lutwa should be celebrated and so on.

Because it cannot be the change of government that is a cause for celebration, there must be something fundamental. Now Museveni on January 26, 1986, said what had happened was a fundamental change. I don’t know how he can explain to Ugandans that there has been a fundamental change.

The cause of trouble in Ugandan politics has always been the repression and marginalisation of the population by military power. That happened right from the colonial government when the colonialists arrived with gun powder while our own chiefs were with arrows, bows and spears.

They silenced them and established authority over all persons in Uganda using the gun and that was the basis of the power of the colonial regime. When they left, they handed over the guns to the government they left here and the government continued to dominate and marginalise the population using the guns.

So what we joined between 1981 and 1982 and so on was supposed to be a liberation from military rule. It was not just a liberation from a person but a liberation from military control of national politics so that people have power, become supreme and the military would be subordinate to civilian authority. But that has not happened and that was the central struggle.

The core of the struggle was not about UPE, we didn’t join the bush because we wanted UPE, Naads or Bujagali: no! The reason there was war was because we wanted freedom from control and domination by people with guns.

That has not changed and the statements he makes as he celebrates 27 years in power, such as the military taking over, emphasises that.

So the people he is threatening are people’s representatives, the Constitution is very clear, all power in Uganda belongs to the people of Uganda and they will exercise it either directly or through their representatives and that is Parliament.

People’s power lies in Parliament and that is why it is Parliament that can make laws, divide and allocate money. The President is just an executor, but he calls them to Kyakwanzi dresses them in uniforms, makes them to salute and he tells them if you don’t do this, you will see.

Why? Because he still dominates with the military might. So from that point of view alone, the locus of power has not changed from military domination to civilian rule. The NRM promised to implement other programmes when it attained power, most important among them was dealing with corruption, but now corruption is official after 27 years.

In fact I consider that what we have in Uganda is not just ordinary corruption; we have a criminal syndicate in power, like a mafia. We have a mafia regime, a criminal organisation in power.

So it is organised crime and that is why you see the Ministry of Finance is involved, Bank of Uganda, Prime Minister’s office, President’s Office, Attorney General and the Solicitor General.