Tinyefuza using scapegoats to launch political ambition

Raising the stakes
It’s high time all political actors and especially my young political comrades raised the stakes high of political contestation so as to turn the tide of political contests degenerating into personal fights. Those attacking Muhoozi are doing so unfairly and purely on selfish grounds. It is an arrogant act and an affront on our generation that we must resist in its entirety. We should only allow issues and not sentiments to define our political culture and behaviors. It should be competence and merit as opposed to scheming, fanning and mastering of intrigue that should form the yardstick of assessing leaders both sitting and aspiring.

I call upon our comrades in the media to be vigilant on “schemers” dressed as political activists. The media industry managers have a major role to play because they provide and regulate the platform for these political contestations. Largely, the media should subject activists to the rigours of moral inquiry and probity to avoid pampering them on wrong opportunistic schemes. They should be challenged to prove their worth based on excellence and superiority of ideas.

Contestation of ideas in a civil manner was and has been the bedrock of the movement/NRM politics. The individual merit principle gave us the foundation. A number of us are proud to have been supported by this principle of free competition.

Its one’s merit that defined his/her political fortunes. Nobody fanned or sponsored intrigue or hateful schemes as a way of challenging the other. I remember the vibrant ideological debates we had in our universities in the mid and late 90s, inspired by the late Brig. Noble Mayombo and Hon. Nobert Mao. The latter pushed a view that was highly critical of the movement and castigated it for being a monolithic system running a single party while the former articulated the revolutionary doctrines of state building and passionately defended the movement as the best form of an all embracing democratic system that even allowed its critics to emerge.

As young emerging student leaders then, we drew a lot of inspiration from these two contesting opinions and we got aligned differently to each of them. We never formed cliques of any sectarian nature (tribal, religious etc) to fight each other, but rather engaged in intellectual contests.

For example, the Mayombo line drew followers from myself, Richard Todwong, Sarah Kagingo, Odrek Rwabwogo, Charles Rwomushana, Patrick Ezaga, Obedmonth Ofungi, Okwir Rabwoni, Rose Namayanja, Peter Ojul, Waswa Masokoyi, Nusura Tiperu, Dan Fred Kidega and Herman Ssentogo among others.

The Mao line on the other hand was followed by friends Mukasa Mbidde, Asuman Basarilwa, Jude Mbabali, the late James Opoka (who was misled to the Kony rebellion by some leaders) and Taligola Isa Bantalibu among many others.

The political culture then and which majority of us continue to espouse was that of tolerance and respect for each other’s views even when one formed opposition to the other. And these were the founding principles of the NRM that majority of us student leaders then understood, appreciated and followed.

Nobody came to recruit us in universities with money inducements or job offers. It was persuasion based on ideological clarity. In fact, I continue to salute with much respect comrades like Nobert Mao who despite their consistent opposition to the NRM, continue to stand up for reason and civilized politics of engagement. He has shunned gallery politics of fanning violence (walk to work, etc) , and vehemently opposed coalitions that had no clear national objectives. He was rebuffed and labeled a Museveni mole by the reactionary forces even when he has been more consistent with opposition politics compared to those calling him names.

Gen. Tinyefuza and his “schemers” should stop fooling anybody. They should come out boldly and live by their own true political images. They should not seek to demonise Muhoozi because of the perceived fears they hold against him. They should wait to face him, if indeed they think he is a force to reckon with at some point in future. Their story of the “ Muhoozi project “, is indeed no other person’s project but their own, so they should tell us why Muhoozi bothers them, that much of a great deal?

The writer is the minister for the Presidency