Uganda and the ruling NRM: Looking beyond Kyankwanzi

There are necessarily many shades of ideological and political opinions as to how the country moves forward - some genuine in serving the interests of the Ugandan and African people, others allied (subjectively or otherwise), to their enemies.

Neither the official nor “wolokoso” accounts of the proceedings of the retreat of the NRM Parliamentary Caucus at Kyankwanzi, have captured the profundity of some of the remarks made there by President Yoweri K. Museveni.
We provide examples. The President repeated several times that indiscipline in the NRM would not be tolerated any more. He emphasized that it was going to stop. He said that at various points in his life long political struggles, parting ways with hither-to comrades has become inevitable. He indicated that the retreat was a watershed development in that direction.
Mr Museveni likened the retreat to the rectification meetings the NRA/NRM had in the bush in 1982, after he returned to the war zone and found factionalism and indiscipline taking root there. After the rectification process, he went on, solid political/military discipline and unity held sway, until Kampala was captured in January 1986.
In other words, in Kyankwanzi 2013, Yoweri Museveni has thrown down the gauntlet of battle to those members of his own political organisation who purport to be leading different political lines against the dominant political line of Nationalism, Pan Africanism, Socio-Economic Transformation and Democracy. The lines of battle are drawn with those who would hide behind unprincipled “broad unity”, the deliberate obscuration of the true meaning of the doctrine of “separation of powers”, etc, in a wild and adventurous flight of imagination, to attempt to bring down the government.
The lines of battle are drawn with those who would misuse their “youthfulness”, to create an imaginary gap with the “old guard” - which “old guard’ is already practically leading Uganda into the nuclear and space ages! In other words, there shall be no blackmail of the President from any quarter. In his own words last week in Kyankwanzi, “the games are over”!
The meaning of Kyankwanzi put differently, therefore, is that those who would wish to stop the forward march of the Ugandan people to take-off and socio-economic transformation, have been served notice that they will be met headlong with the formidable and unstoppable strength of the organised Ugandan people.
The pilgrimages of Yoweri Museveni to the Luweero triangle, after which there are fundamental strategic and tactical shifts in the Ugandan national liberation movement, are well known. They remind us of similar experiences of the Chinese Communist Party.
What comes to mind, is Chairman Mao Zedong’s “swimming of the Yangzi (Yangtze)” river in 1966. He had first swum it in 1956. The point is that China was still dealing with the negative aftermath of the “Great Leap Forward”. Factionalism was rife in the CPC. Talk of a coup against Mao was common. He was holed up in Shanghai, while the rest of the leadership was in Beijing.

When he swam the Yangzi, he was 72. His swim made both symbolic and political statements: he was very strong, still in charge, and was re-asserting ideological and political clarity. He thereafter launched the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”, and ordered the cadreship to “bombard the headquarters” - of which he was the leader!

Our point here is not the success or failure of the “cultural revolution in China” - the Communist Party of China has already pronounced itself on that.

Our point is that there comes a time in the life of revolutionary organisations, when the leadership must show the way, when there must be one power centre - even if it costs the organisation in the short term, probably up to and including splits, loss of voters, etc. When Mao swam the Yangzi, he was re-asserting necessary ideological leadership. It is what V.I. Lenin had done some 40 years earlier, in his seminal work, “Better Fewer, But Better”: re-asserted necessary ideological leadership.
Uganda is in the clutches or throes of the national liberation or new democratic, revolution.

There are necessarily many shades of ideological and political opinions as to how the country moves forward - some genuine in serving the interests of the Ugandan and African people, others allied (subjectively or otherwise), to their enemies.

The NRM is now at such an historical juncture, when there is a proliferation of views as to the way forward, moreover sometimes unmindful of the need to build consensus, and quite often utilizing unprincipled, opportunistic and divisive methods.
Museveni’s message to wananchi from Kyankwanzi is that the leadership shall not be failed in its historical mission of transformation, no matter what.

Mr Mafabi is the private secretary/political affairs- State House.
kdavidmafabi@yahoo.com