Like House rebels, NRA rebels were also cowards

A crop of politicians with opposition sentiments has risen, but riding on the ruling party ticket. After the official opposition, these “rebel” MPs have started facing the music.

When the ruling NRM removed it’s pretence that it was not a political party in 2005/6, President Museveni continued to refer to his party (NRM) as if it was in some mysterious way not really a political party, but a relic of the defunct all-embracing “movement”, which the evil men and women who believed in political parties had abandoned to resurrect (or form new) real parties. Even to trained philosophers, this thing must have been confusing or ridiculous.

From then on, every undesirable action by an opposition party or politician attracted an attack on pluralism itself. And almost every act of wrongdoing by ruling NRM politicians was justified as the inevitable result of good men and women becoming infected with the germ of party politics; a punishment – it was vindictively added – that Ugandans fully deserved for rejecting the no-party movement system.

Naturally, when the “individual merit” Parliament was divided following the 2006 general election, and opposition party MPs were formerly identified, their jobs also became more risky. Before 2005/6, it was their habits and political histories that betrayed them, and they were lumped together as “multipartists”. Now they were properly marked as opposition parliamentary candidates or (later) MPs, and they were clearly branded with their specific party emblems.

Their campaign rallies, public speeches or street demonstrations and so on; all these were now treated with more hostility and even outright violence by various administrative and security outfits.

Partly to avoid this mistreatment, and partly to spite the ruling elite, a crop of politicians with opposition sentiments has risen, but riding on the ruling party ticket. After the official opposition, these “rebel” MPs have started facing the music.

As it happens, the instinct for self preservation fires your flight from excessive danger. It is in your DNA, just like in the fruit-fly. So, to counter the mischief of the security forces, which are overtly partisan, these MPs have had to learn various evasive manoeuvres and hiding skills. Sometimes they just cave in, terrified.

A frustrated public, hungry for change, wants every opposition or “rebel” NRM MP to kill a lion everyday. On the other hand, disciples of the ruling clique regularly ridicule and call the rebels’ bluff. From both sides, therefore, anti-establishment MPs face the charge of cowardice.
Now, the biggest sin of “the bad old days” of Milton Obote and Idi Amin was naked brutality.

The main tool in use was the gun. You challenged those who had guns (generally the State) at your peril. The dictators required your submission. So, they displayed the threats to your physical survival and/or mental integrity to make you fall back into line.

To resist state brutality, Museveni and his NRM rebels needed and acquired guns. Not only that, they hid in the bush. To do what they called “demystifying the gun”, they used guns. And yet, armed with AK47s, they were hiding.

In a sense, the guerilla is the ultimate coward. He sneaks up on you and shoots you from the back, then slips back into hiding. To boost his courage, he sometimes turns to narcotic drugs, or enlists the reckless youngster (kadogo) to do some of the grim work.

Alone, with just a pistol in his holster, no NRA guerilla – and absolutely none now among our fire-breathing generals – could openly march towards a platoon and call out: “Hey, here I am, ready to fight you. I want you to know that I am a tough guy.”

If it were true that some of our vocal MPs are turning to drugs to enhance their courage, I would not be entirely surprised. But then the first step towards a solution might be to stop treating them like guerillas. Unfortunately, the NRM is sliding back into the bad old days so rapidly that this charity of heart may now be impossible.

Allan Tacca is a novelist and socio-political
commentator. altaccaone@gmail.com