Muntumania should be a force for change

Therefore, the time to start giving towards the 2016 campaign is now. We have learnt from Barack Obama that every dollar counts.

Dear Tingasiga:
Once again, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has set the bar higher than Uganda had witnessed since independence in 1962. First, Dr Kizza Besigye, the party president, stepped down well ahead of the expiry of his second term in office.

He did so because he wanted his successor to succeed. That was practical patriotism that challenged the culture of personalised rule that has hobbled the older political parties and the country.

Second, the campaign for the party presidency reminded us that it was possible to have genuine competition for the approbation of the voters.
The campaign teams engaged in vigorous efforts to sway the vote their way, a healthy process that some misunderstood to be a “fight that might fracture the party”. We understood the anxiety that informed such fears in a country where genuine competition among colleagues had been taboo until the advent of the FDC.

By all accounts, the fairness of the process and the efficiency with which the FDC electoral commission team conducted the entire exercise were music to those of us who considered process to be more important than results.

Third, the speed with which the unsuccessful candidates conceded to Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu indicated a faith and confidence in the process that assured all that the results were a genuine reflection of the will of the delegates.

No doubt there were things that could have been done better. The party leaders have an opportunity to take corrective measures that will help to deepen a culture of internal democracy that has been taking root in the FDC.

Fourth, the new party president has earned his position through a genuine trial by fire. The vigorous campaign tested him. He passed by keeping his cool and insisting on an issue-based campaign. He elevated the party in the process and established himself as the leader that Uganda desperately needs.

Fifth, the party delegates moved the ball forward on the journey towards democracy. That Gen. Muntu, an ethnic kinsman of the outgoing party president, received huge support from all regions of Uganda was a mark of political maturity and positive change in the FDC. That the delegates treated as irrelevant the rhetoric about Muntu’s military background, his ethnicity and his non-confrontational politics revealed a very reassuring sophistication in their assessment of the national interest.

Indeed, these qualities were seen as his strength, not a weakness.
Yet Muntu cannot afford to enjoy the public adoration. He may have won the majority vote, but 49 per cent of the delegates did not vote for him. He must use his formidable humility and listening skills and work to earn their trust and support.

His campaign team and all of his supporters must respectfully reach out to those who supported his opponents, seeking a common agenda for growth of the party and for political change in Uganda.

Meanwhile, Muntu’s election has triggered enormous excitement and renewed hope among many who had either given up all hope or were content to continue holding their noses and supporting Gen. Museveni. The Internet has been abuzz with excitement and declarations of intent to vote for Muntu in 2016. I have received similar correspondence from NRM friends in Uganda. Muntumania is rapidly spreading. There is hunger for change.

In fact, Muntu has not been elected to stand against Museveni in 2016. He has simply been elected to lead the FDC and to continue to grow the party over the next five years. His leadership offers an opportunity to all progressive Ugandans to join the FDC and help carry the party forward and prepare it for the elections three years from now.
No doubt his performance as party president will determine whether or not he should be offered the chance to be the party’s flag bearer in 2016, assuming that he is interested.

Muntumania should be a force for change. Ugandans everywhere should organise themselves into FDC branches through which ideas for change can be generated, and through which funds can be mobilised to support the challenging task that Muntu must carry out before the next national elections.

Those who prefer to remain uncommitted to a political party still have an opportunity to provide financial support to Muntu and his team. Come 2016, the FDC will face the same NRM which has a blank cheque to use.
The FDC presidential candidate, whoever that will be, will need a massive war chest to survive the gruelling campaign to unseat Museveni. Likewise, candidates for Parliament and other elected positions will also face better financed opponents from the NRM. Therefore, the time to start giving towards the 2016 campaign is now. We have learnt from Barack Obama that every dollar counts.

Gen. Muntu has received the baton from Col. Besigye. He now has the opportunity to inspire his party and a Ugandan electorate that had become despondent to, in the words of John Quincy Adams, dream more, learn more, do more and become more. We wish him well.
Dr Mulera is a Daily Monitor columnist based in Canada.
muniinikmulera@aol.com