Why MPs need a mirror before judging others

MPs decided their transport was more vital than the hundreds of children dying of nodding disease in the north. Instead of looking for funds to fight the killer disease they allocated Shs103m to themselves to buy cars. PHOTO BY AGATHA AYEBAZIBWE

What you need to know:

It is hypocrisy to look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye yet you cannot notice the log that is in your own eye. First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

I am told in the Sermon on the Mount of Olives, Jesus (prophet Isa) spoke plainly against people who time and again judge others when they are even worse. In his handling of a woman caught in adultery, the man of God said, “He or she that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Certainly, in this legendary sermon, prophet Isa actually had a lot more to say about judging others than just one sentence.

For the record, this column is not about the “Tsunami” in the 9th Parliament that has so far swept three Cabinet ministers on accusations of corruption. It’s not about the Shs103m MPs took for vehicles. Again, the object of this article is not to suggest in any way that some of our “honourables” are actually hypocrites in the fight against corruption.

Whether President Museveni will recycle Syda Bbumba (Gender), Prof. Khiddu Makubuya (General Duties) and Kabakumba Masiko (Presidency) or not, their resignation is not enough to prove that the government is serious about fighting corruption. The right thing to do is to put them on trial.

The good news is...
It does not matter whether these ministers were pushed or jumped. The pressure was obviously too much to bear especially after they named President Museveni in these deals. It is also not surprising that President Museveni rushed to constitute a Cabinet sub-committee chaired by Dr Chrispus Kiyonga to study the PAC report yet he took a low profile on the loss of more than Shs500 billion in Chogm deals. It is also not surprising that no action was taken on Bank of Uganda Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile.

To appreciate why legislators need soul searching in the fight against financial indiscipline, here is the context of the other things the omnipresent teaches us about judging others. “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” Since our MPs have turned into sloppy judges, it is prudent that we also judge them in the spirit of promoting democracy and good governance.

I know that whoever faults Parliament these days runs the risk of being labeled a detractor in the fight against corruption in government. But as one of the people entrusted with this overwhelming task of keeping an eye on what goes on in Parliament, I will continue to offer my counsel to those elected to represent the people.

For our legislators, this admonitory order is sometimes followed by a self-deprecating phrase, “Do as [we] say, not as [we] do,” meaning “don’t imitate our behaviour but obey our instructions.”

The significance of this column must be clearly put in the open to appreciate that I am not in anyway, trying to offend Article 79 of the 1995 Constitution. I am just trying to awake a sleeping giant with optimism that the institution of Parliament is taken seriously. Although the primary function of Parliament is to legislate, there are other functions that it is mandated to execute under the Constitution and other applicable laws. Therefore, Parliament is obliged to oversee the activities of the Executive. This is what we call the surveillance function of Parliament. The context to this begs another curious question; who is watching the watchdog?

Madam Speaker, the object of this piece is not to discolour the hegemony of Parliament. This is just a humble reminder to your esteemed office to crack the whip before it is too late. MPs must lead by example. They should stop being hypocrites in an amorphous war against financial indiscipline. For instance, on Tuesday, Parliament endorsed a proposal to investigate the Commission of inquiry into the abuse of funds for free education.

Commissioners criticised
Legislators have criticised Justice Ezekiel Muhanguzi’s team for pocketing billions of shillings for no work done. The Commissioners took the money but have failed to produce a report. After a heated debate, it was decided that the Social Services Committee opens a fresh inquiry into the activities of this money-minting Commission. This is laudable by all standards and indeed, it is the right thing to do because the government appears comfortable yet the Commission has failed to produce a report 25 months after its inauguration.

Although MPs are angry that the Commission has failed to produce a report; it is also true that in performing their oversight functions, they have also set up several ad hoc committees to investigate matters of national significance but without producing a single report. For instance, at least six key Parliamentary Commissions of inquiry were abandoned under unclear circumstances without the legislators producing a single report to Parliament.

After conducting business for weeks and others for a couple of months, the MPs later deserted the Committee meetings, formed to probe significant issues such as Chogm expenditures, Police brutality, pastoralists (Balaalo) crisis, unfair allocation of funds to districts, how Butabika Hospital land was grabbed among others. Although most of the pending Bills were saved, the work of these ad hoc committees was never saved, the public lost millions and the problems remained unresolved just like the abuse of UPE/USE funds.

To cut a long story short, these grasping members, many of them in 9th Parliament, pocketed millions of shillings in sitting allowances and hefty per diem, took tea and wasted time in tittle-tattle, in an apparent betrayal of public trust. Like the UPE/USE probe, it is shameful to note that no single ad hoc committee has ever produced a report yet they took public money.