How America’s strong institutions are defending the country against president

What you need to know:

This is an approach that has been championed by Mr Mugisha Muntu, the president of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). It is one that frustrates those who are too impatient to engage in grass roots organisation and transformative mobilisation of the citizens. Without strong institutions of governance in the USA, Trump, a man cut from the same cloth as many of our common garden African autocrats, would gladly rule his country by decree. These institutions were not overnight creations. They trace their roots to the beginning of the American Republic, when the framers of the Constitution and the early leaders of the USA entrenched traditions that became part of the American way of life. Among the long-established institutions in America is a press that jealously guards its freedom and fights very hard to keep the politicians honest.

Dear Tingasiga.

America’s White House is a rollercoaster of contradictory and confusing confabulations that pass for presidential positions and explanations of actions and decisions by Donald J. Trump.

Since we are not allowed to say that people have lied, we shall simply say that whenever the American president and his courtiers open their mouths, we are guaranteed large doses of truth turned upside down.

Not that there is anything new about rulers and political leaders offering distortions of facts. Patently false promises and fictitious explanations of their deeds seem to be many government leaders’ first option whenever a microphone is placed in front of them. What is unique about Trump is the ease, speed, frequency and crassness with which he issues these fabrications, so much so that one finds it very hard to believe anything he says. It is a safe bet that even as the rulers and leaders he will meet during his current visit to the Middle East and Europe smile and shake hands with Trump, they are very wary of taking him on his word. It is not a happy place for America to be.

Back home in the States, Trump’s chaotic presidency marches on, with a series of self-inflicted wounds threatening to hobble his agenda so soon after his inauguration.

However, one lesson on display is how America’s strong institutions are defending the country against a president who appears to be authoritarian and disinterested in the rule of law. Trump’s apparent efforts to derail the investigations into his campaign team’s alleged ties with Russia have met strong resistance from the Senate of the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and America’s relatively free news media. There is already talk of possible impeachment, though that remains a remote and, frankly, an undesirable outcome.

However, the simple fact that a US president cannot easily get away with abuse of power is testament to the strength of America’s institutional governance. It makes this Ugandan feel a little envious. Imagine the Attorney General of Uganda and the Uganda Police Force launching a genuinely independent investigation into alleged misdeeds by the president and his 2016 election campaign team. Then imagine the population feeling confident that such an investigation will be thorough and truthful, with results that could potentially spell the end of the ruler’s tenure in office.

That is what America’s institutional government enables them to do, notwithstanding the president’s autocratic tendencies. And the most important institution in America is its politically conscious and mobilised population. Whereas millions of Americans are passionately partisan, there is a critical mass of citizens who have rallied behind investigative government departments and news media to demand thorough investigation of possible collusion between Russia and the Trump Campaign Team.In a country like Uganda, where there is a merger of most State institutions with the ruler, the first step in reversing this is the engagement of the citizens on a mission to reclaim their country and demand institutional rule.

It is a long and very slow process that must start at the grass roots. It demands great patience, sustained education of citizens about their rights and responsibilities and the links between the conduct of the rulers and the lives of the people.

This is an approach that has been championed by Mr Mugisha Muntu, the president of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). It is one that frustrates those who are too impatient to engage in grass roots organisation and transformative mobilisation of the citizens. Without strong institutions of governance in the USA, Trump, a man cut from the same cloth as many of our common garden African autocrats, would gladly rule his country by decree. These institutions were not overnight creations. They trace their roots to the beginning of the American Republic, when the framers of the Constitution and the early leaders of the USA entrenched traditions that became part of the American way of life. Among the long-established institutions in America is a press that jealously guards its freedom and fights very hard to keep the politicians honest.

While there are some that are viciously partisan and happy to tell lies in favour of their causes, there is a vibrant group of independent print and broadcast outlets that has exposed the fallacies that the Trump White House has been dispensing. It takes courageous, committed, focused and honest journalists to bring out the truth.

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