MUSEVENI 24 YEARS LATER: Ours is not a mere change of guard; it is a fundamental change

At his swearing-in as President after the National Resistance Army troops had overrun Kampala, Yoweri Museveni, gave an address on the steps of Parliament on January 29, 1986, where he made the famous remark about theirs not being a mere change of guard, but a fundamental change. Daily Monitor retrieves this speech from the archives and also profiles some of Mr Museveni’s famous quotes.

NO ONE should think that what is happening today is a mere change of guard: it is a fundamental change in the politics of our country. In Africa, we have seen so many changes that change, as such, is nothing short of mere turmoil. We have had one group getting rid of another one, only for it to turn out to be worse than the group it displaced. Please do not count us in that group of people: the National Resistance Movement is a clear-headed movement with clear objectives and a good membership.

Of course, we may have some bad elements amongst us - this is because we are part and parcel to Ugandan society as it is, and we may, therefore, not be able completely to guard against infiltration by wrong elements.

It is, however, our deliberate policy to ensure that we uplift the quality of politics in our country. We are quite different from the previous people in power who encouraged evil instead of trying to fight it.

You may not be familiar with our programme, since you did not have access to it while we were in the bush so I shall outline a few of its salient points;

The first point in our programme is the restoration of democracy. The people of Africa-the people of Uganda-are entitled to democratic government. It is not a favour from any government: it is the right of the people of Africa to have democratic government. The sovereign power in the land must be the population, not the government. The government should not be the master, but the servant of the people.

In our liberated zones, the first thing we started with was the election of village Resistance Committees. My mother, for instance, cannot go to parliament; but she can, surely, become a member of a committee so that she, too, can make her views heard. We have, therefore, set up village, muluka, gombolola and district committees.

Later we shall set up a national parliament directly elected by the people. This way we shall have both committee and parliamentary democracy. We don’t want to elect people who will change sides once they are in parliament. If you want to change sides, you must go back and seek the mandate of the people who elected you.

Democracy
Some of these points are for the future, but right now I want to emphasise that the first point in our political programme is democracy for the people of Uganda. It is a birthright to which all the people of Uganda are entitled.
The committees we have set up in these zones have a lot of power. You cannot, for instance, join the army or the police without being cleared by the village committee.

You must get a recommendation from the people in your village to say that you are not a rogue.
Hence, the soldiers who are joining us from other armies will have to be referred back to their villages for recommendation. The same applies to the police.

Suppose, for instance, that we want to recruit some 500 soldiers from the District of Rakai and say 10,000 youths in the area apply to join. If 5,000 of those are cleared by their area committees as people of good character, the selecting military team will choose the most physically fit from among those, and we shall end up with an army that is both of good character and in good physical condition. This is an example of some of the work to be done by the village committees.

Another important aspect of the committees is that they should serve as a citizens’ intelligence system. If I go to address a rally in Semuto, Rape-ka or Nakaseke, I shall first meet the muluka and gombolola committees in the area. They will tell me whether the muluka chiefs are thieves, or the hospital personnel are selling drugs, or whether there are soldiers in the area who are misbehaving. They are thus able to act as watchdogs for the population and guard against the misuse of power.

The second point in our programme is the security of person and property. Every person in Uganda must be absolutely secure to live wherever he or she wishes. Any individual or any group of persons who threatens the security of our people must be smashed without mercy.

Security
The people of Uganda should only die from natural causes that are beyond our control, but not at the hands of fellow citizens who continue to walk the length and breadth of our land freely.
When we were in Nairobi during the peace talks, it was a very painful experience sitting in a room with criminals across the table. 1 was advised that being a leader, you have to be diplomatic.

This prompted me to ask: “But does diplomacy apply to criminals as well?” to which the answer was, “Yes”. I saw then that the whole process was a farce. We tried peacefully to push the case that the Amin elements, and people like Bazilio Okello, who had killed people in broad daylight, must be excluded from government.
Our voice, however, was a lonely one because there were so many pressures from the International community which is interested only in trade. They do not care how many skeletons we have in Uganda: all they care about is for the road to be opened so that their goods can have free passage. We, therefore, made our position very clear: we were not going to take part in any government which included and Involved criminals. Unfortunately these people believed they had tricked us. Tito Okello, for instance, came back saying that my signing the agreement showed that they had removed the teeth from the salambwa (poisonous snake).