UGANDA'S FLAWED ELECTIONS: In defence of UPC, Observers report and Muwanga

Q: I have done research on the conduct of the 1980 polls and realised that the UPC was given serious prominence in the Uganda Times, which was the state owned newspaper much to the chagrin of the other parties. The media was thus used unfairly.

A: That is true but then you have seen it today with The New Vision. Listen to Radio Uganda and watch UTV, the first thing is that the President has done something, Museveni has said this, and the minister has done this.

Q: But Dr Obote wasn’t President at the time

A: I don’t know why they chose to push him. But the Chairman of the Military Commission was Muwanga. Muwanga was UPC for sure. But they should have prevailed over him because his assistant was Museveni anyway. He also didn’t seem to care about that and to realign the presentation in the papers or the media.

Q: Wouldn’t questions of neutrality thus arise since Paulo Muwanga was UPC?

A: Yeah, but his Vice was UPM. Neutrality wouldn’t have risen. But if a government is in power, it doesn’t mean that it should do the wrong things. You can’t say well, we will call in the Pope or the Archbishop or something to run the government when we are going to hold elections. It does not mean that fairness or equity ends when you are in power.

No, you should look at the law; you should look at the general good of the welfare of the society you are leading. You open to them, you should accept criticism, you should bend even backwards to see your own mistakes because from mistakes you can correct the anomalies and stay in power if you want to.

I am not saying stay in power in the manner that we see at the moment or we saw in Mexico of keeping power for 70years, no. But if a government is serious and wants to look at the development of its own society, if it accepts internal self-criticism, constructive criticism from its citizens then these excesses wouldn’t happen.

Q: Some observers believe that since Muwanga was UPC, he did everything possible to ensure the UPC won and that is possibly why Obote appointed him as his Vice President when he formed a new government.

A: No, no. Muwanga from the word go. Let me tell you, I was in Moshi. If it wasn’t for fear by the pressures being put on Tanzania, when in the Moshi Conference, Muwanga would have been coming here as the Chairman and the leader of Government instead of Lule. If we had voted, and we tried to vote actually, Muwanga was the thing.

As a result, that is why they formed the Military Commission because the people did not want Lule as the head. So they formed the Military Commission, those groups which had people in the field, that is UPC, FRONASA (Front for National Salvation) and Save Uganda Movement (SUAM). And the people who came in the Military Commission, the whole structure were from those.

UPC took the Chairmanship; FRONASA took the Vice Chairmanship, SUAM took the Secretary. So Muwanga would in any case have been the first President after Amin if we had followed the feelings of the meeting. But we had pressure because they said the British Government didn’t want the UPC back as they had helped to overthrow it in 1971. So it wasn’t a reward. Muwanga deserved it.

Q: Where do you see the future of UPC?

A: We are going to go for the annual delegates conference and we should choose a leadership, which should propel this party to keep its national identity. And we have the people, many people who will stand for the presidency and other elective positions. Am sure we will get cohesion and the lessons of being out of government twice, of being put in a freezer for 20 years, should have taught us now that when we come back, we will be careful to see that we propagate our social system. We have a strong belief in uplifting the common man, that’s why our programmes were very effective. We will play our part and our role in the future of this country. I am sure about that.

Q: Your last words on Dr Apollo Milton Obote