Museveni launches national dialogue, lists four issues

KAMPALA. President Museveni yesterday launched the process of the long awaited Uganda National Dialogue and named four issues that need to be critically discussed, saying they are the key principles of his National Resistance Movement leadership.

Mr Museveni, while launching the process at State House Entebbe at an event where he also inaugurated the Uganda National Dialogue coordinating team, highlighted patriotism, pan Africanism, socio-economic development, and democracy, as the key issues he needs emphasised during the dialogue.

The national dialogue coordinating team represented by the Office of the Prime Minister, which will work with the Group of Six that include Interreligious Council of Uganda, The Elders Forum of Uganda, Women Situation Room, Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy, National Consultative Forum, and Inter-party Organisation for Dialogue.

The conveners of the dialogue say the consultative talks will be launched by the end of March next year before the big national conference where the representatives of the different interest groups of citizens will convene for a national conference where issues will be discussed.

Mr Museveni, who said he is happy to take part in the national dialogue with people who have divergent ideas opposed to what his NRM government has worked on, emphasised that it will give him opportunity to clarify on the four principles.
“It is just a plus for us to be in a dialogue especially with people who have divergent views. I have been dying for it. It is good for me to sit with them and say this is what I believe in and why I believe so. For us we have been working on four principles and those are our issues,” he said.

The President said much as his government has restored democracy in Uganda and worked on the Socio-Economic development, there is still need to discuss patriotism and pan Africanism.
“We (NRM) don’t believe in sectarianism. We believe in patriotism. Of course some people are skeptical (about patriotism), they don’t listen but majority of Ugandans have been listening and that is why we have been winning with big margins,” the President said.

About the need for discussion of Pan Africanism, Mr Museveni said: “I don’t hear many political actors in Uganda and in Africa talk about Pan Africanism. When you don’t talk about Pan Africanism, I regard you as a danger of Africa.”
Mr Museveni, despite agreeing with the issues the conveners of the national dialogue have earmarked for discussion, was opposed to it being called a “citizen-led” conversation saying there is a constitutional issue because the citizens are already represented by the people they elect.

The Mufti of Uganda, Sheikh Shaban Mubajje, who is the chairperson of the Interreligious Council of Uganda, asked the stakeholders who will participate in the national dialogue to “cast aside their egos” and focus on national building.
He said the need for dialogue is that there is need to build trust as Ugandans are not trusting each other.

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Justice James Ogoola the Chairman of the National Diologue Convening Organisations, said there are eight issues that have so far been agreed upon during consultative meetings between the Group of Six and the Office of the Prime Minister.
He named the issues as national diversity, political consensus, national values, land and natural resources, historical questions, constitutionalism and rule of law, minimum standards for public service, the economy, and implementation modalities.

Justice Ogoola said the national dialogue has been long overdue because the post-independence Uganda has undergone a bad history which needs to be corrected through an all-inclusive conversation.
“For the last 50 years, Uganda has seen good and bad times with violence, rebellions, assassinations, Coup d’états, all resulting in mutilations and devastation of lives and property. We have no crossed from wildness to the Promised Land and it is high time we cross to the land of milk and honey by cleaning and cleansing that history,” he said.