Former minister and ex-presidential candidate Jaberi Bidandi Ssali. PHOTO/FILE
Twenty-five years ago on Wednesday, the minister for Local Government, Mr Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, said the Movement government was ready and willing to hand over power to proponents of multiparty rule provided that they acquired it democratically.
"We are ready to hand over democratically, provided they (multipartyists) have won power. If tomorrow the referendum says we go multiparty, so be it... they have from July (1999) to June (2000) to convince the people that we are bad people," said the minister.
The minister made the comments on May 7, 1999, while responding to questions from the audience during a public lecture on “the challenges of decentralisation” organised by students of Makerere University’s Faculty of Urban Planning. The minister was the chief guest at the lecture.
At the time, Uganda was months away from the June 2000 referendum in line with a constitutional provision that a referendum would be held in the fifth year after the promulgation of the Constitution to enable Ugandans to decide on whether to retain the Movement system or open the political space to allow for a return to a multiparty political dispensation.
It should be remembered that this provision was opposed by proponents of multiparty democracy who participated in the making of the 1995 Constitution.
The multipartyists, who worked together under the banner of what was known as the National Caucus for Democracy (NCD), staged a walkout following the June 20, 1995, vote in the Constituent Assembly (CA), which culminated in the inclusion in the 1995 Constitution of Article 269, which barred parties from engaging in “any activities that may interfere with the movement political system”. They could not operate branches, hold public rallies or sponsor candidates for public office.
During the voting, two delegates of the National Resistance Army (NRA), later Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF), Gen David Tinyefuza (now Sejusa) and Lt Col Sserwanga Lwanga, abstained, while 199 delegates voted in favour of the continuation of “no party rule”. Sixty-eight delegates voted against it.
Mr Bidandi’s comments tied in with conditions that the government had already attached to proposals to return Uganda to multiparty politics.
President Museveni, in a June 21, 1995, open letter to CA delegates who were members of the Movement Caucus, said Uganda would not return to a multiparty political dispensation unless circumstances forced the country to do so.
He used the words “imposed on us by circumstances”.
“The only time we should advocate for multipartyism should be when our society has undergone sufficient metamorphosis to permit healthy polarisation. According to us, that time is not now,” Mr Museveni wrote in the letter.
He, however, hastened to add that if such a time came, the Movement would be open to the idea of competing with other political organisations for political power in the event that Ugandans voted in a referendum for a return to a multiparty political dispensation.
“Should the people of Uganda in future decide to go for multi-partyism, we should be able to pursue [the Movement] objectives even under the new [multiparty] circumstances,” Mr Museveni wrote in an 8-page letter to the delegates.
Second time
That was the second time that Mr Bidandi Ssali was being associated with alleged plans by the Movement to have the country return to multiparty democracy.
On May 22, 1995, as the CA was preparing for debate on a possible political transition, it emerged that he and Lt Col Serwanga Lwanga had mooted a proposal that would have expedited the country’s return to a multiparty political dispensation.
The document proposed that the Movement-type administration, which restricted political party activity, would be brought to an end two years after the first election that would be held after the enactment of the new Constitution.
By the time the two came up with the proposal, debate on Chapter 20 of the draft constitution, which touched on provisions around the political transition, was on the horizon.
Details
Their proposal provided for, among others, a code of conduct for political parties, spelt out guidelines on the formation and registration of political parties, the nature and conduct of political and civic education, and the conduct of political campaigns.
The package, according to Mr Bidandi, would open up the country to competitive elections within five years of the first election. The first elections under the new Constitution came in 1996. It was the first direct election held under a non-party dispensation. The Bidandi/Sserwanga proposals, however, did not see the light of day.
Decentralisation
Meanwhile, during the public lecture at Makerere, which partly focused on a paper presented by Dr John Kiyaga-Nsubuga from the Decentralisation Secretariat in the Ministry of Local Government, Mr Bidandi Ssali blamed the central government for the failure and corruption in the decentralisation process.
"The centre does not have enough funds to send down (to local governments), that's a fact. The central government has the duty of providing services to people of Uganda," the minister was quoted to have said in Daily Monitor’s edition of May 10, 1999.
He said they were trying to convince the Ministry of Finance to increase the budgetary provision for the Local Government.
"As of now, the Government of Uganda and any other developing country does not have enough reserves to provide services to people to the standard that is required," he said.
At the time, the share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had increased from 29 percent to 35 percent, which the minister said would be increased the following Financial Year, 1999/2000, following the decentralisation of the Local Governments’ development budget.
Conceding
"It's true there was a decentralisation of corruption, but I am encouraged by that because in almost 99 percent of the sub-counties where decentralisation has taken place, not a single one of them is regretting and none of them wants to return to centralisation," Bidandi Ssali said.
He cautioned those who wished to do away with decentralisation, saying whoever would come into power would first have to amend the Constitution extensively and centralise government, which would be very hard to achieve. The minister who said there is no fusion between the State organs and those of the local governments, hastened to add that "decentralisation as a child of the Movement has not fallen to the ground but is still staggering, which staggering will stabilise with time".
Dr Yasin Olum from Makerere University’s Department of Political Science, who was one of the two discussants of Dr Kiyaga’s paper, said the people who had been charged with the responsibility of implementing decentralisation did not have an adequate understanding of it.
"There is some sort of diversion in understanding of the process, some think that it is nepotism, tribalism non-government intervention. It evokes emotions like democratisation does," Dr Olum said.
He said because of this, centralisation is coming back through the "back door."
"Not only do the localities have a very small revenue base, but the centre does not have enough to remit to local governments. Instead, the centre will want more to come from the local governments," Dr Olum said.
