Writer: Philip Matogo. PHOTO/FILE
Mr Richard Todwong, the party secretary general, said they would not allow any [National Resistance Movement] NRM candidate who loses in the primaries to run as an Independent candidate in the general election,” Daily Monitor reported this week. This is a sensible decision. However, before I explain why, there is more than one dimension to this.
Our politics is about who gets what and for how long. So political actors tend to gravitate towards what fattens their pockets instead of what helps line the inners of the national treasury. That is why they’re in politics. Their allegiance is not to any given party, it is to themselves.
In the cold light of this, the NRM’s tough stance taken to keep the so-called party faithful in line might lead to an exodus of the party. That’s because if a given politician cannot ascend to the high table of parliamentary politics, they might not eat at all. In fact, the word “independent” is dependent on how one’s political fortunes are with a particular party.
If those fortunes are rising within the party, that party member is likely to be a dyed-in-the-wool apparatchik. If the inverse is true, then that party member is likely to become an independent.
On the flipside, imposing zero tolerance when it comes to party standards and values is the very bedrock of party cohesion. The NRM has no choice but to take this course. Not to take it would invite the very dissolution of the party.
Every successful endeavour of humankind has been vouchsafed unto us by discipline. Without personal discipline, President Museveni might have long been jettisoned from the presidency. Discipline, as we all know, is what separates success from regret. This applies to everyday life, so why should it not apply when we are talking about party discipline?
Furthermore, if the NRM sticks to its guns on this issue; such discipline can be reflected in all areas of government. It may serve as a beacon guiding government activity towards better fiscal discipline. That way, the government puts up a better fight against corruption and general impunity.
If this discipline is routinely imposed across the board, Uganda can surely attain middle-income status. It is a sweeping vision, that. A vision like that might be out of joint with reality. That is because there is always a disconnect between rationality and reality in politics.
President Museveni once said, “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.” That was the rationality. Then, came the reality: the less of which is said about that, the better. The disjunction I mentioned earlier between rationality and reality is precisely the reason why Mr Todwong has his work cut out for him. Party members will fight him. The Opposition will laugh on the sidelines. However, there is a way the NRM can escape this situation.
In the United States, there was the policy "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT). It was a US military policy enacted in 1993 that kept the sexual orientation of army personnel secret. The NRM should do the same by simply not asking and not expecting to be told when a party member becomes an independent.
Philip Matogo
