Opposition needs “commandos”

The story began in 1972 and ended in 1986. So we are living in the so-called revolution’s afterlife, that’s why it seems so hellish.

Speaking of hell, during the week police in Wandegeya arrested seven students of Makerere University for holding an “unlawful assembly”.

The students were arrested at Emerald Hotel in Wandegeya, where they had gathered to address a press conference.

The presser, which had been planned to take place at the university’s guild canteen, was moved to Emerald Hotel after heavy security deployment at the planned venue.

Vice guild president Margaret Nattabi, and guild minister for information Muzafaluh Kabuulwa, who led the seven on behalf of their fellow students, accuse the university administration of placing a proverbial knee on the neck of their freedom of association by depriving them of their right to associate with their preferred political parties and forbidding them from conducting in-person political campaigns during elections.

Is this another episode that is all noise and no trousers, as the expression goes, or is it something more? I am inclined to believe that it could be the latter, if we embrace the wider significance of change and what it demands of us.

In the opposition, regrettably, there are only two considered ways of taking on the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM). One is to throw one’s hat into the ring of elective politics.

The other is to agitate from the welter below, the streets, in order for ripples of protest to ascend the crest of a wave of change.

However, these two legitimate channels exclude those who want change but are not ready to get their hands dirty by standing on a soapbox in the name of regime change.

Hence, as the means of change are narrowed down to two competing means; our plurality is abbreviated to a duality.

This two-way duopoly of the means to change not only reflects the two-party duopoly of our politics, with NRM and National Unity Platform being our two dominant parties; it precludes other means of effecting change.

Yet several other segments of our plural society would get involved if other means were sought.

The National Resistance Army, for instance, had six battalions under its Mobile Brigade. Not all fighters in this brigade were fighters, some were unarmed fighters called “commandos”.

These commandos helped the NRA carry captured weapons and made up three battalions. Similarly, the British, during World War II, created the 7th and 5th Carrier Corps for East and West Africa respectively. These Carrier Corps later constituted the King’s African Rifles.

This means that although the NRA was a fighting force, it expanded the means by which one could make a contribution to the war effort.

In terms of Opposition politics, it would be good for our activists and anti-NRM politicians to open up other channels of protest. A carrier corps, if you like, that picks up fallen oppositionists by picking up their bills.

Powerful revolutionary tool

Money is a powerful revolutionary tool. So if it is brought together by supporters of change, the Opposition may match the government in strength. For the only reason the State has more money (hence power) than everyone else is because it has everyone else’s money under a single roof, so to speak. 

Thus, the Opposition needs its own “commandos”, marshalling the cash of its supporters into a war chest.

This option, of creating non-fighting political fighters, would find a role for everyone interested in the struggle outside of street protests and political canvassing.

This would in turn ensure the Opposition went beyond striking headlines to strike the solar plexus of the NRM’s greying anatomy.

Mr Matogo is a professional copywriter 

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