Review Mao’s constitutional reviews

The minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Mr Norbert Mao, recently announced that Uganda will embark on a comprehensive process to review the 1995 Constitution in the next three months. 

We thus expect a great deal of horse trading, by government, to achieve the true object of this review: transition. 

I suspect that, as a tradeoff, government will give us back our beloved term and age limits. 

They were, after all, mere judicial payloads exploding all official restraint on Mr Museveni’s interminable rule. 

That will be government’s give, but what will be its take? 
We’re likely to go from a presidential system to a parliamentary system so that whoever President Museveni anoints as his successor will thereby avoid the rigors of retail politics. 

Instead, that leader will be coroneted by a parliamentary majority. 
Many of us believe that this successor is a well-known senior officer of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) and his surname is fast being replaced by the word “Project”.

However, we could be wrong in view of Mr Museveni’s penchant for using a sleight of hand to focus our attention on sizzle over substance. 

Martial artist and philosopher Bruce Lee said it best when he said; it’s like a finger pointing away to the moon. Do not concentrate on the finger or you will miss all of the heavenly glory!

Lee said this in his 1972 movie Enter the Dragon, but it originates from the Shurangama Sutra, a core text for Zen/Chan Buddhist training. 
During this training, the Buddha sought to point out where Ānanda, who was the primary attendant of the Buddha and one of his 10 principal disciples, could discover his real mind (the true mind).

Specifically, the Buddha’s teachings (Dharma) point directly to our true mind (the moon), not teachings towards the same (the finger). 

So we are invited to reflect upon our mind and use the teachings to see where the teachings are pointing to – so that we can see our own real mind for ourselves (which is naturally radiant because it is naturally endowed with its own enlightenment). 

Similarly, Mr Museveni’s finger, as it were, is not intended to enlighten us but to redirect our attentions away from his true intentions. 

These intentions, we can only guess at. However, the lesson gleaned from his use of indirection is that we cannot wait for him to tell us what to see.
Instead, we should reflect upon our own shortcomings as Ugandans. 

It’s these shortcomings that have allowed Mr Museveni to rule for so long by eclipsing the moon of our search for presidential diversity.

It is clear to us that a monocracy (a government by one person) is not reflective of Uganda’s diverse leadership potential, at the level of the presidency.  While we appreciate Mr Museveni’s leadership gifts, they must never preclude our country’s other gifts in the same department.

This is why the impending constitutional review must seek to roll back the power of an imperial presidency. Not by replacing it will an elective dictatorship in the shape of an imperial prime ministership, but by allowing for a whole new democratic tradition.

For ever since the parliamentary elections held in National Resistance Council (NRC), 1989, the presidency has been the preserve of Mr Museveni. 
Elections were held for all the elective seats of the NRC in the first general elections after the 1980 elections. The new legislature thereby replaced the appointed 98-member body of the same name, but the presidency was not up for grabs. 

These elections were smoke and mirrors; like the forthcoming constitutional reviews, if we allow them to be.

Phillip Matogo is a professional copywriter  
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