Mao & His Group Are as Fake as the Regime they claim to oppose

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Dear friends,
How does DP expect to decampaign IPC but at the same time expect them to cooperate with DP at parliamentary level during the 2011 election? I listened to Mr. Mathias Nsubuga who is the DP's Secretary General, on London based Ngoma radio, and he quoted a lot of history, how alliances have historically weakened DP due to loss of members,blah blah. But he clearly missed the gist of the point why opposition parties in developing nations form coalitions: the incumbent always uses the state apparatus to frustrate the opponents and therefore it becomes difficult for an opposition party to win an election on their own.

Mathias Nsubuga rightly quoted the alliance made in 1961 between KY and UPC and what later happened afterwards in 1966, but he forgot to tell people that the alliance had received its initial objective which was to stop Ben Kiwanuka from becoming the Prime minister. Whatever happened afterwards can be attributed to other factors but not the alliance itself. It should also be noted that between 1961 and 1971,DP lost members to UPC despite the fact that they were not part of any alliance at that time. For instance, UPC catched a big fish in 1964 when the then DP Secretary General, who was also the leader of the opposition, Mr. Basil Bataringaya, crossed to UPC.

The alliance made at Moshi in 1979 also achieved its initial objective of removing Iddil Amin Dada from power. The different groups that were fighting Amin on their own could not have achieved this objective. On the military front, FRONASA, Kikosi Malumu and others had to combine efforts to fight dictator Amin. Whatever happened afterwards, like the forced resignation of Professor Yusuf Lule, cannot be attributed to the disadvantages of an alliance. But if we had people that reason like DP-Mao at the time, probably Iddil Amin would have remained a president of Uganda for longer.

After the 1980 elections where UPC openly rigged and denied DP a chance to take over power for the first time since independence, again a mother of all alliances had to be formed to kick out dictator Milton Obote . Before the alliance was formed, DP again lost its members to other parties particularly the 'third force' which was formed by former UPC members who wanted to fight Obote but did not want to join DP. For instance, the 'third force' recruited DP members such as:Matia Kasajja of Hoima, Bernard Buzaabo, Dr. Bwambale and several others. So the argument that DP only loses members after alliances had been formed does not hold water at all. Secondly, if different parties had not worked together, probably Late Obote Militon woul have died the president of Uganda since he had the support of Julius Nyerere who was controlling Uganda through a remote control from Tanzania.

DP claims that they lost a lot of members after 1986 through an alliance formed with Museveni at the time to form a broad based government but I think this is a fallacy meant to hide the internal weaknesses of the party. Those DP members who decided to remain in NRM other than returning to DP would have done the same if those very privileges they enjoyed while in NRM had been offered to them outside this alliance. For instance, president Museveni has managed to get on board UPC guys like Agrey Awori, without necessarily forming an alliance with UPC itself. He also unsuccessfully tried to recruit UPC's giant lady, Cecilia Ogwal, during the CA elections when the issues of federo had caught fire in parliament, and he therefore needed UPC to be on his side to block Buganda from getting federo.

Let's assume that we take DP's reason to lose their members to other parties because of alliances as a bit weighing, but how does DP explain their hypocritical claims that they would be ready to form an alliance with the IPC if president Museveni does not get the 51% required for some to win all election. Will this not make them lose their members to other parties OR the party will be strong then after just a period of 7 months to the elections?

Finally, I'm still so skeptical about Mr.Mao's presidential candidature and intentions because this is not the first time he is talking about a Nile Republic. He at one time wanted the north to secede from the south. He is a secessionist like JEEMA's Hussein Kaynjo and this is not material for a Uganda president. He does not really believe in One Uganda, One people project. Secondly, because Mao has been elected DP president by one faction of DP, he is gonna affect the fortunes of the IPC candidate in the north since some people in the north believe in him. With this, president Museveni does not need to win the north to remain the president of Uganda come 2011 since Mao would do the job for him. If DP-Mao also fields candidates in Buganda in 2011, then the Buganda opposition vote will be divided between the IPC and DP-Mao candidates .It will actually be the same everywhere if Mao goes ahead to think in terms of 'ONLY DP' and 'ONLY MAO'.

With that I can only conclude that by DP-Mao staying away from IPC, they are looking at themselves as bigger than anybody else and I find this arrogant and sickly. The reasons they give for not joining the IPC are as fake as the current regime in power. Therefore, any sane Ugandan who is tired of the Museveni regime should shan them completely. Only IPC candidates should be supported in the 2011 elections by opposition supporters. I hope the donors do the same thing.

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
United Kingdom