Nov. 28, 2007
Gyezaho Emmanuel
THE FLIP SIDE OF CHOGM
President Museveni must have slept soundly for the first time in months. A proud man, now he is. He successfully hosted 52 heads of government and shockingly managed to project a very romantic image of Uganda, one of complete tranquility; a fine democracy with a thriving opposition and one that tolerates dissenting views.
In every bit of the word, Uganda was made to appear as a great African success story. And so, they came in droves; tasted the finest that Uganda has to offer and flew back fascinated by what they saw. The entire country put up a great show, didn't it?
Mr Museveni had pulled it off and even sweeter for him, against all odds. But now that the summit's spotlight has dimmed, we return to reality and face up to the REAL Uganda.
In reading between the lines, however, we must point out what went wrong (a lot really just went haywire), state the missed opportunities (there are a handful) and predict what lies ahead (the future is, sadly, bleak).
The first major event last week was Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's speech to Members of Parliament, delivered at Parliament. Her three day state visit to Uganda was greeted with eccentric pomp and merry; two public holidays devoted in the process. Parliament was looking at its very best for the first time in decades, so were its “committed” attendees.
Clad in their Sunday best, MPs swarmed the house in unconventionally large numbers. It is now not in doubt that this will go down as the singular-most moment since the commencement of the 8th Parliament that attendance in the House has been 100 percent. Who would (in their right sense of mind) dare skip such a historic occasion?
The House was crammed to the brim; a symbolic gesture from our good-old legislators in humble supplication to the British Empire, ironically, our former colonial master.
It is, however, intriguing that attendance will be outstanding for such a royal visit, but dismal when important issues that have a real bearing on ordinary Ugandans are up for debate.
The last time I can vividly remember attendance this excellent, was in 2005 during debate to delete presidential term limits to offer President Museveni a legal shot at a third elective term in office.
Now that the idea of deleting the constitutional age limits (of 75 years) for the president has been mooted, you can bet it is the next time we will see the House packed to capacity.
Days before the Queen made her historic visit, I watched in sheer amusement, Aruu County MP Odonga Otto address a news conference, stating boldly that the opposition would snub her address as soon as she begins delivering it, if a plan to have MPs seated collectively despite their political inclinations, was upheld. As it turned out, it was another missed opportunity.
But at Kololo Airstrip, FDC leader, Dr Kizza Besigye was at his usual best; shouting his voice hoarse and tussling it out with the errant special police constables. He lashed out at the Chogm, insisting that the opposition wouldn't play succor to the imperialists.
Ironically, his deputy, the northern region FDC vice president, Prof. Ogenga Latigo, was wining and dining with the royals. Even the opposition MPs were enjoying the merry that greeted the Queen's parliamentary presence.
If this isn't hypocrisy, then what is it? Had they not campaigned against Mr Museveni's bid to host the event? Why, then did the opposition embrace it? An official boycott would have made a more profound statement than dispatching MPs to greet the Queen and leaving the non-opposition legislators to face the wrath of jittery police at Kololo.
In another show of double standards, the Commonwealth offered Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (now widely regarded a pawn of the West), a platform to rant about President Robert Mugabe's democratic indisposition.
Dr Besigye, on the other hand, was given a cold shoulder and consigned to a mid-morning brawl with the police, one that was peppered in a cool breeze.
It was also another missed opportunity for Ugandans because the event went without focus on any of our outstanding human rights issues.
More ominously, the northern Uganda situation and the need to end one of the world's worst humanitarian catastrophes, also, dreadfully, skipped the Chogm radar.
Should Mr Museveni be believed that the northern war is no longer a war or conflict, and that delegates were convinced as such; that northern Uganda doesn’t weigh that much to be put on the agenda? Or that the northern war has now ceased to draw in an international constituency? Or is it that Parliament has simply failed to assert itself and its issues on the domestic and international arena?
I mused over these questions with my good friend Angelo Izama, now on study leave to the US, and your guess is as good as ours.
But more worryingly for Mr Museveni, he stands in the same position President Robert Mugabe did 16 years ago, as chairman of the Commonwealth, and Britain' s blue-eyed boy. Recent events that have transpired in Zimbabwe might be a harbinger of what lies ahead for the NRM leader.
Critics will now say, because of the Commonwealth, Uganda is now a good candidate for a Zimbabwe, if only to show its complete transformation. And then it will be a reference point, with many saying, Uganda which hosted the Chogm (10 years ago), is now a virtual dictatorship.