February 6, 2007
Uganda’s leaders should listen to voices of reason
Our politicians owe this country the duty to lead the people properly and run the country within the confines of the stipulated laws.
This is the principle reason the letter by a former regime insider and elder statesman, now chairman of the nascent People's Progressive Party, should be viewed in all objectivity. It is incumbent upon those entrusted with the people's power as prescribed in Article 1 of the Ugandan Constitution to govern in accordance with the people's will and consent as provided for in Article 2 of the same covenant.
Mr Bidandi Ssali may be viewed in bad light by the present powers ever since he fell out with them over the contentious issue of presidential term limits, but this does not mean that his counsel is no longer sensible. In the last one or two years a worrying trend has been allowed to set in. There appears to be a deliberate push to retract whatever advances Uganda has made in the pursuit of democratic governance where the rule of law thrives.
This troubling trend can only climax in the eventual annihilation of the people's power by essentially rendering the constitution redundant. This, we fear, would be the coup de grace for order.
Our political elite currently in office must shed their partisan robes, take one step back, and recognise that their former bosom buddies who may no longer be with them are not blind to the deterioration. They must not be so blinded as to entertain the reckless thought that their colleagues have lost the power of analysis.
It is especially urgent that they realise that respect for the rule of law does not become a bad thing the moment a political opponent reminds you of this obligation. When the Constituent Assembly Delegates wrote our constitution, it was their considered and wise opinion that we must have institutions of government namely; the Presidency, Legislature and Judiciary. This opinion could not have been based on frivolous presumptions. It was for the preservation of the pillars of democracy
The people's delegates realised that in order to propagate and maintain the proper order of State, the separate arms of government had to enjoy a mutually respected oversight function of the other other. It couldn't have been their intention to create annoying appendages without purpose. The political trend today is one that more than anything else recalls the importance of those functions.
Ugandans desire to live in a harmonious society of free men and women, where the virtues of law and order are extolled. It is thus obligatory on our leaders to return the country back to the path we chose for ourselves in 1995.
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