Uganda – TDA is to be TBD!

Today was the day the result of the Flag-Bearer for the coalition of the oppisisiton parties in Uganda. The Presidential Candidate of the TDA is supposed to go against the big shot, His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and his NRM party. The machine that also controls the Parliament and the Electoral Commission of the country!

So the candidate that is running against the machine and manufacture of the modern Uganda has to be strong. Have to viable, have a moral code and some integrity to pass on the marshes to corruptness in a political landscape where the parties and fellow politicians has been bought or brought into shambles. If you don’t follow the codes of ethics of the man with a vision you can be played out and lose your career in a hot minute. If you don’t follow his words and the main cronies of the nation then your left behind. If you try to be independent and thinking in the NRM party then you’re pushed to the side and clipped your wings. If the Mzee fears that you have ambitions to take his slot, then he will leave you behind as he has done to Hon. Gilbert Bukenya and Hon. Amama Mbabazi.

Four Men standing up for being the Joint Presidential Candidate in the TDA: 

So we are here today when many has followed this Ifs in different equations and with various formulas that ends in the result of losing out on their place in the ruling party. An makes you lost in the opposition. Certain people has gone out after finding the words of the Mzee to be going back on the principals they fought for their freedom in the Bush. This is the likes of certain FDC historical’s and the famous Flag-Bearer of the FDC Dr. Kizza Besigye. Who have been a pawn and a man who has gone for title and grand position election after election and lost after rigging and harassment!

The second man who also wants to be the Flag-Bearer in the TDA is Hon. Amama Mbabazi who has gone from being a loyalist to the Mzee and recently fallen from grace. Even tried in the preliminaries to go head to head and be the Presidential Candidate in the NRM. He sure lost that one to Mzee, not surprisingly; only one man’s vision can rule the NRM! So that the Mababazi is a runner for it was after signing the deal to be a part of the TDA only 12 days ago and independent candidate through the Go-Forward Ticket in the hierarchy of the coalition.

The third ones was Gilbert Bukenya as another former loyalist in the NRM regime that fallen from grace, but didn’t have the strength and support from others in the coalition therefore hasn’t been issue of his place. Still it proves that the fallen ones have a place and their knowledge can be used in a coalition to defeat the NRM and Mzee.

Last candidate was Norbert Mao who has had a viable position up North and been long in the politics. But still hasn’t the whole nation behind him. Especially with his bickering back and from acting as opposition candidate to speaking like he was a part of Mzee’s team. So that the parties didn’t see him as serious flag-bearer in the coalition wasn’t really a newsflash!

The other parties didn’t send their front men or woman to being Presidential Candidate. Like the CP, PPP, UPC and JEMA. That is Olara Otunnu of the UPC, Jaberi Bidandi Ssali of the PPP, Ken Lukyamuzi of the CP and Asuman Basalirwa of the JEEMA. Leaders who could easily gone forward and also filled the nomination form and justly so.

So that it’s natural and would be worrying wouldn’t be issues between Amama Mbabazi of the Go-Forward Ticket and Dr. Kizza Besigye of the FDC Ticket. The issues will be on who is most fit. Then that the parties also vote differently on who they believe is most fit as the Press Statement from TDA told today. That certain parties went for the People’s President and the other went for the Go-Forward Ticket. It’s natural that people choose differently. Even if there is only one man with a vision – the Mzee! But he is not really the issue the here, only that the candidate as Flag-bearer has to beat the Mzee. Therefore the coalition can’t be fragmented and weaken since the approach as single units against the NRM ruling party hasn’t been fruitful before. Therefore this is the time to stay stronger together then weaken alone. Especially since that hasn’t worked before.

The NRM has the machine and power. That should be reason to stay united and prove the Mzee that they have an edge. Alone they will be disfranchised and played out. Some can be bought and run to show off so it seems as the country has a multi-party elections and democracy. The elections has been well-rigged and Electoral Commission has placed loyal men of the regime, with the same in courts that has verified the results in the past and given rulings in favor of the ruling party and the Mzee. While the world and nations accepting the rulings and not pressuring the regime to change ways.

With this in mind and with the knowledge both men has Dr. Kizza Besigye and Amama Mbabazi has together with the supposable strength of the opposition parties and the protocol of the TDA to prove guidance and integrity to the Presidential Election in Uganda this coming 2016 that the world has never seen before. That can they do if they have the courage and vitality take the pressure and malice from the NRM regime for a few more months. If so that person should step up and try. Not that there is great chances of succeeding as it looks today, but the opposition has to give it hard nudge in the right direction. As they want to show the citizens and public in Uganda that they want to rule for real as a coalition willing to change and rebuild. Make structures for more free and fair society not only for the cronies and nepotistic Movement Men that want to follow the words and monies from the Mzee. That is not an easy act to change when so many are eating of that plate, even if it is breadcrumbs their better than nothing. But they would be proud if they learned how to fish and catch it themselves and may be even earn enough to actual buy the bread fair and square.

So that the TDA who has been for too long TBD: To Be Determined! Time to determine the place and actions as simple as the Joint Candidate for the TDA! And have a man who can rein this coalition and honor the codes and protocol, with diligence and fight through the coming election which will be full of struggles and not easy ride. If the run-up and months of preliminary meetings has proven anything, then this will be more arrests, more loss of personnel, some more people vanished, preventive arrests, teargassed meetings, sieged town where the oppositions has meetings and so on!

Please all men of TDA take a minute be wise. You all know you go up against and has tasted the bitter taste of being opposition against the NRM regime who will use all the tricks in the world to regain their rule and therefore the opposition got to show heart and prove that there are noble men in the land. Please show that and be different then Mzee who only cares for his coffers and his vision, and has forgotten the words he stood for long time ago. Which is a reason why so many people has deflected from the NRM and from Mzee. Peace.

Professor PLO Lumumba on “A pan-African perspective…Decolonising the Mind of Africans” (Youtube-Clip) – (04.11.2014)

Well, I know that I’m as European man, and never the less, I am very moved by this speech! Hope you are as well my brother. If not, I don’t know what gives! Listen to the wise words of Professor PLO Lumumba! Peace! 

Discussion: There is two sides to every story (both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinians – their stories are biased just as this one)

This had to be done, especially because of the race between the pro-Israel and pro-Palestinians and how they try to rule the media and also the public opinion. I have not intended to bend you into either direction. Who? Where? What? Nah, I won’t answer that. The thing I will do is instead look into how biased we can be, and also little insight we sometimes have. In the end I will just ask a simple question.  Does that sounds feasible in our day and age? If not, well, still have a blessed journey through my very simple piece.

We live in a time and day where wars are happening. There are certain rules to the proceedings right? Still, when we discuss them we still take sides. Hiram Johnson senator in US from 1917-1945, he said: “Truth,’ it has been said, ‘is the first casualty of war” (…) “Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages” (WikiQuote, 2014).

Even Protagoras said: “there two sides to every story, and one truth. Tell the story, and get out of the way; let the reader figure it out” (Cousineau, 2010).

Now I won’t go to ethical or historical down. Because then my thoughts we’ll be gone in the wind. Like tiny little leafs that being caught with the rush of the wind.

I am writing this because in my own country there is hard headed discussion about the innocence and righteous war for either Israel or the Palestinians on the Gaza stip. They are both going at it like every drunken uncle at the barbeque. Both blaming each other just like they are doing on the stip. Sending grenades from neighbor to neighbor and it never ends.

Why I am saying this like that, because the bickering and discussing over the matter, like you doesn’t give the cause anything, neither to you nor the other guy who disagree. We know that both side of the story. It’s hard from a far even in our day and age to know who is actually accurate. We trust in this media, sometimes government controlled as such. Which even has some reporters that can be biased. Let me get serious! We are all a bit biased. Like I am biased on the matter of which leader in Uganda I respect the most – not Yoweri K. Museveni but Dr. Kizza Besigye. So when people are saying directly all the time and addressing each other, they seem like their forgetting this.

Especially when we know that the truths are the first to die in a war. Therefore the story that is going to be told shouldn’t have the issues of falsehood in them, but still they might not be the whole picture. The whole picture isn’t clear until the weapons have been put into a storage unit and the sad loss on each side is counted. Like Protagoras said: there are two sides to every story. That is because there is to side’s view to what they saw and felt occurred during the events.

Zdenek Urbánek said in the 1970s Checkoslovakia: “In one respect, we are more fortunate than you in the west. We believe nothing of what we read in the newspapers and watch on television, nothing of the official truth. Unlike you, we have learned to read between the lines, because real truth is always subversive” (Pilger, 2006). This was in the 1970s Iron Curtain and when the Soviet was under the rule of Stalin and staying strong. We can just live into the words that he is saying. Can we imagine it or will it all ends into an Orwellian nightmare?

What I am not saying is that we should be bleak about the factors and the injustice that is happening worldwide. It’s natural to react to people losing their lives and people living under circumstances way beyond what we should wish for our worst enemy. More of what I am asking for both parties in a discussion, as viral as the discussions between pro-Israel or pro-Palestine. Act real please! You both can’t have all the information and the whole facts on the situation on the ground. The last piece of the history we got is from the last strongest part, which took the core measurement and got on top.

The, Who? Where? What? We all live in different places all around the world. We have had different teachers, different parents, different childhoods, eaten all kind of foods, drinking local kind of drinks, being a part of some faith, political views, this all will be a part of margins of error in our judgment on recent events. Wouldn’t we hear a different view on Russian annexation from a Slovakian then a brother from Greece? Wouldn’t the thoughts on Ukraine be different seen by a brother in Sierra Leone versus Chinese? It might be the same even, but if the context and our luggage in our mind and our conscious should have any indication, then it should at least differ a bit.

The stories from direct line might be tainted as much as the outsiders discussing it. They have deal with losses, with victories and also being in the fire day after day. We from afar can never feel that pain or loss. That’s another reason why we should be a bit careful to discuss the matter at hand.

Especially we all should know that when we pick and make cases, articles, blogs, we’re all usually picking certain links and quotes. Or copy/pasting certain sources and making a case on the matter. To put our view into the world and develop a understanding on the matter from the different places and writers, journalist and commentators, as I do often, I hope they have caught and asked the right questions to the ones close to the matter at hand. So the story will not only be shallow piece. But actually something that shade a little bit of light on the matter at hand. I know in my pieces that I am biased. If a writer says that they are neutral. Then their lying to you and most importantly; nobody can be non-biased. You can work towards that goal. It’s a nice mission, but kind of impossible. More impossible then a mix of Matrix, Mission Impossible and Crank movies into wild goose chase where none of the actors can’t see the forest for the trees.

So please when we discuss matter that are deep, conflicted and sometimes out of reach where our knowledge doesn’t stand to deep. Could we please take a few sips of brew, before we throw stones, then since we’re sitting and drinking the brew (we might start to actually have a conversation…).

Links:

Cousineau, Phil – ‘The Oldest Story In the World’ (Utgiver: 2010) Phil Cousineau.

 

Pilger, John – ‘The real first casualty of war’ (24.04.2006) Link: http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-real-first-casualty-of-war

 

Wikiquote – ‘Hiram Johnson’ (13.04.2014) Link: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hiram_Johnson