Who Is the Real Killer?

The 2011 election campaign is already underway in earnest. The prospective candidates are out and about “consulting” with the electorate across the country. As a signal of what lay ahead one dude was refused radio airtime lest he sensitized the hapless peasants recently back home from Museveni’s concentration camps. Of the candidates none is busier than His Excellency Mzee Yoweri Museveni. He is out in the country pitching and hoping to resuscitate his moribund flagship cockamamie Let-Them-Become-Rich voodoo economics. (If this reminds you of Marie Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake," you are not alone). As he walks the banana and pineapple plantations and hands out vehicles gratis, he is also throwing some darts: DP is a dead party, and the inter-party opposition thing is packed with killers of yesteryears.

The last time the Mzee used the guilty-by-association stratagem was in 1996 when DP’s Ssemogerere was the victim. The southern population was reminded of the 5-year war by macabre displays of heaps of human bones harvested from the Luweero triangle. The blame for the war was pinned on the Obote regime—the very same regime Ssemogerere was allegedly in cahoots with. Moreover, the hated Obote was on his way just across the border. The peasants panicked. But wait—there was a “warrior” who could save them—the one and only, Museveni! Who won?!

A great warrior avoids war as much as possible. That concept presupposes taking-whole as propounded by the great masters of antiquity. Completely winning a conflict is rarely possible. Since conflicts occur in relationships of some sorts—be it with government, spouse, employer, siblings, etc—,to insist on no compromise is to destroy the relationship. The mindset of the psychotic Museveni, a man with multiple personalities, is to win completely (and also, as per Idi Amin!). Thus, because he wanted the throne of Uganda so badly, he had to go to war and thousands died. Rather than make political settlements in the North he waged a twenty-year war in which additional thousands perished. God only knows how many millions lost their lives in the forests of Congo and the grasslands of Sudan because of the man’s default penchant for war.

The opposition should be wary: the real killer is on the prowl and he is framing the debate. He will try to portray them as associated with the dark periods of Uganda, and brainwash the population that he is their Knight-in-shining-armor destined by God to save them. The trick works otherwise he would not be revisiting it. If the opposition can’t blunt the assault, they are as good dead before it has even begun. To keep quiet when he pummels them is to be defined by him, and that means political death. There are plenty of ammunitions, viz. safe houses, cases of torture, the September 2009 massacre, etc.
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It is a pleasure to watch the Chinese kids practice democracy in selecting a class monitor in this film, Please Vote for Me. Emotions, tricks, cold feet, etc are in display.
http://www.pleasevoteforme.org/index.html