Is Mao a Joker?

Norbert Mao (R) ki Walter Ochora guruku uniform me UPDF
http://newvision.co.ug/news_photos/1247046445mao.jpg

Mao seems to have been stung by being called a joker by Museveni. Talking about a fragile ego: Is he or is he not a joker?

Good judges of characters would say that Mao is full of himself. He takes himself seriously, and thinks he is the best thing for Uganda since the telegenic Princess Bagaya painted a human profile to the blood-soaked macabre nation of the man-eating Idi Amin.

In a discussion group someone once questioned Mao’s wisdom for his one-year stint at Yale when his constituency was experiencing horrendous pain in the LRA war. It was observed that, if Mao were serious about his quest for the presidency, one of his bets would have been to pursue with zeal the cause to end that war, whose origin was justified but had become senseless and directionless. This would have given him the credibility, even in the important South which hitherto had not given a hoot to what happened to the “Anyanyas,” other than that the costs of the war was draining the national coffer, and increasingly the image abroad. Well, he kind of was part of the latest fizzled peace process, but it was symbolically too late to shine the limelight on himself as a man who adroitly forced Museveni to the table.

When the NRM government was toying with turning their concentration camps into towns, Mao was in lockstep support of the notion. That was unacceptable, and Mao was told so in no uncertain terms.

Among other strange behaviors is Mao’s donning of military uniform and participating in Museveni’s pet militia exercise. He lamely has explained that he wanted to understand how Museveni has kept himself in power for this long. Yes, you have to know your opponent to have any chance against him, but this exercise was pure crock tactically. No wonder; Museveni has no respect for him.

Now, he says he is listing Museveni’s weaknesses. Wait a minute: Museveni and others do not publicly announce their listings but spring with attacks that put their opponents in weakened reactive modes.

Oranges and apples are different kinds of fruits. Mao wished Museveni had taken him and other jokers to the Mt. Elgon mudslides a la Clinton-Bush trip to Haiti. What?! And steal the limelight from Museveni? Look; even his joker of a Prime Minister had to hitch a ride in a rickety helicopter with the only photo opportunity prostrated in a hospital bed—an image of weakness.

Let us be brutally frank: Anybody from the North, especially Acoli, who aspires to the presidency now, must be either stupid or blinded by ambition. This does not mean things will not change, but this is a time for a collective self-reassessment, reconstituting, building and consolidating. Would a farmer be harvesting in December when he didn’t plant anything in the rainy season? In 2011 there is no time for jokers like Mao. Even if he has the tongue of lakwal (a bird) and can come up with great plans, so far he has not shown a championship pugilist instinct and the Northern stars are not aligned in an auspicious direction at this time. The main focus should be about getting rid of Museveni, the most dangerous man in the annals of our history.