Comment: The Politics of Survival and Party Mutations

Parties are a creature of like-minded promoters, who share a common vision, wishes and aspirations.

It is this nucleus that forms the nascent think-tank to generate refined ideas that attract other people to the party fold.

For the party to survive at this stage, personal sacrifices in both human and material falls squarely on shoulders of the promoters and well-wishers.

Many great ideas die at this stage, especially if there is deficit in ideological grounding.In Uganda, the unfortunately, political parties were calibrated along lines that did not exude coherent ideology across our social strata. Parties were parochial, inward looking and alien to those perceived not to be part of “us” with regard to tribe, religion or region.

This shallow stance could not stand the rigours of political competition due to limited numbers. It dawned on them that to survive, they had to open up to accommodate “outsiders” in order to bolster the numbers.

This had two inevitable consequences, first, new people with varying ideas and beliefs came in, second, a clash of ideas had to inevitably happen between the old guards and new comers. The need to survive invariably led to thinking outside the box. Concepts like cooperation, mergers, coalition and crossover came to the fore. At every turn and twist in the political terrain, for the survival of a political party, one of those was thrown in the mix.

In the 60s prominent personalities “crossed over” from DP to UPC as a survival instinct. Since then different mutations in DP have taken place.

Same trend happened in the 80s as more members joined UPC. The advent of NRM introduced a new dimension in party survival called “broad- based” government, which co-opted other party members in its ranks when they took over power.

Different party members maintained their identities under NRM hegemony. The recent move by Nobert Mao to cooperate with NRM government is an attempt to keep DP as a party and Mao as a person afloat.

As a party, its fortunes have been dwindling for years especially in Buganda, which for long was its stronghold until internal wrangles tore it right down in the middle. To be in opposition for a political party that at one time positioned itself as a viable alternative choice for decades, has made its members lose hope, disillusioned leading to mass defections to National Unity Party (NUP) which had raised false hope to overcome NRM’s grip on power through a popular vote.

This move has enlisted mixed reactions from both foes and friends. According to the cooperation pact, Mao as president and DP as a party retain their identity within the NRM government. What his detractors are saying that he has crossed to NRM is mistaken to be a merger of the two parties, which is wrong. There is a distinct difference between a merger and cooperation.

Whereas a merger calls for collapsing the constituent parties to form a new entity, cooperation maintains the parties intact with their organizational structures and executive powers. The parties only cooperate up to as far as the terms of agreement.

This has a time frame that is clearly indicated in the agreement and areas of engagement.On the other hand, a merger entails parties folding up, get merged in new structures, new outlook like logos, motto, colours and all party paraphernalia. The new look may reflect a new hybrid of the merging parties or a totally different new entity.

It involves new constitution, vision and mission and the core values to reflect a rebirth of a new direction. The biggest challenge in a merger to the members is the nostalgic feeling attached to the old party. It takes long for members who had supported the party for long to transfer brand loyalty. Statements like “the good old days” abounds among members of the new formation.There is also another political party survival formation.

This is a coalition. It is a situation where parties coalesce to create a mega entity with a sole objective of securing numbers in legislature. A coalition can be pre-election or post-election pact.

Before elections, different parties agree to cooperate during the period before the election outcome. This would involve zoning of the country in electoral areas where each party is strong, so that candidates with in the coalition don’t clash to split the vote. Zoning will pity other parties outside the coalition against a formidable coalition. This enhances the chances of more members of parliament for the coalition.

A post-election coalition means that individual parties fight to gain numbers, then after the elections, a coalition is formed based on the strength of numbers garnered. The party that got most seats invites others to form government.

This is a delicate balance of interests and each party has demands that must be discussed until a convergence is reached. At this point, even the smallest party can hold ransom the bigger party, because it may be the only party willing to bring the crucial numbers to break the stalemate as it has happened severally in Israel. Parties prefer post-election coalitions because they are based on realistic figures put on the table.

The negotiations are based on tangible figures unlike in pre-election coalitions based on assumptions. Greatest weakness with this coalition is that bigger parties can be coerced into accepting unpopular demands of smaller parties in exchange for the numbers.

In the case of DP and NRM pact, it is a cooperation that leaves all party structures intact, co-opts personnel into government and takes up executive responsibilities for a specified time.

The people who are crying foul either don’t know the difference or they are just playing politics. UPC entered into a pact with NRM where Hon. Betty Among is a cabinet minister without denouncing her membership to UPC. Dr Semogerere worked with NRM then left and went back to DP and even contested in general elections.

It has now emerged that the members of DP that are currently excoriating Norbert Mao had a meeting as executive members and agreed to the pact that was authored by their party president, but it is historical that DP has been bedeviled by internal contradictions.