By Matua Job Richard
Cadres are believed to be true party owners in revolutionary parties.
They are supposed to guide party Leaders and Government Officials when they see things going astray.
Cadres should execute this duty in an objective manner without blaming specific Individuals but looking at objective Institutional challenges.
Therefore, Cadreship should be in the substance but not just appearance or form. Cadres must defend party images at all times and be there for the party in both good and bad times.
Cadres should identify gross mistakes made by party leadership and Government Officials and bravely bring them to the attention of everyone in the party.
Given the above preamble, I take my duty as a Cadre and step forward with clear message to our party Leadership about mistakes we must avoid now.
THE CORE MISTAKES.
1. Promotion of Opposition Opponents by Court Charges which cannot be sustained and are usually lost.
The action of our Government to press charges against Political Opponents should be evaluated objectively from the time of Dr Kizza Besigye in 2001, in the infamous rape case involving Joanitah Kyakwa to the current cases against Bobi Wine.
Those repeated Court cases ended up marketing Dr Besigye to the extent that by 2006, he was now known by every Ugandan Country wide. A previously less known retired Col became a very popular person by NRM Government marketing him unknowingly.
We need very smart cases, rich in evidences where a win any is rest assured before the cases even go to Courts. There are many mistakes made by these Opposition Politicians and their supporters which we should profile and charge them on only where necessary.
First begin with supporters who commit offenses, arrest them and immediately produce them in Courts without any torture and have them jailed. Others will learn and avoid such Offenses or avoid the Politicians.
Maj Gen Rtd Mugisha Muntu and Norbert Mao are the two best Opposition Presidential Candidates anyone can talk about. Because Government does not disturb them, they are not popular and cannot even win in their own home districts or Subregions. Can we learn from this approach of dealing with these two Opposition Politicians to handle others?
2. Corruption by Government Officials.
The issue of corruption is almost becoming a permanent feature of our Government despite all the efforts made by having numerous agencies to fight it.
A new approach must be designed and effectively implemented without mercy in the next 5- 10 years of NRM Government.
Civil Servants should be given Oaths and stringent terms of service concerning corruption. I suggest we go for life imprisonment for any corrupt public Officer found guilty and his or her properties should be consificated.
3. Service delivery.
A lot of resources provided for service delivery are not put to good use.
There is actually poor state of service delivery in the Country but the people incharge continue to paint good picture of what is is bad.
The failure to admit NRM Chairman of Kole District in Lira Regional Referral Hospital is a very big case to show the ugly truth.
In Arua RRH, the scanning machine/X-ray is not either not working or the workers don’t want to operate it.
Some one referred from Nebbi Hospital died on Friday in a Private Clinic in Arua after the relatives got tired of the delays in the Referral Hospital to handle the Patient and he was moved to the clinic by the annoyed relatives. Even for scanning, they were told to go to Rhema clinic.
The situation is not any different from Maracha Health Centre IV where women don’t even want to deliver and the health centre is basically doing OPD services. It ca not admit in Patients. This is supposed to be the Government hospital of Maracha district.
The poor service delivery is as a result of dishonest Civil Servants due to failure of monitoring by their supervisors.
What is happening with all money pumped into service delivery units?
We have only two major areas of service delivery in Education & health with the third being works sector in local Government.
Why can’t we do better in these few areas?
4. Mismanagement of Internal party Elections due unnecessary vested Interests of some Individuals who think they are bigger than the party itself.
The Organization of party Primaries must be urgently improved to be extremely clean. Even if it means holding party Primaries one year before general elections, let it be. Even it means holding party Primaries Subregion by Subregion for effective monitoring by Party Officials at the top, let it be.
The continuous holding of disputed elections will make the party lose massive number of supporters in one election cycle causing party failure.
Remember, each aggrieved person as a Candidate has supporters. Imagine all the more than 400 Petitioners leaving the party with their supporters. Those will be in Millions.
We are just lucky that all these Aspirants are willing to Campaign for the President including those standing on independent ticket.
MINOR MISTAKES WHICH CAN MATURE ANY TIME AND BECOME MAJOR.
1. Greed by party members including those standing for positions.
Violence in the party Primary Elections was mainly caused by this factor. Every Contestant wants to win or win. No one is willing to lose.
So, people go dirty to win. And losers also find justifications to refuse results.
2. Negative influence of party Seniors in Positions of power.
This was partly the reason for the chaos in the party Primary Elections.
Some party Senior Officials were accused for been behind some of the wrong doers. This is not good especially when such Officials are referees in the game.
This is what breeds intrigue and lack of trust for party Officials.
3. Lack of a clear growth path in the party.
You find someone joining the party one or two Months standing for positions like LCV, MP without even learning the party core values and agenda. You can not find that in ANC in South Africa, CCM in Tanzania and even in ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe.
This is what almost caused a big problem when someone who has never held a party card stood for CEC, the top most party policy making organ.
I suggest that all party Aspirants must be Cadres who have undergone thorough Ideological Orientation in NALI KYANKWANZI and should only stand after having a refresher course in not more than 2 years back.
They should be people who have heard sometimes in the party and have served in certain Positions even if on voluntary basis.
We should have a clear growth path in the party plus parameters for one to qualify to stand for certain Positions in the party.
You cannot join NRM yesterday and want to become a CEC member.
Conclusion.
Some of us have only one choice that is to defend NRM party and ensure it remains in power for many more years to come.
We will be the first victims of defeat of NRM because these violent Opposition Politicians will not tolerate us who have been identified as leading regime promoters.
We will not go to exile because we don’t have enough resources to sustain ourselves in exile. Where we could go in the neighbouring Countries, there is no peace. Maintaining NRM in power is our only hope to stay peaceful in our Uganda as we look for wealth creation for ourselves and our children.
It is an existential threat to some of us and we are not ready to see NRM removed from power. I can not imagine myself in another Political party. It will be obscene for me to that because NRM is the only party with the correct ideology in my view.
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