By Ian Ortega
Why does Besigye make threats that he doesn’t follow up on? I very well remember Gen. Mugisha Muntu warning him during their debate. Besigye had insisted that he won’t participate in Elections without reforms.
Does Besigye then have the audacity to blame Museveni for not sticking to his word? Perhaps Besigye is learning to unlearn his utopias, to know that in politics, decisions will be influenced by a number of factors. That Museveni’s actions are not purely what he decided but the scenarios he was faced with as a leader.
In 2005, while in South Africa, Besigye told Mwenda on the Andrew Mwenda Live show that he would never participate in an election where Museveni was contesting as the incumbent.
He made similar promises in 2011. Besigye has thus consistently proven that politicians will always be politicians. In 2011, I was very passionate about Besigye’s cause. I was blinded in my support for Besigye and for change.
The past 5 years have taught me a number of things about the internal dynamics in Uganda’s politics. They have also made me come to a few conclusions:
1. Democracy will never reach perfection in Africa until income levels have been raised to a certain level. Term Limits can’t easily hold in a nation where majority are poor. It is not democracy that brings about development, it is development that gives birth to democracy.
2. Whereas Besigye has consistently made his struggle about removing Museveni, he’s not told us what he plans to do once Museveni is out of power. What will he do with the power that Museveni has not done?
When I see Besigye, I see a mirror reflection of Museveni. On anything that Besigye has criticized Museveni, we can find the same strains in Besigye’s character.
As Will Durant said: “The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionaries are philosophers and saints.”
Wait a minute? Wasn’t it Besigye who in 1990 asked for more time for the NRM to hold to power so as to draft the 1994 constitution?