Opposition; Uganda is not Tunisia or Egypt

By Phionah Kesasi
I have been astonished by the opposition calling upon Ugandans to go to the streets and protest. I have come to a conclusion that they are a bunch of confused elements in our society and Ugandans should not be fooled by their selfish sermons for demonstrations because they are portraying a clear picture of bad losers.

 

Seeing the coalition of the five losers calling on Ugandans to demonstrate against the will of majority Ugandans made them look like the famed comedians the Amarula family. Selfishly, they failed to unite in the beginning, and after suffering humbling defeat by the indomitable Yoweri Museveni they are now asking innocent citizens to risk their lives by going to streets to demonstrate. Surely, do Besigye and Otunnu still think that Ugandans are a bunch of fools not to see that Museveni won this contest from all corners of Uganda confirming what all the four recognized opinion expert conductors had previously predicted?  

I sometimes wonder whether the opposition really knows what they want. They refused to unite in their struggle to oust Museveni. First, it was UPC’s charlatan Olara Otunnu who jumped out of the coalition after realizing that Besigye was poised to lead the coalition. This made the opposition very vulnerable hence suffering the embarrassing defeat to NRM. In fact they blame themselves before they look elsewhere for scapegoats. After smelling defeat, Otunnu so shamelessly chose not to even vote himself! And now he calls upon Ugandans to risk their lives to demonstrate for his selfish interests? 

 

For a record, in the Maghreb region where demonstrations are taking place, nobody told those people to go to the streets. They are doing it spontaneously after a shared concern that has stifled their right to choose those to lead them. Ugandans have chosen those to lead them which many so called untouchables lose their political offices including the all powerful ministers and political historicals. Therefore, a Tunisia can not happen here.

I would have loved a scenario where Besigye fronted his son Anselm to lead the "revolution" or Olara Otunnu to do a Mohammed Bouazizi led revolution by setting himself on fire and they will have led by example.
Their call for a revolt won't apply in Uganda because our value systems differ fundamentally from the Arab's (be it the in the Peninsula or in North Africa). We have weak group dynamics i.e. we value micro communities-family, clan and even tribes but we don't really belong to them in the sense that we put the 'self' above the 'community' hence its makes us not only risk averse to situations that could cost us our lives and wealth; that is why you have someone like Ken Lukyamuzi hiding in a yam plantation when it comes to demonstrations. Total cowardice!

My advice to the opposition therefore; remove emotions from politics, be logical. Learn to concede defeat and go back to the drawing board and check where you went wrong and rectify your mistakes such that you put up a better show come 2016.  Every party had a representative at the polling stations, they even sent representatives to supervise the printing of ballots, they had a copy of the voters’ register, and they witnessed the counting and participated in the process so why do they refuse the outcome? Please provide logical explanations to your conclusions rather than whip emotion. Museveni has got many silent supporters who are tired of competing with the opposition in shouting matches and should not be misconstrued for meekness. So let the opposition stop instigating chaos just let Ugandans be!