FRICTIONS IN OPPOSITION PARTIES IN UGANDA AND HOW THEY CAN BE ELIMINATED

Political parties are formed for the purposes of achieving a common good or a common objective.

 

And the strength of the political party is derived from its ideology, history and propaganda  as well on the strong and united internal leadership structure which leads to a large mass base if the are well designed.

 

And it is believed  that political parties may split due to some internal and external factors but within the structures of the party, it could be unsatisfactory distribution of power and authority plus unsatisfactory distribution of the party’s resources as the case it may be in Uganda currently most parties are splitting on this basis.

 

But, all those are minor issue the most preferable issue would be a difference in the ideology and divergence between individual interests and party interests because the party ideology would be a main pillar for its formation, so if on the future it is less attention paid to it, the staunch comrades who still believe in the mother ideology can be free to exit and form a new party which can resurrect the mother ideology of the party upon which the initial foundation  was built. And I support this 100%.

 

But we should not ignore the fact that also different parties can merge or amalgamate so as to achieve what is perceived to be a common objective most especially if it’s the only appropriate ways to build and strengthen a larger and broader mass base for any revolutionary and evolutionary activity to take place.

 

Just like the laws of historical development which explain that “bourgeoisie as they accumulate more and more profits and plough them back into the production process, they tend to glow bigger and in later stages they  eat up small bourgeoisie and expand as a result they possibly win monopoly power of more exploitation and oppression of proletariats”, a “common good” for them in this case.

 

But on the political side, for parties to merge, they should be having something in common “common good” should be the same in  other words. And in the political circles if parties are formed on the clear ideology, good history and propaganda, the common good is most likely to not differ from it if it is well scrutinised. For example in Uganda each party claims to be “fighting for the liberation of the poor citizens or the country” just its the formula of liberation which may differ. which in the Marxist meaning can be related to “liberation of the proletariat (workers) and peasants” from oppressors (bourgeois and minority rulers).

 

Just because Marxism brings it and discusses it on a broader basis and further details on how this common objective can be achieved. So on the issue of merging of opposition parties or of the peasants and workers and act as a whole unite it may also be the appropriate path to “Uhuru” or attaining the common good but not fighting against each other. 

 

For example in Uganda, in the 1950’s Uganda’s were fed up with the hopeless colonial rule that was full of exploitation and oppression mostly of peasants and workers by the colonialists, as a result more than three political parties were formed to demand for the independence and the included 1- DP (Democratic Party) led by Benedicto Kyiwanuka, 2- UNC (Uganda National Congress) led by Ignatius Musaazi and UPU (Uganda People’s Union) jointly led by William Rwetshiba and William Nadiope. In this case the common good was “achievement of Uhuru/independence” and all of them worked towards achieving this common objective. But at the later stages as the new party was formed and this was none rather than (Uganda National Movement) UNM, which was under the Staunch Baganda who were mainly traditionalists and conservatives as well, these instead had a contrary view which was, “demanding for Buganda’s separation from Uganda”. So, I am so grateful for our founding fathers for being long sighted, i.e. they knew that this may hinder the achievement and attainment of the common good (Uhuru). And as a result, they acted proactively where by people like DR AM Obote first of all worked hard and united the UNC with the UPU to form UPC (Uganda people’s Congress) and by 1960, UPC was formed and DR AM Obote was elected as the party president a position he maintained up to 10th October 2005 when he died, may his spirit live in peace and his soul rest in peace.

 

Most authors, thinkers, analysts as well other political commentators give this collusion a limited attention but it created a very strong and firm foundation towards achieving of Uganda’s uhuru in 1962 and it later worked tirelessly to persuade the traditionalists to join UPC and started demanding for independence and indeed the fruits were harvested in 1962 where by the UPC , DP and KY participated in the election and definitely formed the UPC- KY alliance thet enabled Obote 1 to form the government as a prime minister with Mutesa II as the president.  This common good was still achieved due to the alliance between KY and UPC whereby KY gave UPC its 21 seats to get the majority and formed the first post-independence government and credit also goes to these founding fathers.

 

Besides that brief history on unity and how it can help to achieve a “common objective” or common good, to day in Uganda we simply have deemed to be unserious as the opposition because of lack of sense of unity, secondly the common good has not changed so much, its almost still the same but the ideologies may differ and ways on how to achieve this also may vary from one party to another but before diving into a complete analysis of the above, its also important to note that most parties today have the common good they are fighting for which is not do different from their fellow opposition parties but what is disturbing them most is that they are build on the weak and shaking ideologies, half-baked political history and propaganda and yet these are the key pillars and the prerequisite for a strong foundation for any party to achieve the common good in any society. 

 

The same applies today the common good is to “liberate the oppressed from the oppressors” which may translate to “liberation of the peasants and workers” from any form of oppression and exploitation including dictatorship but the way how to achieve this is very vital and achievement of this will lead to full uhuru but unfortunately the forerunners have never consented on the ways and strategies on how to achieve this and probably on, which path can lead to attainment of this Uhuru in its full package?

 

Finally, in my own understanding in Uganda today we have more than 26 registered political parties and to my own assumption I expect them to be close or equal to 30 by 2026 Isha allah. But the path to attainment of our common objective has distanced itself day by day. Why? Very good question, to me possibly due to.lack of strong and firm ideologies to fight and conquer the forces of oppression that oppressors of the modern time have firmly established and that’s why most of the internal conflicts and disagreements these days are caused by the unsatisfactory sharing of organization resources or political authority but not on different in ideologies  which is so disastrous and keeps us away from uhuru day by day, hour by hour.

 

So first of all it brings no unity but divisionism and further divisionism weakens the revolutionary and evolutionary activities which intend to achieve the common objective. So disagreements are normal and human, yes I agree to this, but should be justifiable to fundamental issues like issues relating to ideologies but not on minor issues and even if they happen, they should not divert the revolutionary leaders and forces from achieving the common good. In the struggle to achieve the common good, unity should be the number one priority. And secondly, all revolutionary stakeholders should know the real enemy in this case. For example the real enemy is that one who acts contrary to the set course, rules and procedures as well ethics that are believed to lead to achievement of the common good ,it doesn’t matter on which side he or she fall what matters is his or her actions , words and the one who he or she is supporting or defending in this case.

 

Why should we know the real enemies? This shall help the revolutionary forces to fight and eliminate their real enemies, perpetrators of evil and all who condon that evil in this case the oppression and exploitation of peasants and workers. But not to fight the enemies of their enemies as it was postulated in the communist manifesto whereby the proletariats end up fighting the enemy of their enemies and this makes the bourgeoisie class to glow stronger and bigger and mightier.

 

So this  should not be the case, high level of carefulness has to be maintained in the struggle such that the intended targets are enemies of the oppressed but not the enemies of the oppressors if not put into consideration, oppressors will keep growing stronger and stronger, year in, year out and the revolutionary forces will keep on weakening day by day. When I break it further on Uganda’s struggle most especially to the side of politics and specifically  on opposition side ” struggle side” we have failed to identify the real enemies of our revolutionary and evolutionary forces and as a result, we end up deliberately eliminating the enemies of our enemies which is not good because in real sense the enemies of our enemies are our allies and the allies of our enemies are our enemies it doesn’t matter in whatever camp they belong. What matters is what they believe in and what they are standing for?

 

How this is possible, for example when we observe our political game critically here in Uganda.  It is designed that the opposition itself first fight the opposition and either weakens it or eliminates it before it faces the forces in power which is very bad for this revolutionary struggle that we are in, giving the live example of DP (Democratic party) under Norbert Mao’s regime splinted into DP block and some shifted to Forum For Democratic Change, this further splinted onto people’s government  and now FDC sees no future in unity as one party and they are yearning for formation of a new party possibly originating from katonga faction, and in many parties different factions have emerged just because some are still with in and not yet out to burst like a volcano inside the volcanic  mountain waiting for it is time to erupt. Besides that, on various panels, social occasions, public debates and medias, opposition party members and leaders are found of accusing each other posing a blame game on each other and spreading the messages of hatred, and unpopularity amongst their fellow opposition parties and opposition members and this is possibly achieved through the weapon invented by the colonialists from the early 1850’s of “politics of identity” and many others so this cheap propaganda which is spread without basing on facts and evidence have really left the opposition wing into pieces and it is partly responsible for poor performance of opposition parties in Uganda I believe. And  the real enemy of revolution, progress and unity is given chance to continue in his comfort  zone of exploiting and oppressing the poor through, high taxes, high prices charged for goods and services in the country, reckless killing of the masses that try to rise their voices against oppression and  detention with out trial, brutal torture of fellow comrades who choose to stand for the truth, perpetrators of ignorance, diseases and poverty, those who perpetrates  and condon evil in the society like corruption and embezzlement and all people and actions which are against the common good and well being of the society, to the common people , as well present and the future generations.

 

So, Orwell said: “The one who controls the past, controls the future and the one controls the present, controls the past.”¹ I appeal to you all comrades who are fighting for the common good, to come together and unite in one umbrella, know: What we are fighting for? Who are we fighting with? Reasons, aims and objectives of the struggle and finally we know the real enemy, our allies, and the enemy of our enemies as well allie of our enemies for the better fruits of this struggle based on a strong and firm foundation built on a clear ideology of all classes under oppression and exploitation other wise, we shall keep on pulling ropes and definately the oppressors will keep on controlling our future by controlling the past and the present. 

 

Thanks very much.

 

SOZZI JOSEPH

MP TO BE MUKONO MUNICIPALITY (2026-2031)

FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY

 

¹https://www.george-orwell.org/1984/2.html