“Isn’t Dr Kizza Besigye putting the cart before the horse by deciding to launch a new political coalition for the future of Uganda before he has even built trust?”
That was the question that was on the Democratic Party (DP) president, Norbert Mao’s lips during an interview with New Vision on Friday.
Mao was weighing in on Besigye and his group’s decision to launch a new political coalition on October 7, that is aimed at removing President Yoweri Museveni from power.
The coalition, which Besigye now leads, includes his party president Patrick Amuriat, Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, Conservative Party president John Ken Lukyamuzi and constitutional lawyer Peter Walubiri, who leads a splinter faction of Uganda People’s Congress.
Other coalition members are leaders of the Justice Forum, People’s Progressive Party and a faction from DP led by former independent presidential candidate Samuel Mukaaku.
The coalition was named “People’s Front for Transition’ under the slogan, Twetaase. Twetaase, when loosely translated, means, “Let’s save ourselves.”
Mao’s argument
Mao said that he had a conversation with Besigye before the latter launched the new pressure group.
“I told him (Besigye) that in the last election we were an embarrassment to the citizens of Uganda because of the selfish manoeuvres and that as DP, we invested a lot in building unity because an election is an activity which should bring us together and which is in the political calendar,” he said.
“So, I told him that before any such initiative, there should be broad internal consultation and that we need to have a session where we have a straight talk with each other to reduce tension and to build trust. When you build trust then it is easy to launch something like that,” Mao told New Vision.
Mao and Besigye have tried without success to mount a significant challenge to President Museveni of the National Resistance Movement (NRM).
“So, it is up to them (Besigye’s new group) to take their own decision, but they say that madness is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get a different result,” Mao remarked.
He said DP is not part of Besigye’s coalition as of now.
“When something starts you first need to understand it. We need everybody when we are talking about the future of our country, including NRM and the key forum is parliament,” Mao noted.
“The other forum is an informal forum then the national dialogue. So, if people launch an initiative to create leverage so that those things are done that is a good thing,” he, however, noted.
