Competitions tend to bring the best and the worst in contemporaries but, attaching the spy claim on Muntu will hurt FDC the most. FDC adherents must stop labelling Muntu an NRM mole. Such labelling highlights the success of the propaganda machinery of the establishment to sow discord within the party.
Gen. Muntu is above the pettiness of spying for the NRM. When FDC opened its doors for membership, it expected that the establishment would infiltrate its ranks and files with informants. That is what a sitting regime does. There are many in there, but Gen Muntu is definitely not one of them.
We should know that negative words hurt when hurled at you, even if you ignore them. The label of spying cast against Gen Muntu socialises him in two contradicting worlds – a persistent false image against his legitimate dedications.
To reduce Muntu’s to such pettiness harms the Party as it requires constant self-validating before the party supporters. Gen Muntu is not an ordinary citizen to start with. His past and present engagements with the regime are not matters of secrecy, speculation or awe. Gen Muntu, like all those honchos in FDC, have their roots in the very system that they are committed to dismantling. Those historical ties, are both their fortunes and baggage to carry simultaneously.
In honesty, it is easy to sell Gen. Muntu as a spy for CIA, KGB, Mossad, Chinese, Mi5, Rwanda, EAC, and so forth. Spying for Museveni is an oxymoron. One would rather contract-spy for Salva Kiir at that point!
FDC as a great potential with properly nurturance. It continues to attract credible political actors with diverse experiences and high levels of maturity. FDC has held itself together in part because of these men and women who value above all, the institution before individuals. This is a rare trait in existing politics of Uganda.
We have seen those who, because of strong tribal and inane sense of entitlement, hurriedly left FDC to nurse their ambitions elsewhere. Those hopes to flourish quickly evaporated and now they have to constantly hug, and massage the fingers of the tyrant for a living.
The lessons are visible – we can no longer build a tribal based political party with a narrow ethnic-based mobilising ideology; more so, depending entirely on urban based elites to galvanize the revolutionary sentiments abound in Uganda is itself, politically suicidal. Gen. Muntu might have quickly reflected on these lessons and correctly returned to the fold. Let FDC embrace and trust Muntu fully, as a priceless asset! Those undemocratic elements aspire for the “third way” politics, the ultra-hybrid politics of sitting on the fence, should try their luck.
Gallantry espoused by men like Gen. Muntu afford FDC integrity and a renewed sense of purpose. The triumph of a mature liberal democracy resides in tolerance of such diversity for the maximization of transformative ideas. It is shameful for FDC MPs from Gen Muntu’s camp who have accused Dr. Kizza Besigye of being a dictator, when, in essence, they themselves, exhibit every trait of the same malady, including poor loser culture. Such elements undermine the most vital aspect of their Party structures – the election and transition processes.
Most importantly, the body and the soul co-exist, and so, the new FDC President, Eng. Patrick Amuriat should embody the physical presence of FDC, while Gen. Muntu becomes the conscience – the soul. One tactician, the other a strategist. Enough room exists for both individuals proffer. The Party needs a leader with a finishing instinct, in as much as a philosopher to engineer the structures. Only through their combined efforts shall the structures materialise. The Party shall then become complete and appealing for the treacherous task of liberation.
Mr. Komakech is Ugandan social critic and political analyst based in Toronto, Canada. Can contact via mordust_26@yahoo.ca
