FDC retreat: Muntu brutal, Besigye warm and cold

When he spoke, Besigye maintained his refusal to concede that divisions on strategy were dividing the party. On one hand, he defended his defiance campaign, and on the other, he vouched for Muntu’s organisation.

“You hear people say defiance failed, walk to work and so what can we do next? Defiance has been effective,” Besigye said, “I can tell you the effect of defiance has dramatically changed everything in our favour. Museveni regime is at its weakest. That is why Museveni has been approaching us for talks. We have never asked for talks. We have told him we shall only talk about how he leaves.”

But Besigye also called for organisation.

“We must be organised; success is for the organised. If you are disorganise, you keep agonised, you keep lamenting. Any organisation is good- be it traders, teachers, farmers- it is all good. So even political parties must be organised.”

He said the party needed to have leaders who can influence people. “That must be done creatively,” Besigye said, “So we need overt and covert leadership.”

When it was Muntu’s turn to speak, he was brutally frank.

“If you are given eight hours to cut down a tree,” Muntu told members, “use six to sharpen the axe. We must change this mentality of quick fixes. It will destroy us.”

The positions of the two leaders sparked a frenzy of debate, especially on WhatsApp which has become the FDC platform of choice for venting.

“This is what I hate hearing,” said a member on one of the supporters’ Whatsapp group. “Now we keep organising and Museveni keeps in power. This project of keeping Museveni in power pretending to be with us must stop.”

The supporters of Muntu responded by asking Besigye’s supporters what the party achieved in the eight years when Besigye was party president.

“So you who thinks organising is wasting time what is stopping you from taking power with your strategies?” a Muntu supporter also shot. “If the five years have been wasted on organising what happened to the eight years?” How come Besigye didn’t take us to State House during those eight years?”

The supporters of Muntu also rubbished Besigye’s comments on how withdrawing cooperation can fail the dictatorship. They said he should tell his supporters the truth that he has failed to oust Museveni.

“When Besigye was Party President, how many votes did we get?” a Muntu supporter wondered, “How many MPs did we have? How many councilors did we have? Or how many candidates did we field?”

He said that these facts are there and they will show us who has been more competent as a Party President that the other.

“The problem is that we are dealing with people who are one; dishonest and two, they lack information,” the official said.

Henry Kasacca, Executive Director, Dialogue and Democracy Training Centre (DDTC), who was at this retreat and has been making presentations at the others on how the party can deal with internal conflicts, said he noticed that FDC is resistant to opening up and admitting that there is a conflict.

“Much as conflicts are to be expected and will always be there,” he said, “what is happening in FDC is not normal. They don’t want to admit there is a problem and that is running away from it, and that means they are not devising ways of solving it.”

Kasacca said the party leaders who should be willing to make compromises, think that by admitting there is a problem they will be looked at as failures.

“If something is not done about these wrangles and they leave it to spill into another election,” he warned, “the party will be more divided. The more elections they engage in while in this state, the more divided they will be.”

He called on both camps to look for people who have integrity to mediate in these conflicts.

“Otherwise their issues are getting out of hand,” he said, “Now there are members who can’t talk in a meeting because it is chaired by someone from the other camp. The situation is worse at the lower level. All the meetings I have attended, this issue has come up. People ask why they hear there is team Muntu and team Besigye.”

He also said that the party has not realised the potential damage this could cause to the party.

“When you are a party like FDC you can’t afford to engage in bickering like that,” Kasacca said, “NRM can afford it because it is big but FDC is still small. What they have is still limited and if they keep fighting over the little they have, NRM will wipe them off the political scene.”

On his Facebook page, Paul Mwiru noted that what has become clear from these forums is that individuals come first and the party second on the priority list of members.

“The individual personalities seem to be more important than the party,” he noted, “We are always fast to jump on a tactic and ignore the strategy and later ask; who has refused you to implement your strategy?”

The Soroti retreats followed similar ones Lango. Members commenting on the Soroti retreat say although sparks were flying, they are nothing to the spurt in Lango between MP Cecilia Ogwal and Mafabi.

It started when Ogwal reportedly accused Mafabi, as Secretary General of not working hard enough because the lower level offices have not been functioning. But Mafabi takes no prisoners in situations like this. He instantly asked her how much she has contributed as a party MP who is also a commissioner of parliament to the operations of the party. He asked her why she has never contributed even at least Shs 1 million from the Shs50 million she earns as MP and commissioner. Party MPs are supposed to contribute about Shs500,000 per month from their earnings.

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editor@independent.co.ug