Govt must crash all opposition protests this year
By Adam Kazoora
9th Jan 2012: As we enter the New Year, I think it is important to look back on the political year 2011 and take stock. Ever since we had the general elections in February last year, we seemed to be limping from crisis to crisis. Clearly, something has changed in our country. In my view, there is at least one good reason [among many others] to explain the political and economic problems we faced in 2011.
When the opposition failed to win in the most free and fair election Uganda had ever seen they became dangerously desperate. Their desperation was caused by a rude final realisation that their most popular leader Dr. Kizza Besigye will probably never lead them into State House. The most desperate extremists among them then decided that they will get power through hook or crook, hence their resort to protests.
There is no denying that the opposition protests affected our overall economic performance. Tourists feared to come to Uganda, so we lost opportunities to harvest dollars from their rich pockets. Businesses were constantly interrupted, and thus failed to develop as well as they could have under normal circumstances.
Our NRM leaders must therefore learn from the chaos that dominated 2011 and find lasting solutions to it. All of us, including the opposition, should accept the results of the 2011 elections and take pride in the fact that Uganda is a shining young democracy on the African continent. Yes, we still have some weaknesses. But those weaknesses will not be solved by protests. Dialogue is the way forward.
If the opposition cannot grow up and start acting like aspiring democrats, then I think there is no better solution than to crash all their useless protests this year so that our people have some peace. Why should the entire country be held hostage by a small bunch people who have no capacity to realise that their protests are not good even for themselves, let alone the millions of innocent citizens up and down the country?
There is only so much reactionary antagonism that even the Pope can take. A time comes when even the holiest doves on the planet will be forced to draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough. And in my view, 2012 is that time when the government must say enough is enough to opposition protests.
Failure to take a resolute stand will mean that our people will continue facing unnecessary harassment from opposition hooligans. END: Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
