By Abbey K. Semuwemba

27^th Aug 2012: Many have written about the chasm between Museveni and his NRM ‘rebel’ members, yet few seem to fully grasp the nature of their misunderstandings, or how best to deal with rebellion within the organisation.

It is something I have thought about after being the moderator of Ugandans At Heart (UAH) forum for a long time, and seeing how some members become intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly ‘indiscipline’ in the way they conduct themselves in our online debates, but hate being ‘punished’ or ‘corrected’ in any way.

Unlike the NRM, at UAH, too much power rests on the shoulders of the members.  According to the NRM party constitution, a member should “…observe discipline, behave honestly and be loyal to the decisions of the majority of the members of the organ where a member belongs and to the decisions of higher organs within the structures of NRM.”

It also decrees that a member must “…refrain from publishing, distributing or making statements to any media house which purports to be the view or position of NRM without….authorisation’’.

However, I have been reading reports in the media where Hon Nsereko, Hon Ssekikubo, and others rebel against the position of their party and nothing is done to them. May be the NRM organs are not as functional as they make us believe – because in all honesty, why are these guys still members of a decaying party?  That’s why I am still sceptical about their real intentions – I smell a fish!

The man who also happens to be the NRM chairman once said that the NRM NEC would consider disciplining ‘rebels’, with possible censure, reprimand, fines, or even expulsion.  But nothing came of it. May be these so-called NRM ‘rebels’ were actually created by the NRM to render FDC’s oversight role irrelevant.

It’s a lot easier for Museveni, with all the resources and power he has, to thread the needle than it is for any FDC leader. It seems Museveni only cares about his survival – and he does it by (unwittingly – Ed) supporting criminality, divisions, fraud, and parasitism within his own party.

The idea that members should retain the right to self-regulate their behaviour or conduct is entirely misplaced. Some people need to be forcibly guided – just as FDC dealt with Beti Kamya and Onzima.

I think political parties in Uganda should take a communist approach to dealing with ‘rebels’ in their parties. The Soviet Communist International (Comintern) was founded in March 1919 at a congress in Moscow by Vladimir Lenin. The international objectives of the Comintern were self-evident from its title.

By 1920, Lenin had left no doubt that he envisioned the Comintern as “…a branch of the Russian Communist Party, organized on its model, and subject to its orders.”

The 1920 Comintern congress made this clear, demanding of its foreign delegates that when they returned home, they would impose “iron military discipline” upon party members in their countries, ensuring fealty to and “the fullest comradely confidence” in the headquarters in Moscow. Beyond the parties, they were to seek to take over mass organizations and especially trade unions in their home countries.

Significantly, the Comintern made clear that members of foreign communist parties—from Europe to America—who did not toe this line, who did not give total subservience to Moscow, “who reject in principle the conditions and theses put forward by the Communist International, are to be expelled from the party.”

This was the classic, infamous “party discipline” that was a trademark of communist parties everywhere.

The 1920 congress further added as a condition for admission and membership to the Comintern: “Every party which wishes to join the Communist International is obligated to give unconditional support to any Soviet republic in its struggle against counter-revolutionary forces.”

Personally, I think political parties should be governed by military discipline, and “democratic centralism” where party-membership is tightly controlled, and all members maintain party discipline – not contradicting the party-line in public, but through internal “democratic” debate.

All political parties should be allowed to own newspapers, just like they own online forums, to play a central role in communicating the party official positions.  A serious party shouldn’t rely on “front organizations” (I hear NRM owns a few in and out of the country), ostensibly independent, but actually controlled by Museveni.

But overall, I think the key to success of political parties is discipline as opposed to letting the wheel drive itself. Throw the bad apples out of the basket to avoid contaminating the good ones.  END.  Login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories mid-week for our updates

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