Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) leader Maj Gen (Rtd) Gregory Mugisha Muntu has urged all opposition politicians to stop attacking each other and learn to co-exist with each other regardless of their ideological differences.
Muntu made this appeal during an interview via ANT’s YouTube channel on Friday where he revealed that the disorganization within the opposition has played a big role in helping President Yoweri Museveni’s regime to sabotage their operations.
“In my own perspective and the perspective we share widely in Alliance for National Transformation is to recognize that there are a number of legitimate ways in which a regime can be fought which can be effective, such as defiance or civil disobedience. We believe that it’s a legitimate tool of struggle. We also believe that there is the capability of building structure to win the regime through an electoral process, which is also a legitimate part in spite of the challenges that are on the way. All the channels are full of impediments which are deliberately put in place by the regime. This is of course expected because all dictators will always obstruct those who want to bring change.”
“Every group must concentrate on what it believes that is effective without undermining or demeaning or provoking those that have taken a different path because in any case logic would indicate that whichever is effective will work. So what will be the problem if the struggle which has been effective works even before the other one works? Because if one works, all of us would have achieved that objective that we desire. So why on earth are people moving on different paths in conflict when the objective of removing the dictator is similar? That one has always perturbed me.”
The former UPDF Commander of Defence Forces however said that his party decided at the beginning that it will do what it is effective and desist from attacking others who have chosen other tools to avoid conflicts within the opposition.
“Our strategy to a larger extent has paid off because we have never been in conflict with any other opposition party. Whether people say what they want to say, we don’t respond, why? Because we want to avoid striving within the opposition. Strive does not help because the population is caught between a rock and a hard place, they are frustrated with the regime and when they see us in striving amongst us, it completely makes them so frustrated, so we have to learn to co-exist with each other in the opposition regardless of which strategies we are using.”
He noted that avoiding attacking each other is the only way the opposition can survive and also win the confidence of the public because without trust, it will be difficult for any member of the opposition to take over power from the present regime.
Gen Muntu’s comments come at a time when the opposition is divided following the recent demonstration of the former president of the Forum for Democratic Change Dr Kizza Besigye over the escalating prices of commodities.
Politicians who believe in his strategy have on several occassions attacked other members of the opposition for not joining Dr Besigye in his struggle.
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