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FARUK KIRUNDA: IPOD is not about money as NUP thinks

Watchdog Uganda by Watchdog Uganda
2 hours ago
in News, Op-Ed
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The attitude of the NUP leadership towards the Inter-Party Organisation on Dialogue (IPOD) needs deeper analysis. Judging from the letter from the party’s Secretary General to the Executive Director of IPOD, Dr. Lawrence Sserwambala requesting to sign the Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) to join the body reveals the limited understanding of the forum’s objectives. To them, it’s about money!

IPOD was formed in 2009 with an aim of pursuing and promoting inclusive democracy, good governance, human rights, istrengthening of political parties to be trusted representatives of public interests, non-discrimination, interparty dialogue and cooperation as a means of dealing with political differences.

The loose coalition of political parties with representation in Parliament started with support from the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) at the request of Government in a bid to support multiparty democracy following a return to multipartyism in 2005. At that time, there were five political parties in Parliament including the National Resistance Movement (NRM), Conservative Party (CP), Democratic Party (DP), Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), and Uganda Peoples’ Congress (UPC). IPOD’s membership changes with the electoral cycle, according to the returns from the elections. Today, it is composed of NRM, DP, UPC, FDC, JEEMA and PPP.

After the 2021 elections, the newly formed NUP qualified to join IPOD, after getting its flagbearers elected to Parliament. Not only that, it became the dominant opposition party.

But from that time the Kavule-headquartered party refused to meet the terms of IPOD, as was FDC initially, on the claim of not wanting to be seen near President Yoweri Museveni and other opposition parties that they despise, with the escapist argument that the platform is “used to legitimize a brutal regime that has no regard or respect for democracy.” They described the forum’s meetings as “tea and photo” opportunities.
Yet they kept partaking of the funding as part of the benefits of the IPOD framework.

Remember that a key objective is to support political parties in building their capacity! Other parties, including the ruling NRM, would receive their share while actively participating in IPOD activities, including attending its summits. NUP, on the other hand, would take money while refusing to fulfill the terms of belonging, with the excuse of the money being a guarantee under the law. They were taking money as an entitlement, for no value, yet this is taxpayers’ money.

For NUP’s better understanding and for avoidance of doubt, that money was tagged to contributing towards the achievement of the Organisations’ objectives, chief among being to facilitate dialogue and roundtable discussions on shaping policies and representing diverse interests of citizenry.

IPOD isn’t a SACCO or bank for dishing out money but a framework for supporting the growth of multiparty democracy in Uganda. Money is just “facilitation”. It’s possible to have IPOD without the provision of funding attached as long as the ideals behind it are achieved.

NUP leaders have questions to answer: How do you dialogue when you don’t meet with others? How do you mobilise the population for peaceful co-existence and de-escalation of tensions in politics when at an elite level you are acting “holy” and isolationist? This could well have amounted to “corruption” and I am not aware how accountability was done.

Along the way, some of us called for a law to make it expressly conditional that for any party to receive funding under IPOD it must have met certain terms, and with evidence of the same. We stopped short of demanding for a refund of taxpayers’ money. For a party whose publicly declared stance is on fighting corruption, standing for integrity in leadership and public administration, this was an own goal.

When the amendment (to the Political Parties and Organisations Act, 2005) making it mandatory for parties to participate in the IPOD’s programmes as a condition to access funding, NUP remained adamant until last week when they realised the loss they had incurred after other parties received their allotment. They then came up ask to ask to sign up to the forum, but in the meantime while still challenging certain aspects of the law in court.

In short, their struggle is about the money side and not the terms and responsibilities that come with that support. This is dishonest and exploitative.

No single political group has monopoly of ideas greater than the interests of all participating organisations under the National Consultative Forum. There are elections, where each faces the voters and explains a unique political programme, but national objectives remain paramount.

If NUP or any other party wishes to keep away from politics of dialogue and concensus-building, the morally appropriate stance is to lose interest in the benefits that come with belonging in an organised political environment including fielding candidates in elections and drawing salaries from government when those candidates are elected.

And all this when the party has been advocating various grievances, including alleged disappearances of its members from the 2020-2021 election period. Where best to air out such grievances and receive answers than in a platform where major political organisations and peer groups are in attendance, each bringing its concerns on the table? Going for the “buttered” side of IPOD is betraying the critical interests of NUP members and Ugandans at large because the forum was established for their benefit, not that of party executives. It also shows NUP’s thinking of what politics is for. Money power!

The author is the Special Presidential Assistant-Press & Mobilisation/Deputy Press Secretary
Email: faruk.kirunda@statehouse.go.ug
0776980486/0783990861


Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at editorial@watchdoguganda.com
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