Your bloodsucking politics has messed up everything -- politics has become a lucrative job, every village has been turned into a constituency, everybody is now a thief, you've all become self-seekers, and no one cares about Uganda anymore!

In academic circles, the second NRM budget, the 1987/88 national budget, is popularly known as a Telex Budget.

Referring to the intense consultations between Kampala and Washington where a team of Ugandan negotiators had been sent for "talks" with the IMF to secure funding to finance the Economic Recovery Programme which had just been launched on May 15, 1987.

Mr President, I trust your memory to recall that before the team you sent for the Washington talks had flown out of Entebbe.

Your cabinet prepared a budget which was due for presentation by the then Finance Minister, Cryspus Kiyonga, on July 1, 1987.

However, this particular budget was abandoned and a new one (largely an IMF blueprint) was hurriedly prepared following consultations with the guys in Washington via telex.

For this reason, the 1987/88 budget was not presented until July 24, 1988, almost a month into the new financial year.

And because the NRM presented an IMF blueprint, not its own budget, so as to persuade the Fund to release some US$73 million ($40m as part of Structural Adjustment Facility, and $33m as a compensatory facility).
There was lack of commitment by the NRM government to implement the 1987/88 budget.

As a result, the economy performed badly that year -- worse than the previous year when NRM had less money.

Inflation went galloping at 240%, while the balance of payments position worsened as its overall performance plunged into a deficit of about $9 million -- $9 million of 1987 after the currency reform (1 new Sh = 100 old Shs) and a 77% devaluation of the shilling which led to a 329 increase in the price of the dollar was a damn huge amount of money.

It is therefore, understandable that in the subsequent budget, 1988/89, the NRM abandoned the flawed advice and conditionality of IMF.

For example, in the 1988/89 budget NRM reduced interest rates by 50% for one simple reason, actually commonsense -- it was the only option to facilitate private investment.

Government also adopted an extreme tight monetary and fiscal policy to curb inflation and it further devalued the currency from Shs60 to Shs150 per dollar.

All these interventions by were against the IMF's preferred policy regime.

When NRM served national interest
But because NRM meant well, because it was refusing to dance on the IMF tunes and to fall in the trap of getting too much money from donors.

To serve the national interest, the economy recovered rather dramatically that year and it was not long before the IMF conceded defeat.

In September 1988, the IMF as a "gatekeeper" for all donor agencies organised a conference which opened the taps for money to Uganda.  

The rest as they say is history, but one thing is clear -- Uganda became a poster child for pragmatic and sound economic policies as a result of NRM's patriotic handling of the IMF.    

Mr President, I am jogging your memory back in the times for one purpose -- to solicit your understanding that when NRM was committed to the national cause, Uganda prospered.

Back then, because our brand new heroes from Luwero bushes were committed to the national interest, you resisted the draconian policies of funding agencies like IMF, the World Bank and the US Treasury despite the fact that you came from Luwero with no money to run government, let alone to steal.

Then the bisanja politics set in. This bloodsucking politics has messed up everything -- politics has become a lucrative job, every village has been turned into a constituency or district, everybody is now a thief, you've all become self-seekers, and no one cares about Uganda anymore!

Mr President, ever since you took a decision to amend the 1995 Constitution to set the bisanja politics in motion in 2005, many residents of this country are holding the future in total apprehension.

This country has never been the same again. Not politically, not economically, not socially.

Uganda has become more polarised politically, the economy has continued to grow but this time round with the proceeds of this growth going to a selected few.

And as a result many Ugandans have become angrier than they were yesterday.

Price of bisanja politics

You politicians seem to no longer care whether this country grows or stagnates. You are spending the biggest chunk of the budget on yourselves and the politics you have come to worship.

It is well known that fiscal and monetary discipline, restored by NRM beginning in 1987, turned the Ugandan economy in a solid performance and restored sanity in our country.

But look at the levels of fiscal indiscipline going on today. The growing size and by extension expenditure of Government is simply alarming.

I have always questioned the logic of having a legislature of 334 MPs (and with increasing number of districts and thus constituencies we shall need to double the size of our parliamentary chambers).

A cabinet of 70 ministers, a stadium of RDCs, an extended list of presidential advisers and other hangers-on, an extensive local government spread around now over 100 districts, and an indefinable civil service.

Mr President, you seem to no longer care much about this country. You seem to care more about your bisanja, how to win over Ugandan voters so that you keep yourself in power.

As a result politicians have held you hostage; you no longer have the ability to exert your authority over them.

Even thieves have taken advantage of your political quagmire to loot with impunity knowing that you need them more than they need you.  

Politicians vs. technocrats

In 2008, the Oxford Policy Management carried out an independent evaluation of the PEAP to determine its effectiveness as a framework for achieving the poverty reduction in Uganda.

In its report, the Oxford Policy Management indicated that the changing relationship between politicians and technocrats following the adoption of multiparty political system had affected the implementation and effectiveness of the PEAP.

It was established that you politicians were claiming that technocrats were not committed to the pursuit of the national interest, and were not responsive to political direction.

Public servants, on the other hand, said since the introduction of multiparty politics, the political leadership has been much more interested in the implementation of the policies in its electoral manifesto than in government policies.

Mr President, public servants told the Oxford Policy Management thus, "State House has become directly involved with local governments both through its relationship with the chief accounting officers (CAOs) and in the direction and delivery of agricultural services (NAADs), effectively sidelining the public service."

Needless to say that this State House interference and its hijacking of government business has created waste and policy confusion.

Mr President, your ministers and public servants, interviewed in this report, valiantly complained about your unchecked interference and politicisation of the public service delivery process.

The multiparty politics played in this country is killing us. Government jobs are for NRM supporters, yet many of the youths in FDC, DP, UPC etc. believe they are smarter than those currently enjoying.

This is the tragedy of multiparty political system, especially in a country like Uganda where factors such as ethnic diversity, nepotism, poverty, illiteracy, and the general sense of malaise among the population blend into a sadistic cocktail.

The country has become polarised between those now popularly known as "abali mukintu" (those enjoying) and the masses that have been left out.

Those who are enjoying are seeing a progressive Uganda and they want the status-quo to be maintained, while those who don't have believe this is the worst government Uganda has ever had and are ready to fight "this dictatorship.

" Some are living very worthless lives that they don't mind losing them in the process of fighting the dictatorship.

Mr President, Will Rogers once said, "Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment."

You are the most experienced politician in our country; you have accumulated this experience from a combination of good and bad judgment.

Please try to reduce on the latter. Reducing the size of government and political expenditure will be a good beginning. blog comments powered by Disqus

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