White Paper: Threats and prospects for civil society

By Agula Joseph Ogoror

The White Paper was written and commissioned by the Movement government. It describes government’s positions on the political transition and details decisions on the proposals, findings, and recommendations from the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) report as well as reports that arose out of consultations with representatives of political forces. As a way of informing the partners of MS Uganda about issues in the White Paper and forging out the role civil society should play in the political transition, the White Paper was discussed during the Annual Meeting 2005. The discussions took their point of departure in ‘The White Paper and Political Transition in Uganda: assessing the implications’ that was written by Professor Dr. J. Oloka-Onyango who also gave a presentation. Oloka-Onyango is the Director of Human rights and Peace Centre, HURIPEC.

Olaka-Onyango highlighted a number of issues in the White Paper that civil society should pay attention to:

Multiparty system should be put in place but the Movement system can be returned to

Alerts for civil society: Retention of the movement system reflects only a luke-warm commitment to a fully-fledged multiparty system. It breeds political tension because of several constitutional provisions and laws that require either out right repeal or review in very short time

President should have more legislative powers on environment, investment, public health, and historical sights. Government can requisition land from owners for investment purposes

Alerts for civil society: Be aware of consequences of removing power from people’s representatives and vesting them in one person, the president

Reduce grounds for censoring ministers and maintain the number of ministers. Ministers shall continue to serve as MPs and not as ex-officio members

Alerts for civil society: This reduces the voice of the people and works against good governance and threatens the division of power: Ministers who are also MPs continue to have roles in both Parliament and the Executive. Government’s large spending on ministers continues

Lift constitutional presidential term limits, and that the issue be should be handled by parliament

Alerts for civil society: Why should we lift term limit now? Has CS understood the future implications: What are the consequences of unlimited terms, what could this lead to?

Retain Army representation in parliament for security reasons

Alerts for civil society: Uganda continues to be governed partly by military leaders. The transition from military to civilian rule is difficult but the good practices from Ghana can be looked at

To re-centralise the appointment and disciplining of Chief Administrative Officers, CAOs

Alerts for civil society: Decentralisation has empowered local people. If WP’s proposal is accepted the move will undo the essence of bringing power to the people

Resident District Commissioners’ (RDCs) powers not limited to central government services but also monitor local government service

Alerts for civil society: Why should the RDCs monitor local government? What is then the role of the CAO?

Referendum should be given binding force and government should have power to refer any sensitive issue to the public

Alerts for civil society: Government wants to by-pass the MPs by referring sensitive matters to the general population in a referendum. It is unclear who decides what issues are sensitive. The proposal also undermines the judiciary’s oversight function

A special tribunal be established for the trial of terrorist suspects

Alerts for civil society: Special courts are a threat to judicial independence and to the protection of rights within the criminal justice system determined by Parliament rather than referring it to a referendum

One comment from participants at MS Uganda’s Annual Meeting was that civil society must take on hard core advocacy, and prioritise issues such as the separation of powers, the status of citizens’ rights, and censorship of ministers. And that organisations should join hands in order to have a louder voice.

Participants also reminded each other that civil society has a responsibility to sensitise local communities about the political transition. One way of doing so could be by producing an easy read version of the white paper.

One participant suggested that acknowledging the good that the Movement has done for Uganda could be the best way of persuading the Movement system that there is life after government.