INTERPARTY COOPERATION
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALENGES FOR WOMEN’S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Omar Kalinge
ACFODE NATIONAL FORUM NOV 19, 2009
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Introduction
Definition of Terms
Let me describe a few key concepts that I will frequently use in this discourse, namely; democracy, democratization and civil society and Interparty Cooperation.
Democracy
Democracy is what W.B Gaille called some years ago, an “essentially contested concept”. He noted that “there are disputes, centered on such concepts which are perfectly genuine: which, although not resolvable by argument of any kind, are nevertheless sustained by perfectly respectable arguments and evidence. Democracy, as an idea and as a political reality, is always contested. Until now, the world is not universally agreed on what democracy is or what it should be. North Korea asserts that it is a democracy just as the United States.
In the current global context, most who advocate democratisation still do not recognise democracy as a contested concept. As a result, they view people with different interpretations of democracy as perverse. Thus, they are open to the risks of underestimating the strength of the alternatives. This is especially true of advocates of the styles of democracy found in Western Europe and the United States, who believe themselves to be the true heirs to the only legitimate democratic tradition and thus view any other effort to create democracies as false and undemocratic.
Because democracy is a contested concept, it is important to understand the perception of democracy within different communities. However, for the purpose of this address we shall adopt the most representative definitions of Democracy by Larry Diamond, Juan Linz and Seymour Lipset. It says that democracy “denotes a system of government that meets three essential conditions: competition, participation and political liberties”.
Democratisation
We shall describe Democratization as “the demand for empowerment in government and politics made by a growing portion of populations around the world”. As the technologies of government and rule become more sophisticated, there is a growing sense of marginalization among most people, even in those states universally thought of as “democratic”. We shall understand it further as those efforts by governments, civil society and other non- government actors that are geared towards the establishment of democratic values, norms and practices.
Civil Society
A commonly used definition in academic writings suggests that civil society is; “An intermediate associational realm between the state and family populated by organizations which are separated from the state, enjoy autonomy in relation to the state and are formed voluntarily by members of the society to protect and extend their interests or values”.
Interparty Cooperation
Interparty cooperation, IPC, is a formal grouping of four opposition political parties that are represented in parliament namely, in alphabetical order, Conservative Party, Forum for Democratic Change, JEEMA and Uganda People’s Congress. They are bound together by a Protocol of Interparty Cooperation that was signed by the heads of the four parties at Kololo on August 5, 2008. Its main objective was to push for electoral reforms to ensure a level playing field as a pre-requisite for free and fair elections. And to explore the possibility of a Joint Electoral Platform or an Electoral Alliance.
Objectives of the Interparty cooperation, IPC
The protocol outlines the following objectives.
The participating political parties shall cooperate in the following areas:
a) Advocacy and campaigns for the removal of all constitutional, legal, electoral, administrative, economic, security and any other form of obstacle to the full realization of free and open democratic multiparty governance in Uganda.
b) To identify all areas of national life (political economic, social or otherwise) where there is urgent need for corrective action to be taken by government and to jointly campaign and take all such action to bring pressure to bear on government to take such corrective action.
c) To identify common policy positions on aspects of the national economic, political and social life and adopt a common approach to realizing those positions.
d) To explore possibilities of adopting a common electoral platform for the 2011 general elections, and if such common electoral platform is agreed, to enter into an additional protocol for that purpose as soon as possible.
e) To do all such other things as the participating Political Parties shall deem expedient and necessary for attaining any of the above objectives or which they shall deem mutually beneficial to them or Uganda.
Structures of the IPC
The Interparty Cooperation is effected through the following structures: The Summit, The Steering Committee and The Secretariat.
a) The Summit
i) This is composed of the Presidents/ President General’s of the Participating Political Parties, and one other person chosen by the President/President General from each of the participating Political Parties preferably the Party Secretary General.
ii) The Summit is chaired by one of the Presidents/President General elected by the summit and the chair rotates among the participating Political Parties every three months.
iii) The Summit is the supreme policy decision making body of the Cooperation.
b) The Steering Committee
i) The Steering Committee is composed of two representatives chosen and designated by each participating Political Party.
ii) The overall responsibility of the Steering Committee is to design, coordinate and execute the work plan of the Cooperation.
iii) The Steering Committee reports to the Summit.
c) The Secretariat
The Cooperation is be facilitated in its day to day activities by a Secretariat manned by Change Initiative Limited, CIL.
IPC’s mixed bag of fortunes and shortcomings
When the four political parties that comprise the IPC signed their historic protocol in August last year, it had been hoped by skeptics that the cooperation would collapse in the first three to six months. Some dubbed it the “cooperation of the weak”, which could not stand a chance under the sun to even dent the domineering ruling party, the National Resistance Movement. There are those who thought that the cooperation would weaken the individual parties. Others thought that the smaller parties were attempting to hide their weaknesses by allying with the bigger ones. Others especially proponents of the ruling party intimated that the interparty cooperation was a foreign inspired idea and would collapse as soon as donor funds dried out.
Ugandans have been working on joint political projects since the colonial times. Working together to achieve a common democratic objective cannot be a foreign inspiration. But if a foreign donor decided to assist a local initiative, it would be because this era of globalization has bound our destinies together, and no one, from any part of the world can ignore the demands and aspirations of anyone else in the world. As recent events have shown, they were wrong.
The IPC methods of work and programmes ensure that each participating party develops its internal capacity continually through party member training and display of transparent internal democratic practices. For, it is better organized individual members that can deliver the democracy we want. Each participating party has embarked on an aggressive member registration exercise, although some parties have decided to be more loud and public about it than others – depending on the organizational culture of each party.
Those who supported the idea thought that IPC would become suddenly visible, very aggressive and occupy prominent space in the media and public perception in the first quarter of its existence. They were disappointed. Instead the cooperation embarked on a series of quiet, less propagandistic but important steps to build the foundation for an electoral alliance.
A report of ten thematic expert and political committees that were set up to analyse national themes including education, security, economy, women, youth environment and energy among others was presented a national conference in October 2008. This report formed the raw material for a future Inter-Party Alliance manifesto of the 2011 elections. By January 2009, the IPC had collectively raised enough money for each participating political party to hold its own Delegates’ Conference, an important internal democracy and constitutional requirement. All the Delegates’ Conferences endorsed the IPC.
At another IPC retreat in April 2009, IPC Members of Parliament, with the aid of an external consultant, the IPC organs and their political parties’ leaderships considered ways of enhancing IPC efficiency and effectiveness, including aspects of resource mobilization, organizational communication, and also agreed a roadmap to the Alliance. One of the recommendations was the creation of a 20 member committee comprising five top members from each party to consider the modalities of a joint electoral platform. The twenty members, also known as “ Generals” concluded their retreat early October with agreement on a Joint Electoral Platform for 2011. If endorsed by the individual parties, the Inter-Party Cooperation will be renamed the Inter-Party Alliance, for which a second protocol will be signed.
But earlier, on May 14 2009, the IPC had set the agenda by launching its demands for electoral reforms at the lawns of parliament at a well publicised ceremony attended by the Speaker of Parliament. The demand for electoral reforms has taken national and international centre stage and threatens to be the most important unifying factor of Ugandan and global democratic forces since the struggle for the return to multiparty democracy. The European Union, for example, has pronounced itself loudly on the matter of reforms. Civil society has formed a coalition for free democratic elections. The only person so far who does not seem to see the need for electoral reforms is President Museveni, who in a long letter to the press denounced the demand for reforms. He has also re-appointed the controversial Electoral Commission, one of the key concerns of the pro-reformists, for a second seven year term. In doing so, President Museveni has just laid the foundation for a “disputed 2011 elections”.
The IPC has also completed work on draft amendments to electoral laws which have been already submitted to IPC Members of Parliament. However, beyond the good intentions and significant behind the scenes activities, the IPC will need to do a lot more work. Mistrust and ideological differences persist among the cooperating parties and their harmonization is urgent. IPC has neither been understood nor popularized beyond the more politically conscious population. The matter of financial resource mobilization has not been given enough thought and attention. Without adequate financial resources, the IPC dream for democratic change in Uganda might turn into a huge nightmare.
In the past three months, two special training of trainers workshops have been conducted for IPC youth and women, making a total of 60 trainers that are being deployed countrywide to train other youth and women in democracy building. It is IPC’s view that active participation in politics can only be achieved through adequate preparation. Training is one such avenue. For most women who have devoted their lives to serve and promote the interests of women, it is apparent that lack of confidence is a major factor that contributes to the low participation of women in key political and decision making roles.
Shortly all the IPC member parties will embark on a nationwide voter and civic education exercise, a hitherto neglected responsibility of political parties.
The question of financial resource mobilisation in IPC however has not been given enough attention. Without a grand executable plan to raise funds internally and externally, from local supporters and from Ugandans and friends abroad to cause change, the IPC would become one good dead idea.
To cause change, IPC must address the four Ms of power: Money, Muscle, Mind and the Media. If the IPC cannot design and implement a plan to raise adequate financial resources (Money), protect its votes as it prepares for post-election scenarios (Muscle), pay for the best brains and skills to analyse, to manage and even run its campaign (Mind) and formulate clear simple accurate messages and communicate them to the country’s populations in their local languages (Media), it can as well just leave Ugandans alone and not pretend that they can cause any change.
Political Parties in Voter Education Political parties compete. Voter education is assumed to be a neutral or nonpartisan activity. So there is often a general operating assumption that voter education has nothing to do with political parties. This is incorrect on two counts.
First, individuals and groups of individuals learn a great deal about elections and about democracy from their interactions with government and their political experiences.
Second, parties have a selfish interest in getting to voters and, therefore, can be a cost-effective conduit for ensuring that voters get the necessary information they require in order to exercise their vote. So political parties and their supporters, campaign offices, and general staff are, in fact, potential educators. The voter educator's task is to manage this inevitable and important resource in ways that benefit citizens.
By their patient, sympathetic and accommodating nature, women are well suited for the role of civic and voter educators. IPC hopes to bank heavily on the services of women in educating the masses of their responsibilities as citizens in a democratic society and as voters. They may decide to participate as political party actors or civil society, with the same desired results.
Opportunities and challenges for Women’s political participation under the IPC
The democratisation process in Uganda implies difficult challenges for the actors involved. The main difficulties stem from the nature of Uganda’s politics, her post conflict reality and post colonial legacy that created a class of elites that is almost detached from the realities of the people they profess to serve, through leadership. The dire economic conditions in which Ugandans have had to operate over the years make democratic efforts more complicated.
No democratic process is complete without women’s representation in both government and political party structures. Unfortunately, strong institutions and political parties neither guarantee women’s interests nor women’s inclusion. Parties have often accused of not only mobilizing women around elections as ‘vote banks’ but also of making them figure heads and spokes persons for the parties Various examples to this are documented around the world. In Uruguay, despite the women’s activism in the struggle for democracy, at its first post dictatorial election, only six women were selected out of the 132 members for the two houses of parliament.
Women’s quest for democracy should be a continuous process. In South Africa even when the ban against political parties was lifted in the 1990’s, women in the ANC continued with the initiative to mobilize other women within and outside other parties calling for resistance against any form of oppression. They also mobilized themselves to demand for representation within their party sticking to the Proportional Representation (PR) method which they deemed as befitting their representation.
Women in Uganda therefore may need to borrow a leaf from the lived realities around the world. Active women politicians may need to form gender base- lines across party lines to bring more women into the decision making process. The current arrangement of Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA) is such one that can foster cohesion for the women’s voice. Such arrangements need to be carried down to the lowest levels of local council.
There is need to demand for fair representation within their parties. This can be done through mandatory quotas within the parties. Agreements can also be reached within the political parties on how positions and responsibilities can be reached.
The Affirmative Action policy in Uganda is almost facing a back-lash in that women are entering parliament and Local Councils without causing the required impact. What started as a noble cause has been usurped by political powers for their political gains. There is therefore need to address this anomaly through electoral reforms so that guarantee is made to the effect that women occupying these seats have the ability to make meaningful contribution.
In spite of all the recent and past limitations, the women have always played a major role in the growth of democracy in Uganda and in a broader sense, in the struggle for freedom and justice.
Historically, the 1953 non violent action by Uganda’s women towards the colonial government is worth not only remembering but emulating.
In 1953, women organized themselves under their umbrella of Mother’s Union to protest the deportation of the Kabaka in 1953. Sara Mukasa, wife of Ham Mukasa and mother of the late Rebecca Mulira, organized three buses that went to the governors (Sir Andrew Cohen) residence in Entebbe. On the occasion, the women wore sad faces and long sashes of back cloth; they did not comb their hair. In protest they are said not to have used English though many of them knew the language and refused to take tea that was offered to them. In the end they offered a memorandum reprimanding Sir Andrew Cohen for not consulting the mothers of the nation before deporting the Kabaka. Uganda’s women can play such important, if dramatic, and far reaching role again, if they decide to do so, whether they belong to civil society or active in political parties. (Cited by Wokuri, 2009).
The special role of the youthful woman is important to consider. The youth, female and male are energetic, mostly free of family obligations, adventurous, hopeful and often daring. These are attributes that civil society and political parties can benefit from. They have the highest stake in the future, because everything lies ahead for them. The United Nations World Programme of Action for Youth for the year 2000 states….” the capacity for progress of our societies is based, among other elements, on the capacity to incorporate the contribution and responsibility of youth in the building and designing of the future”. How appropriate. In Uganda’s traditional discourse, there is the general tendency to examine women in isolation of youth, as if youth can only be male. There are women who are youth as well, and whatever affects the youth affects both the male and female youth.
The women and youth are the backbone of every nation, the anchor of their societies. On the other hand, the youth, male and female can be reckless, inexperienced, arrogant, confused, short sighted and ignorant. This is why they should belong to the right organisations to guide and educate them, and to clear their confusion that arises from the conflicting messages they receive from their surroundings. Today the youths are told that they are completely free without obligations. That they are free to “enjoy themselves”, without obligation, often until self destruction. This hampers their participation in meaningful democratisation processes.
The youth are a very important sector of society. Their importance lies in their energy and the hope they hold for the future. There is an undeniable need for the youth, male and female, to participate actively in the democratic processes in Uganda. The youth are eager to claim their space on the political arena, to play bigger roles in their political parties. However they don’t seem ready to meaningfully contribute to the strengthening of their parties. They don’t have the required organizational skills to do so. We propose a strategy of the youth, male and female, participating more and more in civil society organisations. CSOs are very important vehicles of democratization. They provide more space for young men and women for action and serve as training ground for democratic practice, leadership and good governance.
Civil society is assumed to be “both the force that can hold governments accountable and the base upon which a truly democratic culture can be built.” Some argue, though, that a flourishing or vibrant, civil society can neither emerge, nor be sustained, in the weak state context like Uganda’s. We shall return to this on another occasion.
What opportunities are the available for women and youth participation in democratic processes in Uganda? There is this unfortunate NRM reinforced view that the youth and women are a pitiable group that should depend on patronage by the ruling party. They have created the false impression that having women and youth members in Parliament is the ultimate sign of empowerment. This is not true. Empowering women youths should focus on tangible development and civic programmes, that take care of their welfare, a quality education, employment, on job and continuous training, systematic internship placements and social guidance.
The current government has instead sought to exploit the women and youth by making them their voting machines in parliament, never encouraging them to agitate for real empowerment of the grassroots woman and youth. Records indicate that nearly all women and youth MPs accepted a bribe of USh. 5 million in 2005 to lift presidential term limits. On the performance of women and youth and MPs in parliament, some women and youth MPs seem to be lost in the house, devoid of substance and not aware of their responsibilities as MPs. Some few have however been outstanding.
Women MPs have not made themselves sufficiently heard in the fight against corruption, election rigging, or demand for electoral reforms, apart from proving their undying loyalty to the ruling party. They are just one of those pro-government voting blocks along with the 10 UPDF members of parliament, Youth MPs and the workers MPs and the disabled MPs. This role that the women and youth have been made to play has had far reaching consequences. Most of the women and youth cannot play their expected role in the democratization process.
This is probably because the last 23 years of the NRM government have ensured that population, especially the youth, both male and female are de-intellectualised, perhaps a calculated move to create a generation of young men and women who cannot think critically nor advance intelligent arguments on crucial matters affecting their country. The young men and women, even those in Universities who would be different, have been “trivialized”, focusing on enjoyment, the premier league, singing and dancing competitions, beauty contests and other similar passtimes that were, in olden days reserved only for the weekends.
So, the typical Ugandan male and female youth cannot agitate for employment, better education or health care because s/he has been told: “don’t worry, be happy!” - what with the movie channels that never stop, what with the over 120 FM stations that do little more than play music 24 hours a day, and in the interlude, blast advertisements of the next local artistes’ music shows or the next mega music star coming to town, while the vernacular radios invite young and the old to get solutions from witch doctors. This tragic combination of the trivialization and de-intellectualisation of the population and popularization of superstition has dealt a fatal blow to the nation’s meaningful participation in democratic processes.
Where then is Uganda heading in view of the current state of women and youth participation in democratic processes? Unless the women, especially the women leaders like the ones I see here today see through this conspiracy of de-intellectualisation and popularization of superstition and re-direct their energies into meaningful pursuits, Uganda is a doomed nation. Unless the women seek prominent participation in civil society organisations, as a way to preparing them for service of their communities at even a higher levels later, there cannot be a bright political future.
We hesitate to encourage the women to be too active in political leadership activities unless they have been first tried and tested in civil society environments. Building nations is work that starts from the grassroots. We want to persuade the women to participate with the grassroots, understand the real needs of the people, articulate them, advocate, agitate, negotiate, and develop a clear agenda for nation building and development.
While I believe that active participation in various roles in political parties will be crucial and needed, I argue that most women have not made sufficient preparations for the task of national leadership.
While it might be exciting for the women to want to rise to the top and take more prominent roles in their political party’s leaderships, it is not the answer to the continued exploitation of women in the country. Uganda’s present political leaders, those in and out of power, are so detached from the real needs of the local population, there must be a conscious effort on the part of the politically conscious women to seek an active engagement with the communities in which they live before they jump into the political fray. More than 90% of Uganda is rural. That is where the real work is. That is where the women should be focusing.
Conclusion: New strategy, new tactics
We propose a strategy and new tactics of women participation in politics that puts into consideration the environment in which we live. When you live in a country where every political rally by the opposition must end with teargas and broken limbs, arrests of leaders and police bonds and bail applications, then it is time to rethink the way some groups participate in the politics of their country. Political parties must find new ways of expressing political opinion, of agitating, of even confronting. The interparty cooperation is ready to work with women organisations to design more effective, less endangering methods of political and social activism. Methods that will render even the most violent police and other security forces useless. If you ask me, this is perhaps the most important project that civil society and political parties ought to embark on as we consider women’s participation in the causing the political and social change we all desire.
omarkalinge@gmail.com
