The African politics of representation that gets nowhere… By experience – in Uganda we have come to know political representatives who are non-idea rhetorical and are fault searchers and finders. And then the second type are the reactionaries; who are silent till a controversial issue arises say in parliament – then they sail-out into the supposed stormy issues that, in their biases become confrontational and quarrelsome ‘hard-talk’ topics. Time and again national discussions of substance become construed with chaff that is tabloid generated and get heated-up and, perennially skew parliamentary discussions into getting nowhere… many a time Ugandans hear MPs participating in weekend Radio discussions that are loaded with personality and personality and personality and personality – and still plenty of banter but, personally satisfying utterances. And little else in terms of idea substance and get overtime, very coldly repetitive…. That you knew you heard that same utterance sometimes before even. On the same radio program! Recently, a familiar group of parliamentarians tabled a ‘Petition’ questioning the floated cost estimates for the re-building of Uganda Railway. They created a comparison between the costs for repairs of Kenya Railways; complaining that Uganda’s costs cited in the documents signed by the EAC Presidents as compared to the Kenyan one was suggestively too much! Here, it is outright annoying that these highly respected members don’t take into consideration fact that since the Liberation War – Uganda Railway experienced the spiral downward spin for over 30 years – while in that same period Kenya Railway has been steadily recording growth! Those Hon Members of parliament seem to disregard the fact that those costs were floated, also with the consideration of the local currency exchange rates between the EAC countries and the US Dollars. And then between the EAC countries themselves – I don’t have to mention these figures here. What the MPs seem also to disregard is fact that – the Presidents had to sign a document incorporating the floated cost indicators for each country – and that this is the ‘Principles’ factor. The document is like a treaty paper that carries the terms broadly: All worldly treaties are broadly generated documents for signatures of the leaders. And they could never be, unless [construed] as final!!! Otherwise, these documents get back to the planning systems where the breakdown details are expounded into specific working details and quantified. So! Under those circumstances the MPs actually don’t have a Petition!
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 23:18:37 +0000
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