NUP v DP bloc: A case of proverbial patching of old cloth from a new one
For NUP to retain the revolutionary energy it came with, it must relieve itself of the old guards who came riding on the wave.
BY Agaba Muzoora
I am not a Christian in the regular use of the term; however I am an ardent follower of Jesus Christ, as the teachings attributed to him inspire me so much.
As such, I read the Bible regularly, particularly the gospels which entail the teachings and works of Jesus Christ as attributed to him by the authors of the gospels.
In the gospel of Luke, chapter 5, verses 33-39, Jesus uses two parables, the parable of patching an old cloth with a new one and the parable of storing new wine in and old wineskin, to teach about incompatibility of ideas of old establishments with revolutionary ideas.
He teaches that a new cloth should be patched with a new one and an old cloth with an old one, otherwise the new cloth would eat away the old one if patched together just as new wine would rip apart an old wine skin if stored in it.
While Jesus’ teaching was about contradiction of religious ideas so many years ago, thousands to say the least, it seems to have relevancy in the NUP party today, particularly, speaking to the seemingly increasing incompatibility between the young generation revolutionary ideas
vis-à-vis the methods of the old opposition folks in the party, mainly the DP block as they love to refer to themselves.
The People Power movement came as a wave powered by the energy of the young people who were tired of things done as usual and wanted things to be done unusual (what the leader called the Raba Daba style) in a bid to achieve political change.
In the run up to the 2020/2021 campaigns and election season, the “DP bloc”, seemingly waned of energy, sought to ride on the highly charged wave powered by the energetic and resolute young people under the People Power movement to gain rejuvenation and sail to the political shores of the time.
Three years down the road, however, signs of incompatibility between the old guards ideas and methods vis-a-vis the fast and furious revolutionary spirit of the young revolutionaries are getting clearer by the day as Jesus predicted of such marriages, two thousand-and-some years ago.
Each group is accusing the other of deploying tactics that “do not work” - what they do not add though is, methods do not work to whose interest?
This is because as the proverbial new wine, the you people are full of energy and like it moving fast and furious, the old guards on the other hand, just like the old wine skin, like it slow and safe –deploying verbal artillery during the day and diplomacy at night with the regime whose existence they are opposing –culminating into deal making like the one of former LOP Matthias Mpuuga, was involved in as recently revealed.
Whereas it is quite clear that the captains of the people power wave continue to demand for deployment of energy in pursuing the regime in power with the aim of regularly pushing it to the corner as a method of squeezing some reforms and accountability out of it, it is quite clear that the old politicians are not up to the pace of the new generation and are not adding energy to the revolutionary wave.
Therefore, for NUP to retain the revolutionary energy it came with, it must relieve itself of the old guards who came riding on the wave.
The captains of the wave must find and recruit new members with the right energy and right ideological orientation to drive the party to its political shores. Otherwise, more time spent on friction reduces the energy of revolution seekers.
Further, according to the political temperature, the coming years for the revolutionaries in Uganda are not for the conformists. The political battles ahead will require more energy, greater solution and more royalty to the revolution than ever before.
This is another reason why the young energetic revolutionary party should reject the negative energy of the old politicians who do not have the energy nor the motivation to take on the tides of the times.
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The writer is a citizen of Uganda and development activist
