The fact that the Museveni government has to keep on rigging elections indicates the magnitude of this national anger toward them.

Most Ugandans think the problem with their country today is the NRM government. However, history shows that Uganda's problems goes much further back in time.

1979. Moshi, Tanzania.

A few weeks before the fall of the Idi Amin government, several groups of Ugandan exiles met in the northern Tanzanian town of Moshi to forge a government of national unity to replace Amin, since at that time Amin's end seemed all but certain.

In the eyes of many, the eight years of Amin's rule had been one of the greatest catastrophes to befall Uganda in 100 years. Uganda, they felt, had sunk to the depths of depravity and horror.

The Uganda-Tanzania war was the most serious conflict Uganda had engaged in, in its history. In that climate, the expectations at Moshi were high, with everything at stake.

Looking back 31 years later at this "Moshi Unity Conference" (as it was dubbed) it is illuminating to realize that the entire conference --- attended by university professors, former civil servants, high ranking military officers, former diplomats, and others from among the educated class --- was dominated by who would succeed Amin, and what powers that individual would be entitled to.

It was also dominated by a wish by many to see to it that the former president Milton Obote never returned to power in any form.

There was no detailed discussion about economic reconstruction, weeding out incompetent civil servants, making Uganda Airlines profitable, improving the quality of the school curriculum, or reviving the recently defunct East African Community.

All the news reports and books at the time and in the years since then have shown these to be the only themes a Moshi.

1979. Kampala, Uganda

During the post-Amin period in 1979, news media reports were full of constant debate and speculation about President Yusufu Lule's position, what the interim parliament, the National Consultative Council thought, who was who and after Lule was abruptly dropped from office, the country spent a whole year debating and for many dreading the prospect that their worst fear was about to be confirmed: Godfrey Binaisa, Lule's successor, had been put on the "chair" to warm it until the return of Obote from exile.

The newspapers of 1979 barely say anything about pressing economic problems and others as listed about. No talk of the revival of the East African Community trade routes. No discussion about the cooperative societies. Nothing whatsoever about leveraging Uganda's geographical and climatic advantages in world trade.

It was politicking on radio, TV, and in the newspapers.

2010. Kampala, Uganda

Since the start of this year, Uganda has been abuzz with talk, elections, and anticipation of the 2011 general election.

The mainstream media constantly reports on the goings-on and the ins and outs within the political parties and the moves and statements by leading politicians, especially those in the running for their various parties' leadership.

There is much talk about the Inter-Party Cooperation (IPC) and what chances it has against President Yoweri Museveni. There is much discussion of whether or not the 2011 election will go into a second round.

Will DP's Norbert Mao or UPC's Olara Otunnu or Jimmy Akena split the northern vote and so, it is reasoned, spoil the chances of Museveni's main challenger, Col. Kiiza Besigye?

And on and on the discussion goes. As it was in Moshi in 1979 and in Kampala in 1979, there seems to be a national obsession with politics and politicking as ends in themselves.

Nobody, it seems, realises that there are certain things that are beyond Museveni, caught as he is and Uganda is in the grasp of international forces that he and the country are helpless to overcome.

For instance, what would a President Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, a Muslim, do if the anti-homosexuality bill were to be passed by parliament and he came under the sort of pressure that Museveni late last year came under from the western donor nations?

As a Muslim, Bidandi Ssali would instinctively resist the idea of legalising homosexuality. But what would he do if the West cut off economic aid became of the bill, now a law? Where would he find the money to keep Uganda, a donor-dependent country, going?

If Besigye were to become president, considering how much persecution his FDC party has endured since 2005, from arrests to police teargas, exile of many party activists, his own trumped up rape charges, what would he do by way of reward to the FDC officials and members who have stood by his side for five years now?

How would he appoint them to government jobs or reward them in any other way without him appearing like the corrupt Museveni he has just succeeded?

Within the NRM party, those passively stating that Museveni is their only candidate fail or refuse to answer major questions.

If Museveni goes on ruling Uganda until 2016 and then on to 2021, what happens to the many senior officials in the NRM? Were they destined to remain ministers and deputy prime ministers all their lives?

Can't Moses Kigongo step one position higher and become NRM chairman? Is that what he contributed to the NRM guerrilla war for, to remain vice chairman until retirement or death?

These and other matters are not being discussed.

The avoidance of any discussion on technical issues among Uganda's politicians remains a remarkable feature since independence. Norbert Mao is DP president, but in this day and age of digital information and for all his claim to being a youthful leader for tomorrow's Uganda, the DP does not have a website.

The NRM party had a website that quietly faded into extinction. A young man contracted to create and maintain Museveni's personal website is said to have given up the effort because he was not being paid.

Even over minor matters like a website, State House cannot pay.

In Dec. 2009, the Vision Voice radio station called up Aggrey Awori, the minister of Information Technology, to ask him about his reflections on the outgoing year.

Awori said the highlight of his year had been to be appointed a cabinet minister, after nearly 20 years in the opposition.

Awori is a brother to a Kenyan Vice President Moody Awori and was a room mate or at least classmate to Al Gore, the former U.S. Vice President.

As a vocal critic of the excesses and corruption within Museveni's government over the years, Awori was one of the most eloquent and effective. He was the Nandala Mafabi of the 1990s.

It speaks volumes of how small the ambitions of Uganda's politicians are that the high point of 2009 for a man with the connections and profile that Aggrey Awori has, the most memorable thing for him was to become a minister in the decadent government of Museveni.

The prime minister Apolo Nsibambi survives a helicopter accident? Big deal. The Daily Monitor now makes it a major story, with Nsibambi explaining "how he escaped the ordeal". The big man was involved in a near fatal mishap. Because he is a "big man", it has to be made major news.

If Nsibambi is such a big man, how come when he narrowly survives death, he is consigned to the broken down Mulago Hospital but the stricken Secretary for Defence, Brig. Noble Mayombo, is flown to Nairobi in 2007 or one of Museveni's daughters is flown to Germany in 2003 to deliver her baby?

Those questions are not asked.

That is the crisis that Uganda's political class faces and for which the country pays a high price.

END