Following the various reports in the media of violent arrest and rearrests of suspects connected to the gruesome day light of former AIGP Andrew Kaweesi, a number of online commentators took to their platforms and typical of them, accused the government of gross human rights abuses.
However, this was not the culmination of the typical mudslinging that young opposition commentators are known for today. The most outrageous comments came from those that took liberty to compare the infamous late Maliyamungu, (a former soldier in the Idi Amin Dada regime who was known to oversee a violent crackdown on regime dissidents in the 1970’s) to the current heads of security agencies in the country.
Unsurprisingly, most of these comments have come from the younger generation that did not live through those years of terrors and who know not a single person that fell victim during those times.
It is such characters that feel they can revise the history of this country and rewrite it according to their will.
These individuals forget that it is this government that fought so hard to oust those regimes and usher in the peace and especially the freedom of speech that we see being so vehemently abused by the very people that accuse the government of rights abuse.
In many democracies around the world, freedom and rights are not absolute. There exists a number of measures to ensure that those practicing their freedom do not infringe on the rights of the others. We seem to lack any such measures to prevent abuse especially of the freedom of speech.
For these newly found historians to insult those that lost their lives so violently during the dark days and also insult those that sacrificed so hard to get us to where we are now should be unacceptable.
Our society has come so far. By looking at veteran politicians, it is very clear that the younger guns are not appreciative of our journey and the distance we still have to go as a society to achieve our aspirations. We can not allow individuals and groups to undermine the stability and cohesion of our state and nation.
The older generation therefore has a big role to educate and properly mentor the younger politicians.
They can aspire for power without insulting those who have made the ultimate sacrifices for this nation. And indeed the country owes them one and so does it owe it to those that are still willing to sacrifice for the good of the collective.
