Former President of the FDC party, Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu has called on leaders from political parties, especially FDC to stop lamenting over individuals who defect, saying members have a right to decide which party to pledge allegience to.
Muntu made the appeal over the weekend while addressing a news conference in Mbarara town.
The founder of the ‘New Formation’ political group was reacting to statements made by Buhweju MP, Francis Mwijukye over a month ago, in which he termed the reported defectors from FDC to Muntu’s camp as non existent and “ghosts”.
Read More: Muntu’s List of Ankole Defectors Full of Ghost FDC Leaders – Mwijukye
In response, Muntu said that people should be given the liberty to choose which political groupings they desire to be aligned to.
“An organization like this one is like any other party. For that matter, people who join it should be people who are committed to a cause. Let nothing destruct us from the things we intend to do to salvage our country,” Muntu told journalists on Sunday.
“Members of any political party should be free to enter it or to leave. It is free choice and to me, I don’t think anybody should be destructed by those kinds of statements. Keep focused on critical things,” Muntu added.
Likewise, Muntu said he would not be bothered if members of New Formation crossed to another political entity. He said that membership to a political party has everything to do with commitment.
“If 3 or 4 members moved back, I don’t see any problem. Commitment is in the heart, so do things that are going to win of our people’s hearts and mind. We shouldn’t be allowed to be sucked into marginal issues,” he said.
The opposition politician and former army commander cautioned that FDC’s success in capturing power lines in its willingness to cooperate with other opposition groups.
He said that any defection from his camp to another political party in the opposition wouldn’t worry him since they all share the same ambition.
However, he warned those within the New Formation against getting sucked into the quarreling by FDC or even bringing the same issues into the new organization.
“I don’t think that we should be sucked into any more quarrels at least to those of us who have chosen to walk out. FDC issues should not be issues of the new organization because there are going to be more people who have never been in politics and others from other different parties willing to join”
“So the issues that have been going on in FDC can’t be imported in new organization” he said
Muntu believes to work with all opposition political players willing to cooperate.
“We should not be dragged into conflicts with any other organization because internal conflicts project a negative picture. It becomes very difficult to attract people, to attract resources because we want to expand” he said.
Looking ahead, Muntu said the future is bleak for Uganda if the crisis of dysfunctional or weak institutions is not addressed.
“We are supposed to put mechanisms in place on how to manage this transition. It is going to be a very delicate transition nobody knows what’s going to happen in this country. All the safe guards which were in the constitution were removed. There is a lot of uncertainty in the ruling party itself”.