Parliament now hangs portraits of ex-presidents (monitor)Ramya, a consultant from Chennai

President Museveni might have called them swine, but Parliament yesterday inducted Uganda’s former leaders into its roll of honour.

Sources said Speaker Rebecca Kadaga instructed House officials to pin up portraits of all former and present leaders in one place at Parliament in recognition of their contribution to the country.

Oil Portrait Painting

“We are trying to update our history and archives as a democratic institution,” Parliament’s spokesperson Helen Kawesa said: “Through the outreach programme we are going to use this as an education tool for the children and other visitors. There is no politics in this matter. What we have done is what goes on in other Parliaments. We must preserve our history.”

For the first time in 26 years of President Museveni’s uninterrupted rule, the portraits of the former presidents- all of them dead - were hang up in Parliament. MPs across the political divide acknowledged this as “a step in the right direction” in a country where public offices only carry Mr Museveni’s portrait.

Portrait Oil Painting

“As a country we need to be tolerant,” Mr Patrick Nsanja (Ntenjeru South), said: “We have done it in Parliament, this should also be replicated in all public offices. I saw it at the Monitor Publications office in Namuwongo and I thought it was a sign of mature politics. These people might have made mistakes but we must also appreciate the fact that they contributed to the development of our country.”

Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Nandala Mafabi said various visible landmarks were left behind by former presidents Idi Amin and Dr Apollo Milton Obote.

Between the two leaders, Mr Mafabi said, most of Uganda’s public schools, hotels, banking infrastructure, cooperative unions, referral hospitals, Jinja industries were either built or acquired.

“The idea is wonderful,” Mr Mafabi said. “Leaders who have made the contribution to the country’s development must be recognised. It does not matter whether they are from the opposition of otherwise.”

Mr Museveni has routinely blamed all Uganda’s problems on past leaders, on some occasions deriding them as idiots, murderers, senseless, cowards, corrupt and power-hungry. Despite claiming that he fought to liberate the country from their misdeeds, the President today finds his administration assailed by the very misdeeds he has accused his predecessors of formenting.

Last year he used the national independence anniversary celebrations to honour Dr Milton Obote, who as Uganda’s first prime minister. Deputy ruling party spokesperson Ofwono Opondo welcomed the development.

“It is not illegal to hang them (the pictures) around Parliament. It is part of our record and history. And besides, I have them in my houses here and in the village where I come from,” Mr Opondo said.

Uganda Peoples Congress party stalwart Peter Walubiri said displaying the portraits meant the NRM cannot run away from history.

“What they have done means you cannot bury history. By the way what Museveni is doing and his NRM means nothing to the people as long as they don’t revamp the economy, fight poverty and corruption. Museveni cannot use the portraits to gain support as long as the people are poor,” he said.

Mr Jaffar Amin, one of the sons of dictator Idi Amin Dada, said it was about time. “For his contribution and not the controversies, this should have happened long time ago,” Mr Jaffar told Daily Monitor.