A Unique Beer Exclusively Savored by Dictators

The color of their beer called ‘Term’ is red!

Snoogie's World Signature Cartoons

(UGANDA) - A resourceful Ugandan friend who is adept at using computers emailed me a cartoon sometime back. The cartoon portrayed President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni getting tipsy from a new brand of beer called “Term.”

Because he enjoyed it so much, he kept on asking for more ‘Term’ after having already consumed more than enough as evidenced by the bottles which littered the ground underneath his feet.

Incidentally, this unique beer to which most of our rulers in the doomed Sub-Saharan Africa became addicted to, is shown as having a different color from the beer that we the denizens of Africa enjoy far and in between the grinding poverty.

Thus, the color of their beer called ‘Term’ is red...

Indeed, styling themselves as revolutionaries and liberators, most of these dictators unleashed bloodshed to rise to the pinnacle of power in the first place.

For instance, Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian despot initiated ruthless disinformation- including the planting of a document in the backyards of Mengistu Hailemariam’s power base about prominent individuals who refused to endorse his nationally divisive agenda by falsely showing them as members of his guerrilla force.

Consequently, he had them summarily executed by the military regime.

He fed more diabolical disinformation to his bloodthirsty predecessor which prompted him to order for the carpet bombing of a hamlet called Howzen on a day the villagers did their traditional open shopping.

As envisaged, this helped him to enlist support from the “grassroot” including mass voluntary recruitment of the peasants as cannon fodder that eventually ensconced him to the Menilik Palace.

According to a persistent allegation, Museveni too applied a similar ruthless method in what has come to be known as the Luwero triangle massacre. He impersonated Milton Obote’s soldiers and killed scores of civilians to discredit Obote’s side and thereby augment his own.

Notwithstanding France’s recent u-turn, there is also the case of Paul Kagame of Rwanda who had even been issued a warrant from a French court for downing his predecessor’s presidential jet that sparked the genocide.

For anyone interested to know more about this, I refer to my write-up wherein I cited compelling sources under the title “The Great Lakes & Horn of Africa leaders; different places, same tactics” published on www.ugandarecord.co.ug on September 9, 2010.

The bottom line; it’s sheer naiveté to expect that megalomaniac personalities such as these who came to power by spilling blood and walking on hundreds and hundreds of corpses would subject themselves to genuine multi-party election. Or abide by a presidential term limit and relinquish power voluntarily. On the rarest occasion they step down voluntarily; haven’t seen that one nor remember any despot in living memory who stepped down voluntarily; they first take elaborate care to find a replacement that they can control from the background like a marionette.

Daniel arap Moi- Kenya

Ali Abdullah Saleh- Yemen

At the worst, they cut deals like Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya or like the Yemeni despot, Ali Abdullah Saleh that protects them from answering to the crimes committed during their lootocracy and bloody tenure. In the same vein, Meles Zenawi at the moment seems to be sending mixed signals along with his counterpart in Rwanda.Otherwise; the general rule with these despots is to always ask “one more for the road” from their favorite beer called ‘Term.’

Sadly, this power mongering that is so common in the Sub-Saharan Africa is also being transmitted like a highly contagious disease even to the few countries with a diametrically opposite history of acquiring and transferring power peacefully.

As a result, Senegal on whom I showered praise in a piece titled “Graceful Exit” which I wrote to the Ethiopian Reporter on March 29, 2000 seems to be sliding backwards, thanks to that octogenarian, Mr. Abdoulaye Wade. He came to the presidency in 2000 when his predecessor Abdu Diof graciously conceded defeat by saying something like “What the people say shall prevail” thus reminding me of the immortal words of the 30th American president Calvin Coolidge.

Mr. Abdoulaye Wade - Wikipedia

He said “We draw our presidents from the people. It is a wholesome thing for them to return to the people. I came from them. I wish to be one of them again.”

To be fair to Wade who has been awarded a decision by the Constitutional Court as per the constitution which he claims to have authored single-handedly, the constitution seems to have a loophole that allows him to cling to power.

Presidential term limit, according to the reports I read so far, has been introduced in Senegal in 2008 after Wade got elected for the second time.

It doesn’t provide any remedy as to how to deal with the incumbent who has already served two terms in the event that he shows a desire to run for the third time.

Yet, given his elderly age that may also border on senility, not to mention his increasing unpopularity visible for all who care to see, the Constitutional court should have applied the doctrine of the contra proferentum rule among other things. It’s a principle to adjudicate over an ambiguous provision by interpreting the spirit of the law against the party responsible for drafting the clause in question.

Since Wade bragged that he wrote the constitution, it ought to have been interpreted against him. Unfortunately, like any junkie who stop at nothing to quench his addiction, dictators too who are addicted to ‘Term’ beer would always go to great lengths to manipulate and circumvent any rule and institution that gets in the way of their interest.

An Ethiopian Human Rights Defender exiled in Uganda.

The reason for this is clear. Ethiopia, despite being a seat of the African Union had never produced a regime that allows even the minimum space for dialogue that other people in Africa enjoy so naturally. So Kiflu's ending up as a refugee in Uganda is a blessing in disguise for it accorded him with the opportunity to write. He says at the same time he learned, unfortunately, that his refugee status would be what showed how deep the hypocrisy of the “international community” goes. We at Salem-News.com are honored to carry this gentleman's work and we hope that in the process, western people may come to appreciate the struggle of refugees throughout the world.

You can write to Kiflu at this address: E-mail;kiflukam@yahoo.com