For equilibrium, CORD must keep Jubilee regime breathless

By Ababu Namwamba

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The opposition of today is the government of tomorrow, the government of today the opposition of tomorrow! This is brutal political reality, whether in mature democracies like here in the UK from where I am filing this piece, or emergent ones like India and Ghana. As aptly acknowledged by Robert Green in his 48 Laws of Power, “…power is always in flux — since the game is by nature fluid, and an arena of struggle, those with power almost always find themselves eventually on the downward swing…”

And those waiting in the wings must always be ready to pounce, for that is what assures political equilibrium, guarantees democracy and ring-fences the public interest. The Jubilee administration is manifestly a creature of controversy. The riveting row over the presidential election results left lingering legitimacy doubts.

The ICC maelstrom has sucked all wind from the sails, hobbling virtually every segment of government. Unseemly spats with key global powers have threatened to literally cut Jubilee leaders loose and out of depth in the delicate sea of diplomatic relations.

Things have not been helped by the worrying trend of bungling, blundering and fumbling on three critical domestic issues: national security, devolution and civil liberties, which are facing a “digital” version of Nyayo-style repression.

That should be enough trouble, even without the undercurrent niggles that define every political union born of convenience rather than principle. Yes, Jubilee is a union of competing forces united primarily by the emotional umbilical cord of shared odium.

A union built on the cleverly deployed hoopla that the two Jubilee honchos are victims of “fixing” machinations by some evil political rival…a cynically spurn narrative that has been unraveling rather spectacularly lately.

But that is a story for another day. The story today is what Cord must do to protect public interest against Jubilee misdeeds, while exploiting the numerous chinks in enemy amour. I find laws 23 and 28 from Robert Green’s 48 Laws of Power a good illustration of the answer to this challenge. In law 23, Green teaches: “conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point. You gain more by finding a rich mine and mining it deeper than by flitting from one shallow mine to another - intensity defeats extensity every time.”

Green reminds us that among historical figures who intimately clasped this wisdom was celebrated French military genius, Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleon knew the value of concentrating your forces at the enemy’s weakest spot — it was the secret of his success on the battlefield. But his willpower and his mind were equally modeled on this notion. Single mindedness of purpose, total concentration on the goal, and the use of these qualities against people less focused, people in a state of distraction.

He concludes with the analogy of the arrow: “you cannot hit two targets with one arrow…” This resonates with Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658): “…prize intensity more than extensity. Perfection resides in quality not quantity. Extent alone never rises above mediocrity, and it is the misfortune of men with wide general interests that while they would like to have their finger in every pie, they have one in none…”

Jubilee oozes lots of rhetoric and flashy mirage, but is quite featherweight on substance. That is the Achilles heel, the soft underbelly. But rather than engage the ruling coalition on every fumble and bumble, Cord must focus where it really matters: national security, the besieged civil liberties, spiraling cost of living, devolution and the international credibility crisis.

In law 28 Green advises: “…If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity. Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid.”

Most of us are timid. We want to avoid tension and conflict, to be liked by all. We may contemplate a bold action but we rarely bring it to life. We are terrified of the consequences, of what others may think of us, of the hostility we will stir up if we dare go beyond our usual place. To effectively play its role, while preparing for its moment, Cord must boldly confront a number of issues. One is the challenge of integrating the past and the present to freshen and re-energise constituent parties.