The morning after Kitante celebrated its 40 years anniversary, OBs and OGs who visited my Face Book profile were greeted by pictures and video snippets from the fun-filled day. I had downloaded them from an e-mail sent by a person who attended with a camera and a cell phone. People who had attended the event in Uganda wondered how I had accessed the pictures and videos so fast.
 
But today I am not writing about Kitante. The episode simply reinforced my commitment to advocate more appropriate use of technology in the opposition’s strategy for 2011 elections. One of the most frustrating things about following the election from afar was watching helplessly in 2006 as world opinion about Uganda’s election results was being shaped by a well orchestrated public relations campaign led by a Reuters reporter.
 
The gist of the reporting was to prepare the world to accept the
inevitability of a Museveni win. The same reporter tried his vein of reporting in the violent Kenyan elections, announcing a little too early that Kibaki had won the elections. This was quickly overtaken by events as Kenyans rioted against election thieves. The reason that election fraud in Kenya got international attention besides the violence itself was because it unfolded with the world watching closely.
 
The pictures of women, children and young able-bodied men lying dead in pools of blood in Kibera, Kisumu and other places were too damning a verdict for the world to ignore. The sight of piles of bodies when Raila Odinga visited the city mortuary was branded on many people’s minds.
These images weighed heavily on the minds of all peace loving people and the efforts of our Reuters reporter to canvass acceptance of Kibaki’s return were not as effective as they had been in Uganda.
 
Now, as we develop strategies for 2011 we need to carefully consider the tactics we shall employ to cause change. The website for New Tactics in Human Rights explains: ‘Strategy defines what is important to do; tactics embody how to do it. The relationship between “the what” and “the how” is an important one in understanding — and demystifying — the concepts of strategy and tactics. Tactics — which may be activities, systems, techniques or even institutions — are one of the key building blocks of strategy…Building successful strategies also relies on tactical flexibility and access to a broad range of tactics.

People, organisations and movements that rely too much on a narrow range of tactics may end up using them in the wrong circumstances or miss opportunities to use other, more appropriate tactics. They may not be able to attract as broad a range of supporters as they would using more diverse tactics. Also, repeatedly using the same tactics allows the targeted adversaries or systems to adapt and change, rendering the tactics themselves less effective.
’
The amount of funding that we dedicate to certain items on the campaign budget need to change in order to embrace the new role of information technology in managing campaign communications. A simple example would be to carefully consider whether it is worthwhile to print inordinate numbers of T-shirts, baseball caps, posters, buttons and other campaign memorabilia instead of purchasing more video cameras or simple cell phones with cameras. Do we need pages of press advertising at exorbitant prices or would we rather obtain reliable Internet access that will transmit images in real time for live publishing and streaming on the World Wide Web?

The reason that the state allows international observers to monitor elections is because it desperately needs international legitimacy nearly as much as it needs its next mandate from the people. Winning an election that is not on the most part internationally recognised as free and fair would be a hollow victory.

We therefore cannot afford to be completely insular and fail to appreciate the power of international public opinion on our electoral process. The tens of millions of members and viewers on Face Book and You Tube can and do swing international opinion. They are so many and scattered therefore cannot be biased as say one reporter working for a news agency. Their opinions are shaped through direct observation of clips posted from cell phones and cameras of ordinary folks directly, uncut and without the interruption of a political commentator or a talking head (news caster).

If for example we had posted the arrest of Kizza Besigye or the slaughter of opposition supporters by Ramathan Magara in Mengo on You Tube as they happened during the last campaigns, we would have achieved a sense of urgency and tapped into a completely unbiased base of international support that could swing international opinion in a different way from say, a Reuters reporter.
 
Having participated directly in the 2001 elections and remotely in 2006, I can say without fear of contradiction that our message is unlikely to change drastically in 2011 considering that we are still tackling the same political, economic and social evils.
Perhaps it is time for us to focus on changing our communication tactics.

The author is Deputy
Secretary, International
and Regional Affairs, FDC.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
www.fdcuganda.org

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