President Yoweri Museveni has criticized attempts by Western powers to impose their beliefs on people in foreign territories.

The President made the remarks on Thursday while addressing over 33 delegates attending the Commonwealth Speakers and Presiding Officers Conference – CSPOC 2024 at the Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala.

“Stop manipulation and lectures to the societies that are different from yours,” Museveni told the delegates at the Conference citing the deadly ongoing crisis in the Middle East following the October 7th, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas which culminated in the Gaza Strip armed violence.

According to Museveni, the crisis could be traced back to Roman Imperialism when they dispersed the Jews. “Up to now, we are dealing with the mistakes created by the Romans. What were they doing in the Middle East?” Museveni questioned.

Describing colonialism as “a waste of time”, Museveni pointed out that a lot can still be salvaged instead of the chauvinism of many actors. “The greed is a miscalculation; this is why empires collapse; all of them, without exception because they are essentially evil,” he said.

Adding that, “A whole century was wasted on account of promoting parasitism instead of symbiosis; stop manipulation and lectures to societies that are different from you; if you think you are right, influence people by your example,” he said.

Museveni who has been defiant to Western influence further reasoned that there was no need to exploit the 2.4 billion population of the sovereign states of the Commonwealth nations to “expunge chauvinistic ideas.”

“Let us utilize the progress of man in the struggle against the oppression of man by nature rather than using that progress in science and technology for parasitism,” Museveni observed and challenged world superpowers to value the sovereignty of other states.

The President praised the Commonwealth fraternity as a positive practice that veterans of the resistance against colonialism salvaged, which he said should be employed to widen prosperity among member states.

In May 2023, Museveni signed the anti-LGBTQ laws, that also call for the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”, drawing Western condemnation and risking sanctions from aid donors.

The 27th CSPOC will run until 6th January 2024. The Conference is being held under the theme, “To foster and encourage fairness on the part of speakers and presiding officers of the Commonwealth”. The delegates among other things will discuss climate change, youth and gender sensitivity, security measures for parliamentarians and parliaments, health and wellbeing support in parliaments, and building consensus for parliamentary business.

Established in 1969, the CSPOC operates on a bi-annual basis, where Speakers and Presiding Officers of the national parliaments of the independent sovereign states of the Commonwealth converge to understand the various forms of parliamentary diplomacy.