How quickly Ugandans forget their history!
Apr 12, 2007
WEDNESDAY this week was the 28th anniversary since Idi Amin (good riddance) was booted out of state power by a combined force of Ugandan exiles and Tanzania Peoples Defence Forces (TPDF).
Ofwono Opondo
WEDNESDAY this week was the 28th anniversary since Idi Amin (good riddance) was booted out of state power by a combined force of Ugandan exiles and Tanzania Peoples Defence Forces (TPDF).
Unfortunately, although many of the present leaders, including President Yoweri Museveni played prominent roles in that struggle, they have found it un-necessary to celebrate!
At that time, Ugandans were nearly in the same situation as Somalia today unable to stand on their own and confront Amin hence relying on the Tanzanians and President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere in particular. The UN, Non-Aligned Movement, and OAU had forsaken us to Amin because they could not “interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign member stateâ€!
It is therefore surprising how forgetful Ugandans can be listening to them criticise Uganda’s present effort to assist the Somali people.
Ugandans who stepped forward deserve recognition although some later made mistakes, and Uganda needs that day as a remembrance to evaluate ourselves.
Museveni led the Front for National Salvation (Fronasa) a political and armed revolutionary group of mainly then fairly young and well-educated Ugandans, which comprised survivors like Eriya Kategaya, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, Kahinda Otafiire, Amama Mbabazi, James Magode Ikuya, Zubairi Bakali, Caleb Akandwanaho (Salim Saleh), and Ivan Koreta, among others.
The main political group, UPC led by Milton Obote and its military wing Kikosi Malum seized power for itself through a series of palace coups against Yusufu Lule, Godfrey Binaisa, the National Consultative Council and elections of December 10, 1980. Today UPC is militarily, ethically, politically and organisationally vanquished and a shadow of its former vibrant self, courtesy of self-inflicted wounds. Another group of armchair and self-confessed leftwing-Marxist revolutionaries or more appropriately called at the time as “The Gang of Four†led by university scholars Prof. Edward Rugumayo, Dani Nabudere, Yash Tandon, and Omwony Ojwok fell victim of their own political schemes, failed to hold the political centre, and had to flee again into exile until the NRM captured power.
This group had coined its mismatch name from the Gang of Four in China that emerged after the death of Chairman Mao Zedong on September 10, 1976 to control or end the Cultural Revolution there. The Democratic Party (DP) led by another ‘Dr’ Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere could only play second or third fiddle in the then lethal power politics, and pawns could not prevent the country from sliding back into fascism under its close watch. And yet the DP also had good people, among them Prof. Ponsiano Mulema, Yoweri Kyasimira, Sam Sebagereka, and Lutakome Kayira, Paulo Wangola, John Kawanga, Tarsis Kabwegyere, and Francis Bwengye. Its northern wing was silenced by the brutal UPC political-cum-military fanatics and hoodlums.
And we could all learn about their contributions even if for short-lived self-interests of people like Ateker Ejalu and Akena P’Ojok.
The refusal to recognise April 11, 1979 has made a rich turning point in Uganda’s political history, especially for the young generation that did not experience firsthand the fascism under ‘His Excellency’ Field Marshal Alhaji Dr Idi Amin Dada, Life President of Uganda and Commander-in-Chief of the Uganda Armed Forces, Chancellor of Makerere University, VC, DSO, MC, CBE, to be forgotten. Being a ‘member’ of the Victoria Cross, Distinguished Service Order, Military Cross, and Conqueror of British Empire, Amin was supported to by Britain, and was never suspended from the Commonwealth although they talk so much about “democracy and good governanceâ€.
Those of us who were in primary and just joining secondary schools under the dire consequences of Amin’s misrule, social and economic collapse up to the deepest village but fled in thread-bare clothes have no chance to recollect how much Uganda has travelled a tiny dusty path to recovery.
Ugandans of my generation who washed clothes with pawpaw leaves for soap, or squeezed sugarcane to boil tea need something to celebrate about although the years of UPC II turned into more hell.
And while many people are still facing extreme hardships in northern Uganda, April 11 surely gives us something more concrete to reflect about national tragedies and why goons should never move anywhere near state power.
Equally, there is no opportunity to remind those who led Uganda into Amin’s hands by omission, commission, recklessness or actively helped him to galvanise his hold on to power for that long to account while still living, some, in the closet of state power.
In fact, if Uganda was constantly evaluating the immediate post-Idi Amin UNLF administrations we would have been in a better position to know and appreciate why it was necessary and inevitable to have the second round of armed liberation by the NRA/M although its mission is currently being hijacked or undermined.
Indeed many Ugandans would not be taking the positive changes during the last 21 years for granted to the level that even some NRM turncoats dare compare to Amin or UPC II. And those who presently claim that Uganda is in a “crisis†would appreciate that actually we have recovered from a series of deep crises.
WEDNESDAY this week was the 28th anniversary since Idi Amin (good riddance) was booted out of state power by a combined force of Ugandan exiles and Tanzania Peoples Defence Forces (TPDF).
Unfortunately, although many of the present leaders, including President Yoweri Museveni played prominent roles in that struggle, they have found it un-necessary to celebrate!
At that time, Ugandans were nearly in the same situation as Somalia today unable to stand on their own and confront Amin hence relying on the Tanzanians and President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere in particular. The UN, Non-Aligned Movement, and OAU had forsaken us to Amin because they could not “interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign member stateâ€!
It is therefore surprising how forgetful Ugandans can be listening to them criticise Uganda’s present effort to assist the Somali people.
Ugandans who stepped forward deserve recognition although some later made mistakes, and Uganda needs that day as a remembrance to evaluate ourselves.
Museveni led the Front for National Salvation (Fronasa) a political and armed revolutionary group of mainly then fairly young and well-educated Ugandans, which comprised survivors like Eriya Kategaya, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, Kahinda Otafiire, Amama Mbabazi, James Magode Ikuya, Zubairi Bakali, Caleb Akandwanaho (Salim Saleh), and Ivan Koreta, among others.
The main political group, UPC led by Milton Obote and its military wing Kikosi Malum seized power for itself through a series of palace coups against Yusufu Lule, Godfrey Binaisa, the National Consultative Council and elections of December 10, 1980. Today UPC is militarily, ethically, politically and organisationally vanquished and a shadow of its former vibrant self, courtesy of self-inflicted wounds. Another group of armchair and self-confessed leftwing-Marxist revolutionaries or more appropriately called at the time as “The Gang of Four†led by university scholars Prof. Edward Rugumayo, Dani Nabudere, Yash Tandon, and Omwony Ojwok fell victim of their own political schemes, failed to hold the political centre, and had to flee again into exile until the NRM captured power.
This group had coined its mismatch name from the Gang of Four in China that emerged after the death of Chairman Mao Zedong on September 10, 1976 to control or end the Cultural Revolution there. The Democratic Party (DP) led by another ‘Dr’ Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere could only play second or third fiddle in the then lethal power politics, and pawns could not prevent the country from sliding back into fascism under its close watch. And yet the DP also had good people, among them Prof. Ponsiano Mulema, Yoweri Kyasimira, Sam Sebagereka, and Lutakome Kayira, Paulo Wangola, John Kawanga, Tarsis Kabwegyere, and Francis Bwengye. Its northern wing was silenced by the brutal UPC political-cum-military fanatics and hoodlums.
And we could all learn about their contributions even if for short-lived self-interests of people like Ateker Ejalu and Akena P’Ojok.
The refusal to recognise April 11, 1979 has made a rich turning point in Uganda’s political history, especially for the young generation that did not experience firsthand the fascism under ‘His Excellency’ Field Marshal Alhaji Dr Idi Amin Dada, Life President of Uganda and Commander-in-Chief of the Uganda Armed Forces, Chancellor of Makerere University, VC, DSO, MC, CBE, to be forgotten. Being a ‘member’ of the Victoria Cross, Distinguished Service Order, Military Cross, and Conqueror of British Empire, Amin was supported to by Britain, and was never suspended from the Commonwealth although they talk so much about “democracy and good governanceâ€.
Those of us who were in primary and just joining secondary schools under the dire consequences of Amin’s misrule, social and economic collapse up to the deepest village but fled in thread-bare clothes have no chance to recollect how much Uganda has travelled a tiny dusty path to recovery.
Ugandans of my generation who washed clothes with pawpaw leaves for soap, or squeezed sugarcane to boil tea need something to celebrate about although the years of UPC II turned into more hell.
And while many people are still facing extreme hardships in northern Uganda, April 11 surely gives us something more concrete to reflect about national tragedies and why goons should never move anywhere near state power.
Equally, there is no opportunity to remind those who led Uganda into Amin’s hands by omission, commission, recklessness or actively helped him to galvanise his hold on to power for that long to account while still living, some, in the closet of state power.
In fact, if Uganda was constantly evaluating the immediate post-Idi Amin UNLF administrations we would have been in a better position to know and appreciate why it was necessary and inevitable to have the second round of armed liberation by the NRA/M although its mission is currently being hijacked or undermined.
Indeed many Ugandans would not be taking the positive changes during the last 21 years for granted to the level that even some NRM turncoats dare compare to Amin or UPC II. And those who presently claim that Uganda is in a “crisis†would appreciate that actually we have recovered from a series of deep crises.