Amin, Obote can return under the law
Jul 31, 2003
FOR two weeks now, various media commentators and ‘expert analysts’, have relished what is arguably the last rise of Uganda’s most genial but deceptive Idi Amin Dada who is critically ill in a Saudi Arabia hospital
Ofwono’s Option
By Ofwono Opondo
FOR two weeks now, various media commentators and ‘expert analysts’, have relished what is arguably the last rise of Uganda’s most genial but deceptive Idi Amin Dada who is critically ill in a Saudi Arabia hospital.
But while discussion on Amin may appear monotonous, it is one that is misunderstood, and even deliberately misrepresented especially by its beneficiaries
If not for any other reason, it is imperative that we constantly return to this subject while Amin is still living and if it were possible for him to argue his case.
Some of those who worked with or for Amin politically, like Prof Dan Nabudere, Abu Mayanja, Henry Kyemba and others have argued quite conveniently that they joined because they wanted to influence Amin “positively.â€
Those murdered earlier like Chief Justice Ben Kiwanuka could have claimed they supported because of hatred for Obote’s ethno-fascism.
However, trails of facts show that Uganda’s intellectuals and political elite have had a history of joining fascist juntas and political bandwagons for selfish ends. They joined and worked for Milton Obote I even when it became clear that Obote was pushing Uganda down a slippery road in the 60s.
Single-handled Obote introduced the army headed by Amin into post-independence politics for the first time. Using the military, Obote and his noisy Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) abrogated the Constitution, dismantled monarchies, nationalised the economy, declared Uganda a one-party (UPC) state, imprisoned the opposition and outlawed dissent. The reasons may vary but it seems that at the core is the fact that most political elites are either selfish, naïve or outright shallow.
It would appear that while some thought they could positively influence Amin, it was actually the later who used them to disguise his extreme brutality and thereby prolong his hold on Uganda and the world. It was the political elite and their surrogates, which benefited from Amin’s so-called Economic War, against Asians in 1972, which precipitated the ruin Uganda is still in today.
Unfortunately, many cannot connect the transition from Amin to the present, but are instead able and quick to try and compare President Yoweri Museveni's administration with that of both Amin and his mentor Obote!
While we need to read the book, we should not attempt to close the dark pages in the futile hope that history and posterity will absolve humanity, as UPC seem to argue.
And if Amin’s had been a one time mistake of buffoonery and brutality for elites just emerging from colonialism, the greed should not have been repeated under Yusufu Lule, Godfrey Binaisa, Paul Muwanga, and Milton Obote's second coming! Having experienced the brutality, arbitrariness, impunity and arrogance of Obote II, elites like Prof Timothy Wangusa, and the DP led by Paul Ssemogerere, Dr Henry Obonyo, and late Henry Kayondo had small logic being Gen Tito Okello Lutwa’s ministers.
Of course, there is a running argument as to why accept Amin’s former ministers like Gen Mustafa Adrisi and Moses Ali to serve the “enlightened,†NRM government.
The point is that the NRM has been here for 17 years and its failings even when at its worst are incomparable to those of Amin, Obote II or Okello.
Secondly, not everyone who served under Amin or Obote is a bad apple. Through political education, some have been told their mistakes or weaknesses unlike in the past when old crimes were conveniently ignored.
Indeed, the NRM has worked with late Okello Lutwa, Brig Wilson Toko, and continues to work with Adrisi, Ali Bamuze, Nasur Abdallah, Edward Rurangaranga (UPC), Evaristo Nyanzi (DP) and others, under a clear process of the law.
Some people like Lutwa, Nyanzi, and Bamuze took advantage of the various amnesty laws or subjected themselves through the judicial process to get justice. Adrisi was actually dragged to the Commission of Inquiry into Violations of Human Rights chaired by Justice Arthur Oder where he (Adrisi) pleaded innocence and what he knew as the vice-president then.
Nasur was tried and even convicted for murder in an open court of law and appealed up to the Supreme Court, which confirmed his guilt but was freed under the President’s prerogative of mercy.
All these are legal, legitimate and available avenues to resolve national problems and anybody, including Amin, if he so wished even at this late hour of his life can benefit from.
No one, even President Museveni can decree that Amin cannot come back to Uganda. Only Parliament can. But if Amin or Milton Obote want to come back especially alive, they should be ready and willing to go through one or all of the above due processes of the law.
By Ofwono Opondo
FOR two weeks now, various media commentators and ‘expert analysts’, have relished what is arguably the last rise of Uganda’s most genial but deceptive Idi Amin Dada who is critically ill in a Saudi Arabia hospital.
But while discussion on Amin may appear monotonous, it is one that is misunderstood, and even deliberately misrepresented especially by its beneficiaries
If not for any other reason, it is imperative that we constantly return to this subject while Amin is still living and if it were possible for him to argue his case.
Some of those who worked with or for Amin politically, like Prof Dan Nabudere, Abu Mayanja, Henry Kyemba and others have argued quite conveniently that they joined because they wanted to influence Amin “positively.â€
Those murdered earlier like Chief Justice Ben Kiwanuka could have claimed they supported because of hatred for Obote’s ethno-fascism.
However, trails of facts show that Uganda’s intellectuals and political elite have had a history of joining fascist juntas and political bandwagons for selfish ends. They joined and worked for Milton Obote I even when it became clear that Obote was pushing Uganda down a slippery road in the 60s.
Single-handled Obote introduced the army headed by Amin into post-independence politics for the first time. Using the military, Obote and his noisy Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) abrogated the Constitution, dismantled monarchies, nationalised the economy, declared Uganda a one-party (UPC) state, imprisoned the opposition and outlawed dissent. The reasons may vary but it seems that at the core is the fact that most political elites are either selfish, naïve or outright shallow.
It would appear that while some thought they could positively influence Amin, it was actually the later who used them to disguise his extreme brutality and thereby prolong his hold on Uganda and the world. It was the political elite and their surrogates, which benefited from Amin’s so-called Economic War, against Asians in 1972, which precipitated the ruin Uganda is still in today.
Unfortunately, many cannot connect the transition from Amin to the present, but are instead able and quick to try and compare President Yoweri Museveni's administration with that of both Amin and his mentor Obote!
While we need to read the book, we should not attempt to close the dark pages in the futile hope that history and posterity will absolve humanity, as UPC seem to argue.
And if Amin’s had been a one time mistake of buffoonery and brutality for elites just emerging from colonialism, the greed should not have been repeated under Yusufu Lule, Godfrey Binaisa, Paul Muwanga, and Milton Obote's second coming! Having experienced the brutality, arbitrariness, impunity and arrogance of Obote II, elites like Prof Timothy Wangusa, and the DP led by Paul Ssemogerere, Dr Henry Obonyo, and late Henry Kayondo had small logic being Gen Tito Okello Lutwa’s ministers.
Of course, there is a running argument as to why accept Amin’s former ministers like Gen Mustafa Adrisi and Moses Ali to serve the “enlightened,†NRM government.
The point is that the NRM has been here for 17 years and its failings even when at its worst are incomparable to those of Amin, Obote II or Okello.
Secondly, not everyone who served under Amin or Obote is a bad apple. Through political education, some have been told their mistakes or weaknesses unlike in the past when old crimes were conveniently ignored.
Indeed, the NRM has worked with late Okello Lutwa, Brig Wilson Toko, and continues to work with Adrisi, Ali Bamuze, Nasur Abdallah, Edward Rurangaranga (UPC), Evaristo Nyanzi (DP) and others, under a clear process of the law.
Some people like Lutwa, Nyanzi, and Bamuze took advantage of the various amnesty laws or subjected themselves through the judicial process to get justice. Adrisi was actually dragged to the Commission of Inquiry into Violations of Human Rights chaired by Justice Arthur Oder where he (Adrisi) pleaded innocence and what he knew as the vice-president then.
Nasur was tried and even convicted for murder in an open court of law and appealed up to the Supreme Court, which confirmed his guilt but was freed under the President’s prerogative of mercy.
All these are legal, legitimate and available avenues to resolve national problems and anybody, including Amin, if he so wished even at this late hour of his life can benefit from.
No one, even President Museveni can decree that Amin cannot come back to Uganda. Only Parliament can. But if Amin or Milton Obote want to come back especially alive, they should be ready and willing to go through one or all of the above due processes of the law.