Apology Letter to Uncle Atem Yaak Atem People were hurt especially our immediate families; 21 August 2011
30/08/2010 *The apology below was sent to Gurtong Trust on the date stated above but has been inadvertently delayed in posting and altogether forgotten until reminded today. Gurtong sincerely apologises to both Aten Yaak Atem and Isaiah Abraham for this delay. Please read on: In April this year, this author has posted a letter in response to another written letter by Ustaz Atem Yaak Atem. The two letters contents were about everything even vibes on personalities between the two writers. I believed some readers reading now here are familiar with the controversy surrounding the two letters. I should confess on the onset, as I did earlier in my first introduction of my response letter, that my own shouldn’t have been out that way. People were hurt especially our immediate families; this is not unusual in this field however. That is to say we are not unique from others, as some incidences end up ugly even to that of courts. For the past few months after that incident, we have had a rough moment of fighting subtly the urges of revenge and hate within us. But on Sunday the 29/08/2010, I took an initiative of calling the attention of one senior SPLM member who responsibly waste no time but convene a reconciliation meeting between us. We invited few friends and there we quickly buried the ‘arabs’. We thought it would be good if we put everything behind us and go to Referendum polling stations with our hearts free. Uncle Atem being a matured figure among our class of intelligentsia made that Sunday a good day to remember. I discovered that I was deadly wrong for violating key social ethic by responding to an elder. We don’t know each other before, except briefly in 1988 in one of the front line zones. But thereafter I have been mesmerized by his writing speeches he made for Dr. John Garang. So, the issue of contention then was that Uncle Atem was much concerned about consequences of putting a wedge between President Kiir and his Assistant; he thought they should be left alone to finish the noble cause of liberating our people. I got his point. In light of the above and as a matter of respect for my elders, I have withdrawn/corrected the followings statements: 1) I had earlier ranted that Uncle Atem questioned Garang about his transfer to the battle field. The story is that he didn’t question why he should be transferred to the battle field; the story was taken out of context, and apologized for that mistake. 2) Uncle Atem has always been humble and gentle; he has no intention of becoming even a minister otherwise he would have worked for it when GOSS was formed. That means Cde Atem has no intention of advising (writing to me that way) so to gain a favor for appointment from GOSS leadership. In short, I must here salute that senior SPLM member for allowing us to finish the job up; I love the way he concluded everything by inviting us together to Nimule Hotel for a sumptuous meal and drinks. I have to confess therefore that it wasn’t a nice encounter and hereby ask Uncle Atem to put the matter behind him, as he has demonstrated in that Sunday. We are humans and believed that it was my mistake! I’m sorry! Isaiah Abraham lives in Juba; he’s on [email protected] Posted in: Opinions -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
