Mwaami Ssemakula,love and hate they say are the two sides of the same coin.Love may actually be the head end of the coin and it is most often formed by our imaginations of what we either want or hope to see in the people/persons will purport to love.Hate on the other hand is the tail end of the coin that is conceived by hindsight and therefore tends to be stronger of the two emotions since it has that benefit of acting on the premise of betrayal.
That you have arrogated yourself the status of being the judge and at the sametime the jury regarding your discourse of what you think of Milton Obote is indeed very revealing.
We all know the feeling of betrayal that most Baganda and Ugandans at large may have had because of the events that eventually led to the deposing of Sir Fredrick Edward Muteesa 2,but please lets' keep those feelings where they rightly belong!.Showing how much you hate Milton Obote for the single handed role that you think he deserves for the malady and branding him a devil ,neither makes you Ssemakula an Angel nor a Saint.
Lets' leave history to judge that.The holy writ,judge not,and you will not be judged,or better still,the same yardstick you use for judging others will be used against you!.So lets first address the logs in our eyes that is obstructing our vision and making us form such opinions of others,before we try to remove the specks of dust in other peoples' eyes.
Is that asking and stating the impossible?
Just for your thought.
Thanks.
Kipenji.
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J Ssemakula <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
J Ssemakula <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
----Original Message Follows---- From: "YOSWA DAMBISYA" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: ugnet_: Part 111 BUGANDA CRISIS 1964 -- Phantom Arms ofthe 1960s Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 09:06:52 +0200 Omw Ssemakula, I did not mean to say/imply that you are naive in any way, it is your sophistication and grasp of issues Ugandans that is cause for the bemusement I referred to. I shall welcome your futher exposure of the villain that Obote is, using whatever sources you select; I am sure there is no shortage of uncharitable remarks about him. I am still perplexed that on Obote Ibingira is to you just a short step from sainthod! Yet you dodge the question of whether Obote's view of Ibingira's activities at the time would be equally authoritative. Unlike you, I am unable to characterise either of those two sons of Uganda or any of their actions as stupid, even less likely, "too stupid", not that I doubt you are eminently qualified to do so. I shall, therefore rely on your judgement. And should you, in your wisdom, decide that Obote is my hero, and that it's my role to defend him, I shall not disappoint you. I know you are aware of what you are asking me to do, so spill the beans! Best regards, Yoswa >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/16/03 10:09PM >>> Mr. Dambisya, Your bemusement is hardly at stake here. The Baganda have a saying that "Gwe wabbanga naye, bwakusula e manju tewebaka". Loosely translated: 'when your former co-thief visits with you, you do not sleep easily.' The late Grace Ibingira was not your regular UPC mindless/ignorant minion. Rather, as Secretary-General of the UPC, a Cabinet Minister, a trained attorney at law and legal adviser to the UPC, he was very much an insider who was privy to a great deal that really went on in the party -- not just what was dished out for the gullible public. As such, one can expect him to be an authoritative source of the UPC internal/private machinations, precisely because he fell out with Obote -- a factor the latter seems to have been too stupid to fathom the import of. It probably came as a rude surprise to Obote, that Ibingira had been "taking notes" all the time he was with him. Now, I am not so naive as to fail to realize that as a former victim of Obote, Ibingira might have an axe to grind. What Ibingira did was "to spill his guts", "to sing" about facts he had intimate knowledge of , having been such an important heavyhitter in the party. Calling Ibingira's changed loyalties from the UPC & Obote "bias" is not only laughable, it does zilch to undermine the facts he presented in the court public opinion. Further, it is accepted practice in courts of law for the prosecution to get accomplices to testify against each other. If you have anything to say about it in defence of your hero, you had best address the facts Ibingira presented -- more of which you can expect to see here. Ssemakula ps: Later, I'll get to what Mandela had to say of Obote in the pre-OAU days. Start preparing for the defence of your hero ... A minor correction, the Muganda man who educated Obote, Nekyon, etc in Lango after Obote's biological father died of leprosy was Nalwemanyidde of the Nseenene clan, not Nalwerimidde as I had posted earlier. It has been said, that he sort of semi-adopted them, but that is another story. ----Original Message Follows---- From: "YOSWA DAMBISYA" Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: , CC: Subject: ugnet_: Re: [FedsNet] Part 111 BUGANDA CRISIS 1964 -- PhantomArms of the 1960s Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 10:10:59 +0200 Ndugu Ssemakula, While I am enjoying these exchanges of yours regarding our not so distant political history, I am bemused by the fact that you would characterise as "authoritative" anything said by Grace Ibingira of Milton Obote and his times. Evidently, the two differed in very fundamental ways; one was imprisoned by the other; each felt betrayed by the other. Supposing Milton Obote were to write about Grace Ibingira (as I believe he did during some exchanges with a London Friend), would you accept his writings/sayings as authoritative on said subject? I've just got hold of Kanyeihamba's recent book, I intend to go through it when time allows. Pinycwa's foreword seems to prepare the reader for yet another biased account of Uganda's constitutional and political developments. Where, then, does one turn for unbiased, objective and authentic reading on Uganda? Best regards, YoswaMr. Dambisya:
Where and how have I considered, even remotely, that Ibingira is a just a short step away from sainthood?
Let me state what my position categorically (for the umpteenth time) with regard to Ibingira as you seem to be unable and/or unwilling to infer it from my earlier postings.
1. I reported what Ibingira said.
2. With regard to his credibility as a source of information about Obote's megalominiacal and insatiable hunger for power and the extents to which he is willing to go to achieve his personal goals, as well as the inner workings of the UPC, I stated that Ibingira was (a) a trained lawyer, (b) a former Secretary-General of the UPC, (c) a legal adviser to the UPC, and (d) a former cabinet minister in Obote's government.
If, in your opinion, this is tantamount to considering Ibingira to be just a shortstep away from sainthood, so be it!
Having said that, let me add that I did not make up that list. Ibingira himself did. I can, er, quote you "chapter and verse", where he did.
Finally, this is discussion is not about me or you. It is about the devil himself -- Obote: what he did, when he did it, why he did it, how he did it and what the consequencies have been (and/or will continue to be) for us, Ugandans. Let us never forget that.
Clear enough for you?
Ssemakula
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