New Vision (Kampala)August 23, 2003
Posted to the web August 25, 2003 Kampala CECILIA OGWAL has joined a clutch of other Lango politicians in mobilising local resistance against Lord's Resistance Army rebels.Marauding LRA have in recent weeks spilt into Teso and Lango from Acholi, where they have come under a lot of pressure from the army.
Civic leaders and politicians in Teso have joined the army in mobilising local support against the rebels, with large measures of success.This internally generated resistance is a new dimension to the conflict, and it could, in the final analysis, be the catalyst that will end the Kony menace.
While the army, its many weaknesses notwithstanding, and the church, have been at the forefront of fighting the rebels, local politicians have come across more as armchair critics than vigilant resisters.
Ogwal has done well to put away her ideological differences with the government, in the national interest.Politicians, needless to say, command a following, so it is vital that they lead and are seen to be leading local resistance.
The ball is now in the court of politicians from all other affected sub-regions to use their leadership positions with other civic authorities, the government, the army and the ordinary people. Together, we shall defeat Kony.
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state."
- Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda minister
