Ndugu Ssemakula, You are obviously a man on a mission! You are determined to use every opportunity to glorify Ibingira's role in Ugandan Affairs and demonise Obote's contributions, even if it involves bending the truth. Of course that is entirely your choice. However, it is high time you took stock of you efforts; as my people say it is not a sign of weakness for one to look back and see how much one has dug -my people are peasants in the main so digging is a major issue for them. So I urge you to look back and see how much ground you've covered since you opened this front.
And as you do that may I urge you not to be over-zealous lest you colour the truth ever so slightly in an attempt to paint as bad a picture of the object of your disapproval. You know careless attention to detail could serve to undermine your mission. For instance,of Ibingira you say/quote/cite: >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/15/03 09:41PM >>> ........... Ibingira organized a movement within UPC & outside it to put restraint on Obote's ambitions. He was arrested for it, among other things, on 22 February 1966 by Obote while in the middle of a cabinet meeting considering the terms of reference for s commission of inquiry to censure Obote for looting gold, coffee & ivory from Zaire and for making secret preparations to abrogate the Constitution of Uganda.>>>>> Which is partly true to the extent that Ibingira organised an anti-Obote movement within the UPC and that he was arrested during a cabinet meeting. Was that meeting considering terms of reference for a commission of inquiry to censure Obote? Did Ibingira believe that Obote had looted gold, coffee, etc? Did Zaire exist during that debate? What did Ibingira say during the Ocheng Motion? This is part of what the Hansard has on record: ".....I would say that while accepting this motion as it stands, an allegation has been made by the Hon the Mover, which I think is of serious magnitude, that is the allegation, not about gold,etc - we have heard those and are tired of them - but of some deliberate design to oust a constitutional government or the overthrow of the constitution and I do not know what view to take on this." On Ibingira's contribution to the debate, Prof Akiiki Mujaju comments: "It is noteworthy that Ibingira is dismissing the gold allegatioons levelled by Daudi Ocheng at, among others, the Prime Minister, and that he was more concerned at the alleged plot to overthrow the constitution." The motion that Ibingira and his clique in cabinet got UPC to accept was: " That this House do urge Government to suspend from duty Col Idi amin of the Uganda Army forthwith pending conclusion of police investigations into the allegations regarding his bank account which should then be passed on to the appropriate authority whose final decision on the matter shall be made public." The debate and interpretation of the vote on that motion have been given the most confusing analysis over the last 30-something years. Prof Akiiki Mujaju did an excellent job of putting issues in perspective. If you can, get your hands on his paper: AB Mujaju. The Gold Allegations Motion and Political Development in Uganda. African Affairs 86 (345): 479-504; October 1987. Therein you will find many sobering statements about the common misconceptions surrounding that singular episode in Uganda's political history, all of which are ably refuted. Some of the unsupported claims that have made it to folklore: 1. That "....the govt was defeated on a motion calling for a commission of inquiry into an alleged misappropriation in which Obote was implicated" attributed to BO Nwabueze, who the author describes as "a distinguished constitutional lawayer". The motion never was about Obote, notwithstanding what some members may have said in the course of the debate. No amendment was made to include Obote or any other person in the motion. Secondly, Ibingira and his colleagues got UPC to reverse an earlier UPC Parliamentary group decision to reject the Ocheng motion, consequently, all the UPC MPs present that day, except for John Kakonge voted for the motion. Govt could therefore not lose a motion which the govt side, at the instigation of the cabinet, voted for. 2. That Obote was isolated by the all-against-one vote on the Ocheng motion. Analysis of the contributions from most of the members,including Ocheng himself in summarising the debate, suggest that what the majority wanted was for a inquiry that would clear the PM of any wrong doing. Obwangor, Leader of Govt Business said: "We, as a Government,despite the serious allegations or statements made by the Hon Mover, wish to submit this matter to an inquiry to establsih the truth, if any............. Now that does not mean that government accepts these allegations............. Now let us not, therefore, be misunderstood that because the Government has accepted this motion,ipso facto there is corruption.....................far from it". 3. It was the whole cabinet that reversed the earlier decision to reject the Ocheng motion. Mujaju says: "It is clear that the cabinet that met on 4 February 1966 and decided to accept the motion was dominated by the Ibingira faction. Half of the Cabinet was absent, and the three members accused by Ocheng were not at the meeting..................... It should also be mentioned that the meeting of the Cabinet was timed in such a way that there would not be enough time to get in touch with the Prime Minister, still less enable him to come for the debate........... Most important of all, UPC MPs only learnt of the acceptance of the motion by government during the debate itself.................The whole idea was to put Obote's supporters in profound confusion." I find the following assessment of Mujaju's quite instructive: "It seems to me that what exists in the literature on this subject shows the extent to which popular opinion can guide scholarship rather than scholarship guiding popular opinion." Once again, if you can, get Mujaju's paper in African Affairs 86 (345): 479-504; October 1987. Best regards, Yoswa. -------------------------------------------- This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
