Mr. Mpanga,
My name is Odrek Rwabwogo. I am a farmer and an Entrepreneur and I have a deep interest in the history of our country and that of Africa. I am also interested in the overall direction of our economy and politics. I read your piece about Gen Ali sent to me by Mr. Dennis Katungi of the Uganda Media centre. I am deeply sorry about the manner in which your father died and at that young age. I just wanted to use your article to encourage you and many people in our generation to tell these stories and more for I believe that in speaking out, there can only be healing, growth and a match forward for all of us as a nation. Just to supplement your article, about 15 years ago, I was told at an evening tea, by one of the senior leaders in the Movement today that he had approached Gen Ali, then as minister for finance in 1975 for permission to purchase a car. The only way one bought a car then was to get their right of purchase approved and certified by government.
Government chose who bought or had no right to own a car. Cars were rationed too. This man had waited in the office of the minister for several hours when, suddenly, a giant of a man strode in wearing a pair of khaki shorts and a matching short sleeved shirt with a baton tucked under his armpit as if on a parade. He was the minister for finance, this fellow was told. The minister didn't wait to get into his office. He touched his office door handle as if to open but suddenly turned around to see his guests. He seemed to want to solve the business of the day right there in the waiting room, the fellow told me, as there were many people waiting for approval of import permits for sugar, cement, tea, cars etc. Asking each person what they wanted, the minister finally got round to face this person, now a leader in the Movement, and asked why a "young man of your age wanted to buy a car". In a barking voice, he summarily ordered the young man out of the room without listening to the answer the fellow was attempting to give. The fellow went out running and rejoicing saying: "Omusajja anyambye at least nangoba; abadde asobola n'okunsiba". Fast forward, Ali was brought along with with his ex-rebel leaders of UNRA to this leader in 1989 to be welcomed into the Movement. This leader after exchange of pleasantries and a brief introduction of what the Movement stood for, reminded Ali of that 1975 moment. Ali had no recollection of this incident, perhaps because he didn't want to remember the past or probably had chased one too many people to remember this very one. To get the best of the moment, this leader used the occasion to assure Ali and his fighters that in the Movement, there won't be any retributive actions against those who had opposed it. I told this story a number of times when I was running for office in the NRM and it delighted many older people to know the Movement could forgive and forget the past. But reading your article, I thought perhaps we need a public apology from many of our leaders in order to end the past and face the future in peace.
I have also heard about the late Abu MAYANJA and Mzee Etyang, who both served in the Amin government and later became ministers of information and broadcasting; how they tried hard to remove the footage in the archives of UBC where they appeared with Amin or in cabinet sessions with other Amin ministers. I have no evidence of this and I really hope it isn't true for there would be no reason to do such a thing because the collective memory of the people of Uganda is a much deeper repository of wrong or right about their leaders than simply the removal of a piece of footage.
To end this message, let me just say that the fact we still have MOSES Ali in government 41 years later, is a sign of how much the past of our country still holds down her future and how so slow we have made progress in building a new qualitative layer of politics to transit us to the new world. It is a stain on our collective conscience and I hope we will deal with it sometime.
Ali and many of his generational colleagues I have met across the broad spectrum of our politics spit fire, brimstone and threaten the use of their home/religion or ethnic base to undo the little progress made in the country, if they are removed from service. This is small but what is even more worrying for me is the attempt to erase the past instead of explaining it and living with it so that the young generation can learn from the older group what to do or not do, to build the country. After all, we have seen worse in Africa to worry about an inflection in the record of one leader. There has been worse things to learn from. In the TRC in the post apartheid South Africa in a hearing chaired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a white racist ex-service man narrated how one afternoon he and his colleagues shot and killed an ANC activist and burnt him up. Because it takes about 8-9 hours for a human body to burn to ashes, this racist ex-serviceman and his colleagues decided to set up a parallel barbecue stove and roasted a bull, ate and wash down the meat with beers as they watched a man, a fellow human being burn to ashes! Two barbecues in one place! This was told in the presence of relatives. These and many stories are worse than the simple chasing away of a kid who wanted to buy a car. So, therefore, I encourage all to tell these stories so that we can deal with our past as a way of warning the present in order to prepare for a better future.
Once again, I am sorry to hear about how your father died but I know there are thousands who died in cold blood who we will never know.
Thanks
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
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