Imitating Orange Sincerest Form of Banana Flattery

[Onyango Oloo]

groups.yahoo.com/group/africa-oped/message/17529

From: "nmatunda" <matunda@...>
Date: Wed Dec 28, 2005 11:55 pm
Subject: Re: Imitating Orange Sincerest Form of Banana Flattery

Ok,

Mau Mau was a clandestine movement as was Mwakenya as was Museveni's NRM as is the Lords Resistance Army as any of those you have named!

ODM (the one resulting from the NO campaign) wants to compete in open electoral politics and as far as I know they don't intend to do so clandestinely! as did Mau Mau, NRM, the Lords Resistance Army or Mwakenya.

There is a difference!

Matunda Nyanchama

[kamalet]

"A rose by any other name will still smell the same"

Will taking away the ODM name from 'its rightful owners' take away what ODM stood for? Was it just the name that ignited the passion of Kenyans that supported them?

Some people went to sleep and some other enterprising Kenyans (irrespective of who sent them!!)thought they could spoil the party.

Unfortunately, we can write thousands of lines arguing legalistic....but nothing changes the fact that the name is gone, and only the courts can give it back to the "owners". Talking of owners, who are these owners of the party/movement?

[kichwambaya]

We should not act and reason as if politics operates outside the legal system. There is no question that the three people who registered ODM are not its owners. If a musician composed a song and sang it on TV or Radio before recording it and then someone who heard the song went and recorded the music, we would condemn that person as a thief without all these legal mumbo jambo. It is mindboggling that some people are acting as if this is not a clear case of theft. We know who the owners of ODM are. If Raila and Kalonzo and Ruto were the ones trying to lay claim to the name ODM then it would not be a clear cut case. Here, however, we have people who are not even associated with ODM coming here to lay legal claim to it and we are acting as if there is something wrong with this.

We should all condemn this as theft and ask them to give ODM back to its owners without any condition.

I was just wondering if any body could care to list for me the excusable "political dirty tricks" so that I do not confuse them with the regular criminal acts. For example, Would stealing an opponets car, or hiring thugs to give your opponent a "black eye", or maybe slashing her tyres just before her big political rally qualify as "acceptable political dirty tricks" or are these prosecutable criminal acts. I for one believe that these acts should be treated for what they are, car theft, assault, vandalism, etc. regardless of whether the motive was politics or revenge or jealousy.