Patriotism and Nationalism: What do these mean to Ugandans? I

PATRIOTISM and NATIONALISM

It was a little wonder that the NRM government spent walloping billions of taxpayer’s money in promoting patriotism among the youths in Uganda. It is true that most Ugandans are feeling a sense of dire fatigue of living under this despotic and repressive regime. The youths continue to carry the scars of broken system that offers them much of dwindling hope than a prospect for brighter future.

Ugandans today have to endure a life in which the very systems that should otherwise liberate them from backwardness, continues to vault out of place to serve it’s very opposite purpose. The justice system stands against justice, the Police oppose civil liberties and banking system expropriates from the economy. Ugandans live in a country where the Police incentivize anarchy and chaos; the army disrupts the peace and the government is the key stumbling block against the interests of its citizens from obtaining basic and fundamental social services. In Uganda, the corrupt are the heroes and honesty is treated with utter travesty.

For the youths, the education system is a trap that offers them the same old recipe of knowledge that helps to their dysfunction. The system is against the indigenous cultures, traditions and society, and that which strives for mis-educating the youths. Given this forlorn of predicaments, the young people feel as though they are outside the shades of this Country.

The basis of Patriotism talk is inherent in the provision of the 1995 Constitution which stipulates the duties of Ugandan citizens as “The exercise and enjoyment of rights and freedoms is inseparable from the performance of duties and obligations; and, accordingly, it shall be the duty of every citizen to be patriotic and loyal to Uganda and to promote its well-being”. And the NRM, on its website, described Patriotism as “love for Uganda and its people, as well as the readiness to sacrifice for them.”

It is true that Ugandans must love their country and their fellow citizens and must strive to protect the image and products of Uganda. Such feat could be easily attained if the rulers believed in that principle. Ugandans believe that it was sheer mockery for the government to launch such a wasteful and expensive venture, well knowing that money alone and club membership in schools will not procure patriotism.

The young people want to feel the physical presence of the hands of government, in improved education and sports facilities, in security for their parents at work and in their homes, a just system that supports democracy and the flourishing of justice system. They want to stand shoulder-by-shoulder with a civil police force and take pride in victorious military that defends the liberty of every citizen indiscriminately and consolidates the territorial integrity of Uganda. In these very formal and noble frontiers, the regime has failed. As such, it is the Ugandan government that has served the very opposite for which it forged a social contract with the people of Uganda and thus, the mutual exclusivity of the interests.

But what really is Patriotism, is it merely the love for a country or merely sentimentalism being fronted to justify a budget? Many authors and scholars have pronounced themselves on this subject of patriotism. Most captivating is the work of Paul Gilbert in a book “The Philosophy of Nationalism.” In that book, Paul Gilbert eloquently contrasts Nationalism and Patriotism. Nationalism, he argues, is the belief about the proper object of patriotism, namely, one’s nation (p.5). Accordingly, Patriotism is merely a sentiment that is given rise to by nationalism. Patriotism is love, the passion that one directs towards their country and nationalism is a core set of beliefs, reason for which one adheres to his country. Gilbert refuses to equate Nationalism with Patriotism and clearly illustrates that the latter is the products of the former – Patriotism is the manifestation of Nationalism.

This subject is imperative and although this may not be an exhaustive treatment of it, this piece serves to elicit debate on the causes of the erosion of loyalty to our country. It may create an alternative and viable lens through which the continued destruction of our country can be assessed. The significance of this debate belies the very notion that Ugandans feel a continuous sense of being deprived of their citizenship. The opportunity to perform their constitutional role as citizens of Uganda is limited under repression because of the narcissistic personalities in government.

Uganda is harvesting the dividends of NRM's Siasa.

Every person interested in writing and sharing opinion in Ugandan media has at one point in life written about the subject of corruption. In essence, corruption as a subject has gained celebrity status. It is even strange that being corrupt in Uganda today is considered trendy. The corrupt are honored and respected by many Ugandans who carry them shoulder high or relishes in the material consequences of corruption. In Ugandan society, corruption is a relative and a very hypothetical concept.
All Ugandans don’t like corruption. They know it and identify it easily when it happens. Diabolically, corruption is a means; it also has character. It appears that corruption is a cultural way of the people upon which they procure favors. I long concluded that the white collar bureaucracy is an impediment to African development and its demand for accountability is an alien concept in the African brain far from being realized.
I will be accused of being Eurocentric and an avid anti-African mindset. I am actually Pan Africanist professing Afrocentrism. My defense is obvious. Africans are no longer Africans in the real sense of African traditions and have never been for the last three hundred or so years. This is obviously projected in the mindset. Africa is a dichotomy of West or East; Arabs or Euro-America. They are either Christians or Muslims. They are all afraid of identifying with negated African traditions considered backward and primitive in the purview of the Western civilization.
Generally, Karl Marx ascertained that religion is a poor man’s opium. Africa is a highly polarized place in terms of religion, but it is also a place for the wretched and largely illiterate. “Illiterate” as determined by the western standards, an imperial calibration. In those terms, majority of Africans are illiterate and minority, usually those educated in the western system are considered elites. Here is where they learn social and political philosophy – the mode of western reasoning, so alienating to the African social realities and the basis of Siasa.
Corruption has never been a sole problem of Africa, but that of humanity as a whole from time immemorial. Corruption persists in every continent of the world but manifests in different forms. We are only rich, poor, corrupt or accountable in as far as we meet or fail, thereof, to meet the standards of the West. No matter how varied their history and social evolution, we as Africans must conform!
The manifestation of “corruption” in a contemporary society like Uganda thrives on its socio-political culpability to this vice. The origins of corruption in Uganda is entrenched in NRM/Fronasa  ideology being espoused by the likes of Yoga Adhola and Museveni, also called “Siasa”. Siasa is a concept upon which Kyankwazi was founded and it implies mass mind manipulation using lies and deceitful techniques– simply put, a grand scheme of brainwash.
Common sense dictates that when a social contract is cultivated on the foundation of falsehood, then it is naturally shaky. Ugandan society is now reaping the dividends of Siasa and that is evident by the lack of conscience among NRM cadres in public service who arrogantly debase public trust. First and foremost, the NRM regime is not legitimate entity since it forcefully usurped the majority will to secure a social contract. As a consequence, the justification of continued tenure of the regime is encumbered upon excessive use of sophisticated forms of brutality. This also sustains the lifeline of the regime’s cultivated corrupt, inept and kleptomaniacs. Every regime in Uganda has proven to provide its own scalawags; Rapscallions or Scoundrels.
Given the natural order of things, the compendious choice of action is to persist in regime overhaul. With it might comes the unfortunate collapse of the predatory pseudo middle class set on the public purse. Previous regimes had its own corporate bases and they too collapsed immediately upon the advent of the NRM fascism. The challenge is ours since every generation has an obligation to stand up to be counted or winnow into submission. The Siasa harvest is ours to pick and dry or uproot and discard. Its debilitating impact on social services remains a social threat as it diminishes our humanity. I loathe saying the obvious but a false social contract is simply untenable!
END