MUSEVENISM
The picture of purported youth groups from Western Uganda kneeling on their knees before President Yoweri Museveni has gone viral on the social media - facebook. The reason this picture has gone viral is embedded in its irony of deification or promoting Musevenism. The males adorning the traditional yellow NRM T-shirt do not appear to be youths. The concept of males kneeling before another man to beg for continued misrule strikes rather as very unusual for unemployment victims – the youths.
Sometimes one would like to look beyond the limitations of President Museveni in order to be able to look at the brighter side of his regime. But a deep scrutiny of the regime reveals yet a very sad reality of damages it has caused. Undoing these damages, especially those on the conscience of Ugandans may have to take the same amount of time the regime has lasted in power and more. The more it lasts, the more it will continue to inflict its unflinching nerve numbing damage on the conscience of our people.
The regime has drawn all powers to its center, leaving absolute powerlessness at the periphery by destroying institutions that anchor the people to the state. It is this powerlessness that enforces unprincipled submission to the repression making men to kneel before Museveni. Many of the victims now identify and deify the oppressor, not because they want to, but because the madness of deification is the inevitable process of showing loyalty to the delusional Presidency.
My visit to Uganda recently, revealed that many Ugandans were politically conscious for all wrong reasons. Every new person I met first falsely identifies as a Statehouse employee. On basic scrutiny, you only realize a posturing for petty privileges!
Now it would not be farfetched to assume that the large majority of those who claim to support the NRM are materialists or glory hunters. Deifying the President is just a means to the end for those ideologically bankrupt "youths". This is because everything NRM is about money and the flavor of power. Young and old people alike would die to get a chance to meet the President in person, and not the institutions of government. Just meeting the president is a must-do-before-I-die kind of thing. It is to the President that they press the demands for services that government institutions should have otherwise provided. The second explanation for deifying Museveni appears to be despondency. Most of the NRM supporters are semi-literate and to a greater degree, they appear intoxicated with insatiable needs. They need jobs, money, presidential favors and miracles. This lot shows deviation in character because they lack in every aspect of rationality and stateliness. They can neither defend their support for the NRM/Museveni nor their purpose of being in politics. Most of these spend many man hours wasted in politics with no legitimate interests; property to protect or a desire for liberty. They have turned politics into a way of life – a source of income. They remain poor until the next election to trade their will.
They then deify a leader so as to generate a false impression of indomitability. This has a danger of transforming a good leader into a monster. In Museveni’s case it hikes the cost of his tenure. He has to carry money in bags and to make pledges at every turn and places he visits.
This also means that the NRM popularity is not really genuine; it is procured or rather a rented unstable support. Luwero’s recent by-election shed some light in this respect. Many Ugandans have reached a point where they are either Musevenists or NRM. They also know that being NRM is associated with low end chaotic arrangements that are characterized by vote rigging in primaries. It is the Musevenists who have the real power with access to resources and privileges. Unfortunately, to bridge from NRM to the Musevenists section, one needs to be seen to deify the President!
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