Patriotism is the New Religion in Uganda

Look at your present body to determine what you did in the past. Look at your present mind to determine what will come in the future. Shiddhartha Gautama

When China was in the throes of convulsions, great teachers emerged to its aid. Thus Kungfu Tzu (Confucius) coded elaborate ethics and methods of running governments. And Lao Tzu enacted moral codes for living in harmonious unity with nature.

In Uganda the Luwero war was the war to end all wars—human sacrifice and blood was to give birth to a new nation—for the gun having been demystified by willful carnage, the population would henceforth be unafraid of any devil that would emerge to lord over them. Moreover, the good of the nation would be foremost in the minds of the rulers and the ruled. The distortion in the power structure was corrected, so we were told.

All, however, did not turn up as planned for, as they say: Man plans, the gods decide. Uganda is not the shinning star on the mountain in a dark continent. Hence, the need for the new religion—Patriotism—to revive the fortunes of lost dreams.

Mr. Museveni, the fabricator extraordinaire, just completed a whirlwind budget busting tour of his fiefdom, preaching the gospel of Patriotism. In the North a prospective presidential candidate told teachers in his district to ignore Museveni’s call and just do their work. He has a point. What could be more patriotic than teachers concentrating on their job and avoiding distractions?
Another potential candidate, in a jujitsu-like reaction, began to preach his version of Patriotism to the youths of Nakawa. It seems that, if you are a prospective candidate and you never understood that Museveni has already thrown the gauntlet and has started the 2011 campaign in earnest, then you have lost ab initio.

I am not a candidate, but I will vote, and here is my version of Patriotism: Know thyself and control thy mind. From these come self-confidence, self-respect for yourself and others who make up the nation, the focus of Patriotism. So equipped, you will not take was is not yours without permission. So equipped, while horse-trading is a political reality, you will not blatantly and cynically buy MPs to enact laws for the benefit of you, the individual. So equipped, you will respect workers' resources and not muscle your way to obtain such resources to build your private enterprise. So equipped, you will be mindful of your priorities and maintain good roads and other public infrastructures. The list goes on and on. To know thyself and to respect thyself and others is to understand interdependence, impermanence and the emptiness of it all. Grasping and clinging to self in ignorance of reality, instead of embracing the whole, breeds lack of patriotism and its concomitant defective people and nation.