UPDF, good luck banning red berets

The Uganda government has banned civilian use of red berets, long a symbol of the People Power movement (Daily Monitor of September 30 Tweet: “The government of Uganda has gazetted the dress code for the UPDF”).

Symbols and monuments are traditionally erected, promoted, beloved (and now forcefully assumed) in most autocracies. They are, however, salient vehicles of regime hollowness, and convenient platitudes force-fed on the oppressed masses.

In the current Ugandan case, some people have sprung forth in social media platforms, peddling superficial notions that red caps belong to the People Power movement, and are symbolic of the resistance to the NRM regime.

While that is generally the case, such notions are only half the truth. The true resistance and the quest for democratic change is embedded within the hearts and the minds of the silent patriotic majority. No public pronouncements, tear gas, torture or threats can dampen or extinguish the quest, zeal and dream for democratic or regime change in Uganda.
The People Power movement has gathered steam, as its visibility and coverage around the globe seems to panic the Kampala regime.

If we carry the same thoughtless and illogical predilection among some pro-NRM UPDF service men about red berets, we also promote an alternative erroneous belief that every Ugandan donning a beret with the “right” colour that UPDF “sanctions” is pro-regime.
History is replete with rotten regimes and shallow military service men, who trashed loyalty to their country’s constitution and instead placed a premium on fleeting symbols and monuments of then regime.

In one era, such symbolism chocked Baghdad under Saddam. That history repeated itself in Tripoli with Muammar Ghaddafi. And most recently, there are many Zimbabweans who once donned green-yellow garments with portraits of former president Robert Mugabe. Now, they are beyond allergic to anything that was Mugabe and ZANU-PF.

The NRM and some Ugandans also adopted yellow as a symbol of their regime devotion and brand. And a jaundiced condition or outcome depicted as yellow, if one asks any knowledgeable medical profession, is usually one of panic.

That said, what is undeniably true is this: All symbols and monuments promoted under dictatorships as objects of legacy and adoration, will one day be swept to the ash heap of history along with their promoters.
Let not all this seeming regime invincibility and associated bogus legalist choreography - against red berets of “People Power” movement - fool patriotic Ugandans. Only God’s kingdom is forever.

Emmanuel Acheta, PhD.
Ontario, Canada
[email protected]