Lack of Civic Education Threatening Political Party Cohesion

Parties are founded on the principle of exclusivity, where only those that share a common ideology and aspirations form an exclusive club to safeguard and propagate the common ideals they cherish and espouse. To do this, parties exercise an open door policy where the “converted” are welcome and the renegades are shown the exit. This delicate balance of free entry free exit subsists on the principle of democracy. Whoever upholds the core values of the party, is a loyal member, whose civic duty is to engage in party activities while observing decorum.

The biggest challenge, especially in nascent democracies, however, is how to grow the party membership while strictly observing the party ideals. At some point, rules have to be bent without breaking them to accommodate wayward members who do not play by the set rules yet their contribution is sound. In society, these are not uncommon; however, this should be the exception rather than the norm. The leadership is faced with the dilemma of cracking the whip thus alienating the party from members who are not ideologically grounded or just rabble-rousers and playing a liberal card to accommodate the other view. This is the biggest challenge political parties are now facing in this political season.

By far, NRM is the biggest party; it should not only lead in numbers but also the level of organization, observance of internal democracy, and civic awareness. The ongoing party primaries have exposed the internal weaknesses of parties. NRM being a “mass party”, has had a fair share of the brunt. Lack of civic education creates a membership that is not ideologically alert.  The confusion that has ensued lately shows the lack of civic awareness on both the leaders at lower levels and the led. Primaries are a preserve of registered members who exercise internal democracy while keeping party cohesion intact. Unfortunately, at every electoral cycle, cries of unfairness are abound.

This is majorly because leadership has not invested adequately in civic education. Membership registration in any party must be the starting point to gauge both popularity and strength, but NRM prides in being a mass party without knowing how massive it is. Without civic awareness, it is hard to think that whoever claims membership is actually one. They may be fans or cheerleaders, but lacking civic competence.

A good example was the NRM membership registration. It took almost two months, but due to lack of civic education, most people thought that so long as you are a resident of a certain village, then you automatically qualify to be a member of the NRM. This partly explains why almost everyone participated in the NRM primaries regardless of party affiliations and no one would stop them, even when some were known opposition members.

It is true some NRM members missed out on registration, however, the lack of civic education played a big role in this failure. Members are not aware of why they register when everybody belongs to the mass party. Being a party in government, a common member in the village sees equal benefits to both supporters and opposition when government builds infrastructure without discrimination, they all benefit and face the same challenges, so a call for membership registration may not be attractive, until such a time like party primaries where it is an exclusive function of members. This caused a lot of confusion in two ways.

First, if the NRM electoral commission had insisted on the register, genuine members would be disenfranchised. With a majority membership being illiterate, it would be misconstrued to mean they are no longer members, which would affect the NRM in the general elections. The disappointment would be carried over to subsequent elections. The timely intervention of the Party Chairman saved the day from mass disfranchisement, though it was not good enough to avert the mess that ensued.

This was an indictment on the director of mobilization. However, the impromptu announcement, gave leeway to the opposition to influence directly the outcome of the vote by voting a supposedly weak candidate that will eventually face their strong candidate in the general elections. This works against the NRM party. They came out openly celebrating their feat.

Secondly, in urban centers where people converge for different reasons, there was multiple voting since it is not easy to identify village residents. This explains why some villages had more voters than the residents. It will be a daunting task for the NRM electoral commission to vacate most of the petitions based on votes on the declaration forms that can’t match the number of residents in an electoral area. The outcome may be fatal to the party, if losers feel they were edged out unfairly based on fictitious figures.

It is a cardinal role of a political party to educate the masses and prepare members for such fever pitch moments where membership is verifiable by a membership card and registration. This should be a revelation to NRM to stop the ‘MASS PARTY’ imperative and formalize membership through proper documentation.

Lack of civic education detaches members from leadership. There is no linkage between the two since policies are executed at the top leadership level. Membership cards should be a civic duty of a member to pay for, not to get it for free. It creates a sense of ownership rather than conscription. When ordinary members appreciate the space and a sense of belonging in their party, they help in recruiting other members. Party structures at all levels should be functional and vibrant as a civic call. It should not be the secretariat to initiate all activities at the village level.

Lack of civic awareness does not only pervade NRM but also other parties. It is more pronounced in NRM being the party in power. Other parties also face the same challenge. For instance, some people belong to one party but propagate the ideals of another. Civic education should be used to enhance cohesion among party members, to raise political awareness and cement party ideology. The formation of subgroups in a political party like Suubi, Truth & Justice (TJ), Solida within DP is a show of inadequacy of civic education. Political parties do not thrive on factionalism; party cohesion can only be achieved by following a central command.

Through civic education, members of different parties get to understand why certain things are done differently, for instance, why should a party like NUP be handpicking its flag bearers yet DP is using a delegates’ conference or electoral colleges and NRM is using universal suffrage? These details can only be understood through education. Without civic education, parties will have more fans and sympathizers than members will in the true sense of the word.