By the country’s Parliament passing the much-loathed so-called ‘Patriotic Bill’, Zimbabwe has effectively joined the unenviable international ‘Hall of Shame’ – joining other nations, such as North Korea and Iran, ruled by draconian ruthless leaders, with scant regard for their citizens’ rights.

What I find most distasteful, though, is the shoddy and disingenuous attempt by the authorities in Zimbabwe (and, their usual sycophants) in portraying such shameful measures, of legislating patriotism, as a common trend in democratic nations.

Such laughable shameful claims have gone as far as citing the ‘USA PATRIOT Act’ – promulgated in the United States of America in 2001, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks – as worthy notable examples.

Nothing can be more ridiculous than this!

Well, for starters, there is a very good reason the name of this law is written in capital letters.

This is because it is an acronym!

The long name of this act is actually the ‘Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism’ – which in short reads, USA PATRIOT.

In other words, the law has absolutely nothing to do with enforcing some version of patriotism on Americans – but, is purely intended at tightening national security, particularly against foreign terrorism.

This is achieved by putting in place measures for ‘snooping’ or surveillance of communications, strengthening counterterrorism efforts, and tightening terrorism penalties.

Of course, it is undeniable that this law is problematic, as far as the protection of personal privacy is concerned.

Nonetheless, nowhere in that piece of legislation is there any attempt at defining what constitutes ‘patriotism’ for Americans, and what would be regarded as ‘unpatriotic’.

Thus, endeavours by the Harare administration to justify its own enactment of a ‘Patriotic Act’ – which criminalizes what the regime characterizes as acts intended to ‘damage the country’s national interests’, under the pretext of following the American example – is the height of insincerity and deceit.

However, there are those who – possibly having noticed the error of their misunderstanding of the ‘USA PATRIOT Act’ – have gone for another US law…the ‘Logan Act’.

Surely, for any 21st-century government, expecting to be taken seriously as a modern-day democracy – resorting to the copying of an 18th-century archaic law, is a serious cause of concern – as the Logan Act was enacted in 1799.

This law – which seeks to criminalize negotiation by unauthorized American citizens with foreign governments having a dispute with the US (intended to undermine the government’s position) – has, understandably, not gone unchallenged.

This was witnessed in 1964 in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, in Waldron v. British Petroleum Co. – which asserted that the Act was likely unconstitutional, due to its vagueness.

Is there, then, any wonder that only two people have ever been indicted on charges of violating the Logan Act – one in 1802 (Francis Flournoy) and the other in 1852 (Jonas Phillips Levy) – with neither being convicted?