Tag Archives: . The Patriotic Front (PF)

Opinion

Zambia: Sunday Chanda and the “Tribe Must Die” Mantra

Maravi Post Reporter
Sunday Chanda

By Henry Kyambalesa

While the debate relating to “tribe” or “tribalism” is a petty and irrelevant campaign issue in this year’s general elections, and in any future elections as a matter of fact, I have found it necessary to comment on the assertion by Patriotic Front (PF) Media Director, Sunday Chanda, that the United Party for National Development (UPND) was founded on what he has referred to as a “tribal cradle.”

One of the recurring requirements for the establishment of a political party in Zambia’s Republican constitutions has been that such an entity must “have a national character,” and that it should not “be founded on a religious, linguistic, racial, ethnic, tribal, gender, sectoral, or provincial basis, or engage in propaganda based on any of these factors.”

So, all registered political parties in Zambia today must have met this litmus test and, therefore, none can be said to be a “tribal” political party. Our brother Sunday Chanda should, therefore, refrain from making baseless assertions that are likely to promote tribalism and/or incite ethnic-related violence in our beloved country.

One of the other disturbing issues in Sunday Chanda’s Press Release is his endorsement of the following mantra by the late Samora Machel, former Mozambican President: “For the nation to survive, tribe must die.”

Is he suggesting that the abolition of tribes or ethnic groupings in Zambia is one of the ultimate goals of the PF party?

Samora Machel was a staunch believer in the utopian ideals of socialism and communism advocated by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in the Communist Manifesto and the other literary pieces of work they singularly or jointly authored. One of such ideals includes their advocacy for the alteration of the perceptions and psyches (or psychological make-ups) of members of society “on a mass scale” through state-mandated indoctrination of citizens.

Another of the many ideals advocated by Marx and Engels was the abolition of countries and nationality, which they declared in the following words: “[Communists] … are … reproached with desiring to abolish countries and nationality [because the] … workers have no country.” And “National divisions and antagonisms between peoples are daily more and more vanishing … [and the] supremacy of the proletariat will cause them to vanish still faster.”

Mr. Machel must have attempted to reveal his commitment to the realization of this particular ideal when he said, “For the nation to survive, tribe must die,” without even realizing that Marx and Engels actually desired to abolish “the nation” or “the country” that he would have wished to preserve if it were possible to abolish tribes in his country.

Clearly, he extended the advocacy for abolishing countries and nationality to include the “abolition of tribe,” which Marx and Engels did not include because there are, and were, no “tribes” in Western Europe.

If the abolition of tribes in Zambia is not one of PF’s goals, PF officials need to craft a Press Release and disseminate it through news outlets disassociating the party from the toxic opinion of their political party’s Media Director on this matter.

Our country needs a national government that is destined to earnestly spearhead the crea­tion of a socioeco­nomic envi­ronment in which ethnic, cultur­al, racial, and religious diver­sities are appreciated, tolerated, and celebrated, and a government that cherishes and promotes the cultures, tradi­tions and traditional ceremonies of its 73 tribes—tribes that, together, make up what is essentially “the Zambian family.”

In conclusion, the fact that the ruling political party’s Media Director can spend time and effort writing on issues that will not improve the livelihoods of the common people is enough proof that the party is not concerned about the bread-and-butter problems facing the people who granted it the mandate to form government 10 years ago.

What more proof do Zambians need to realize that the PF government is actually not interested in addressing the socioeconomic problems and crises facing our country—problems and crises which include high levels of poverty and inequality, declining gross domestic product (GDP), unsustainable levels of externally secured debts, and worsening corruption ranking by Transparency International?

Besides, there is a critical shortage of decent public housing in our country; a great number of our fellow citizens do not have access to electricity and clean water; education and training are still not adequately catered for; crime and unemployment are still rampant and pervasive; and public infrastructure and services are still deficient and are mainly dependent on donor-funding.

Moreover, civil servants are still not adequately compensated for their services, and a lot of civil service retirees cannot get their hard-earned benefits on time; and the healthcare system cannot meet the basic needs of the majority of citizens mainly due to inadequate medicines, healthcare facilities and healthcare personnel.

In addition to such evident incompetence, we currently have government officials who seem to treat non-governmental organizations and opposition political parties and their members as enemies rather than essential members of a pluralistic society—officials like Sunday Chanda who cannot devote their time and efforts to suggesting viable and practical solutions to the real issues and problems facing the country and its people, including hunger, malnutrition, poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, disease, widespread unemployment, crime, corruption, unsustainable levels of external debt, moral decay, and a catalogue of other socioeconomic problems and crises.

Whither our beloved country?

Opinion, Politics

Zambia: Get Ready for Stale Political Rhetoric!

Maravi Post Reporter

By Henry Kyambalesa

In Zambia, it is not uncommon for a political party that is in power to engage in stale and rehearsed political campaigns designed to secure another term of office. Currently, such a political party is the Patriotic Front (PF). Among other things, the party and its leaders have started, or are likely to start, making the following claims:

First, that voters should not experiment with leadership. Unfortunately, some of the current crop of government leaders are deadwood and, therefore, do not hold the key to Zambia’s future. Besides, nobody is born a leader.

In other words, elements of leadership are not born out of the innate or spontaneous attributes of human nature because, as studies of child precocity and personality development have concluded, all human beings are born with a blank slate of mind—a mind that is devoid of the concepts or constructs that reflect the values, attitudes, and behaviours we all tend to ultimately exhibit.

Moreover, of what use is a political party that has failed to address the socioeconomic problems and crises facing our country and its people after having been in power for 10 uninterrupted years—problems and crises which include high levels of poverty and inequality, declining gross domestic product (GDP), unsustainable levels of externally secured debts, and worsening corruption ranking by Transparency International (TI), among numerous other socioeconomic problems and crises?

So, rather than make socioeconomic conditions in the country better than they found them, PF officials have instead made them worse. Unfortunately, some of our fellow citizens will parade themselves on August 12, 2021, to reward such officials and their political party with another term of office without even thinking about the socioeconomic hardships they have endured over the last 10 years—hardships which will continue to haunt them over the next 5 years if the ruling political party is granted another term of office.

Second, that they need more time to complete ongoing development projects and programmes. However, the people expect that any new Republican president would be obliged to adopt and implement projects and programmes initiated by previous administrations which are designed to benefit communities nationwide. And this is the way the government has been administered in Zambia thus far, and it is the only way in which all democratic countries worldwide are administered as a matter of fact!

Besides, there is a need to acknowledge the fact that most of the ongoing development projects and programmes at any given time were started before the ruling political party assumed the instruments of power, and are partly or wholly financed by multilateral institutions, and/or bilateral cooperating partners like Canada (CIDA), China, Denmark (DANIDA), France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan (JICA), The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden (SIDA), the United Kingdom (DFID / FCDO), and the USA (USAID).

Third, that voters should not vote for presidential candidates from political parties which do not have a majority in Parliament because they will not be able to pass new laws. Well, any new Republican president should be able to run the country with existing laws, even enact some essential pieces of legislation which are likely to garner the support of the majority of Members of Parliament.

Fourth, that voters should not vote for presidential candidates from political parties which do not have a majority in Parliament because such candidates will have problems in the appointment of government Ministers, since the Republican Constitution (Amendment) of 2016 requires that such Ministers be appointed from elected Members of Parliament.

Well, a president-elect who wishes to trim the current bloated government to fewer Cabinet-level portfolios would not be encumbered by this; he or she would nominate 8 deserving citizens to Parliament and appoint them as government Ministers, and then figure out how to fill any remaining Cabinet-level portfolios—possibly by “poaching” a few MPs from other political parties.

With respect to Provincial Ministers, we need to provide for the administration of provinces by elected governors rather than by Provincial Ministers.

Fifth, that voters should vote for Parliamentary candidates fielded by the ruling political party because such candidates will have ready access to funding. Well, all MPs have access to Constituency Development Funds regardless of the political parties they belong to, and any additional funds allocated exclusively to ruling party MPs are not likely to be lawful.

Sixth, that voters should not expect development to take place in their areas if they vote for candidates from opposition political parties. Really? We need leaders who recognise citizens’ right to vote for candidates of their choice without being threatened that their communities will be excluded from the development process if they do not vote for candidates fielded by the ruling political party.

After all, elected political leaders are given the mandate by voters to be in government with the expectation that they would serve all citizens irrespective of their political views, political affiliations, ethnic extraction, religious convictions, and/or who or which political party or alliance they decide to vote for.

Seventh, that one can never become president unless he or she is meant to be. No, in a democratic country like Zambia, an individual can become president through genuine and competitive elections. Only in pseudo democracies and totalitarian states would a citizen become president if he or she is meant to be—that is, through coronation! And

Eighth, that Vision 2030 will bring salvation to Zambia. I doubt it. Such a Vision is going to be a mere dream and an empty political campaign tool if we cannot elect new political players who will immediately and seriously start to address such issues as education and training, public health and sanitation, sustained food security, public infrastructure, decent public housing, corruption and other forms of criminal activity, and meaningful development in rural areas, et cetera.

By the way, sound long-term planning—including Vision 2030—is essential to our country’s future, and to the wellbeing of future generations. However, such planning should be balanced with the needs of our generation because in the long run, to paraphrase economist John Maynard Keynes, we are all going to be dead!

In fact, the “long run” can turn out to be an exceptionally long time indeed! For this reason, there is a need to elect political leaders who have devised a practical schedule for implementing some of their short-term and medium-term policies, projects, and programmes to strike a balance between our needs and expectations, and the needs and expectations of future generations.

Apparently, the Patriotic Front—the ruling political party—and the party’s officials have not even stated their short-term and medium-term policies, projects, and programmes. And they have not provided a schedule for implementing any of their contemplated policies, projects, and programmes.

I understand that the UPND Alliance Media Team will soon make available a schedule for implementing some of the Alliance’s contemplated short-term and medium-term policies, projects, and programmes.

I challenge other political parties which are going to field candidates in the forthcoming elections to do the same so that we can examine the viability and practicability of what they intend to do to improve the livelihoods of the common people if they are given the mandate to form government.

In passing, I wish to extend a brotherly piece of advice to President Edgar C. Lungu to publicly denounce statements by some PF wayward stalwart(s) that Muchinga Province is his “bedroom,” and that they “are always ready to take care of the bedroom, to even kill the cockroaches as well as the rats that enter [the] … bedroom.”

Our country is a unitary State; any member of the Zambian family, therefore, is free to visit, live, work, and/or canvass for votes anywhere within its boundaries—including Muchinga Province. The late Mr. Michael C. Sata, former Republican president, did not demarcate Northern Province to create Muchinga Province as a “bedroom” for any individual or political party.

Opinion, Politics

Zambia: Patriotic Front Should Bear the Blame for Violence

Maravi Post Reporter

By Henry Kyambalesa

The Patriotic Front (PF), the ruling political party in Zambia, should bear the blame for all the socioeconomic ills currently facing the country.

Such socioeconomic ills include the high level of corruption, the country’s declining economic performance, the high level of government-secured debts, the unprecedented levels of poverty and inequality, and the current escalation of political violence, among a host of other socioeconomic problems and crises.

With respect to the current spate of political violence, the following age-old proverb renders the verdict: “The fish start rotting from the head.”

Why do we have to continue to vote for a clique of government officials who do not consider the pursuit and preservation of peace and stability in our beloved country as one of their primary functions?

In this regard, I am reminded of the following warning by a PF official directed at UPND supporters and their president and, by extension, other political parties and their leaders and supporters:

Lungu

“[Muchinga Province] … is a bedroom for President Dr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu. Muchinga remains so. And we as his sons are always ready to take care of the bedroom, to even kill the cockroaches as well as the rats that enter our father’s bedroom. That is our responsibility.” (See: https://www.zambiawatchdog.com/we-will-kill-for-lungu-says-pf-official/.)

I am also reminded of some chieftains, as well as bogus, wacky, and weird shepherds of the Lord’s flock—such as “Pastor” Sunday Sinyangwe—who do not embrace or espouse the virtue of being impartial in their handling of political matters. Besides, why, on Earth, would any level-headed human being “decree in the name of God” that another person fails to secure the necessary votes to hold an elective public office?

Does “pastor” Sinyangwe truly believe that such a prayer or “decree” would rise beyond the ceiling of his church? What kind of God or God would entertain such a prayer or “decree”? If it were in God’s nature to answer the silly prayers of the likes of “pastor” Sinyangwe, it would be commendable for Him to address the many recurrent socioeconomic problems and crises facing humanity.

There is also this brother of ours called “Kaizar Zulu,” an apparent and obviously uncivilised PF operative and sycophant who frequently makes unprovoked nasty, vulgar, insane, and ordinarily unprintable comments online targeting opposition political leaders and/or their supporters irrespective of the nature or subject of the news stories appearing on news outlets like the Lusaka Times Website.

Bwana Kaisar Zulu’s toxic, vile and hateful comments are apparently sanctioned by some PF officials, since he somewhat seems to be the party’s official online representative, and since the party has never cautioned him against making scandalous and outrageous comments on its behalf.

And his comments are clearly designed to incite inter-party violence. Therefore, it is shameful that some of our compatriots will very likely vote for candidates sponsored by a political party on whose behalf the likes of Kaisar Zulu proudly render their spiteful comments.

The pervasive spate of political violence which we are witnessing in our Motherland is clearly one of the numerous manifestations of government ineptitude. There are, therefore, no “Powerful forces pushing Zambia into instability.”

To reiterate, “The fish start rotting from the head.” To reverse the unfortunate incidence of such violence, the PF administration needed to make an earnest effort to build on the UNIP and the late Dr. Kenneth D. Kaunda’s timeless “One Zam¬bia, One Nation” slogan and the electric “Tiyende Pamodzi” mantra in our people’s quest to create a cohesive, unitary, compassionate, and peaceful country.

Dr. Kaunda—MHSRIP—reminded us of our civic and moral obligation in this regard in his message to Zambians in the Diaspora on October 24, 2020—Zambia’s 56th Independence Day—in the following words: “Let us love one another, and remember to maintain our Motto: One Zambia, One Nation.”

By this message, Dr. Kaunda apparently granted us the authority to use the “One Zambia, One Nation” slogan and the Tiyende Pamodzi” mantra during political rallies and campaigns, and in our political dealings and interactions with other members of the Zambian family.

Anyway, we will soon have the opportunity on August 12, 2021, to give other political players the mandate to form government—political players who will hopefully address the down-sliding trajectory of our beloved country and the worsening of the general welfare of most of its people.

I should perhaps reserve the rest of my comments concerning the sad situation in our beloved country for another day.

Opinion, Politics

Zambia: The Disastrous 10 Years under The Patriotic Front (PF)

MaraviPost
Edgar Chagwa Lungu

By Henry Kyambalesa

The last 10 years can be summed up plainly as having been disastrous for our be-loved country and its people. The Patriotic Front (PF) assumed the reins of power in September 2011. To date, the ruling political party’s performance has not only been mediocre but shameful and inexcusable.

According to the World Bank, our country ranks among the countries with high-est levels of poverty and inequality globally. And, as Habitat for Humanity has observed, over 60% of our country’s population lives in abject poverty below the poverty threshold or poverty line of approximately US$2 per person per day.

Our country’s economic performance or Gross Domestic Product, as reported by the government-operated local Central Statistical Office, has lamentably been de-clining from positive 4.7% in 2018 to negative 2.7% in January 2021.

The PF administration’s externally secured debts, as recorded by the Bank of Zambia, has considerably increased in less than 10 years from US$ 1.7 billion in 2011 to US$ 15 billion in 2020.

And the corruption ranking for our country by Transparency International has consistently and regrettably been worsening from 76th in 2015 to 87th in 2016, to 96th in 2017, to 105th in 2018, to 113th in 2019, and to 117th in 2020

.

Besides, there are numerous other ways and spheres in which the PF administra-tion has lamentably failed to deliver. For example, a critical shortage of decent public housing has continued to compel so many of our fellow citizens to live in shanty townships nationwide; so many of our fellow citizens still have no access to electricity and clean water; education and training are still not adequately ca-tered for; and the healthcare system is still incapable of meeting the basic needs of the majority of citizens mainly due to rampant inadequacy of medicines, healthcare facilities and skilled healthcare personnel.

Moreover, public infrastructure and services are still deficient, and are mainly de-pendent on donor-funding; civil servants are still not adequately compensated for their services, and a lot of civil service retirees cannot get their hard-earned bene-fits on time; and, among many other socioeconomic ills, crime and unemployment are still pervasive.

The socioeconomic ills I have just cited affect us all as members of the Zambian family, irrespective of the political parties and political candidates we support, and irrespective of our tribal identities or the districts or provinces we come from.

Clearly, therefore, there is nothing meaningful which the PF will do to address the catalogue of unprecedented and unfulfilled socioeconomic problems facing our country and its people over the next 5 years which they have failed to address over the past 10 consecutive years the party has been in power.

Needless to say, we have had a government whose inclination and preoccupation has been to spend public resources serving itself instead of serving the people, and a government whose officials have had a tendency to measure their performance in terms of how many chieftains and citizens they have had the desire to corruptly extract votes from through gifts and donations of bicycles, cash, mealie meal, and automobiles.

On August 12, it will not only be irresponsible but unpatriotic for us to reward the Patriotic Front with 5 more years when it has clearly and lamentably failed to de-liver over a period of 10 uninterrupted years it has been in power.

In this regard, I wish to ask all those who teach our children, those who take care of the sick, those who extract and process copper and other minerals, those who provide transport services, those who create goods and services in the private sec-tor, those who sell products in retail outlets and at open markets, those who work in the civil service, those who serve orphaned and vulnerable children, as well as those who are currently unemployed to send a unified message to PF leaders that our beloved country will not afford to keep them in power due to their failure to address the basic needs and expectations of the common people.

I define the term “common people” to include PF members and all other members of the Zambian family across our country’s 10 provinces who have directly or oth-erwise endured the adverse effects of government ineptitude over the last 10 years the ruling political party has wielded the instruments of power.