The democratic and political landscape in Africa has never been the same since most countries reintroduced or introduced multi-party elections. I have mentioned in most of my posts and opinions that what is remaining for us to do is to seek ways to consolidate and nature our democratic processes. Though the focus is only on political parties I have the opinion that all stakeholders like the civil society, religions groups and professional bodies ought to help provide that balanced contribution.
Citizens and politician alike should see to it that they play their part. Nevertheless, the problem we have is that everyone thinks they are opposition parties. Instead of supporting the government of the day everyone wants to replace the party in government every time there are elections. I think democracy should not be judged by how many elections a country has. It should however be judged on how mature or unselfish the opposition is.
I believe Zambia’s democracy has developed a lot and people are beginning to understand their roles and rights as citizens. In this regard anyone who thinks will ride on the ignorance of voters will be shocked come next year. People are becoming more and more informed. People are now beginning to understand why we are facing challenges as a country. It is not because the Patriotic Front(PF) which is the party in government has failed as selfish opposition parties would have people think. People are now starting to understand that we are having these problems because we did not put certain measures in place as a country some years ago.
The problem of electricity, lose of jobs in mines and dropping of copper prices has nothing to do with President Lungu. Not investing in other sources of energy which would have been done 20 years ago has nothing to do with President Lungu. The dependence on copper as the main source of national income has nothing to do with PF but consultants, leaders and politicians of yesteryears. Hence anyone who wants to use this as a ride to power is just a selfish individual. With the work that is being done by the current government in changing the face of the country and opening up the road network. No political pact can even unseat the current government. With schools, health centres and universities being constructed only a selfish politician will even think of going into a political pact and expect to win.
And talking about political pacts. People are cheating themselves that if opposition parties went into a pact they can unseat the ruling government. With the current political landscape this can not happen in Zambia. What our politician lack is the understanding of the voter and the reason for change. In my opinion there are only four situations that could see(or saw) a collusion of parties work. The first one was when fighting the British during the pre-independence era. The second was when Zambians were fighting for multiparty democracy before 1991, Thirdly was when there were calls for late President FTJ Chiluba to run for a third term. The fourth and probably the last of our generation is 2011.
All these were for a nobble cause and not a selfish cause. The only time in the last 20 years a pact came to work in an election was in 2008 when some parties backed the government of the day Movement for Multi-Party Democracy(MMD) and in 2015 when some parties including members of MMD backed PF. These on paper were not pacts but just backings. So you see backing or a pact would always favour the ruling party. Even next year in the event that we went for a rerun President Lungu and PF would still win simply because he will not have competition.
You may not agree with me. But why do you think no opposition pact won the elections in 2006 and 2008. You don’t need to be a political analyst to understand this. Zambians saw no need to trust the pacts both led by Mr Hakainde Hichilema(HH) of United Party for National Development(UPND). Next year is no different. Can you surely imagine a pact of Mr Wynter Kabimba, Ms Edith Nawakwi and probably Mr Mike Mulongoti. It is like magnetic North Pole and North Pole. You know what happens when same pools are brought together. This is the case of the people above. Maybe uncle Mike can compromise. But HH, Kabimba or Edith after the way she was treated by HH in 2006. It’s a non starter.
The other point to note is that people mistake having a lot of press conferences and condemning or discrediting government and the country outside Zambia to being popular. People should know that Zambia is not Lusaka or Southern province alone. Neither is it Copperbelt and North-Western alone. People vote on what they see and not what they don’t see. In 2001 and 2008 people started celebrating when they heard results from the above regions I mentioned above. But when results from other places some celebrations were short lived. Why is this so? Because the MMD that time worked in most rural areas. The PF is doing more than that-the whole country is benefiting from the many projects.
The opposition as it stands has nothing to offer. They are just selfish people who want to ride on that motive. Zambians should not even think about giving some people a chance because we will live to regret that. The character and attitudes of some parties and their followers is a danger to the consolidation of our democracy.
Zambians rejecting these kind of people is a blessing in disguise. There is an expression in Bemba which says: Uwantana chilemba ampususha ku fisushi (S/he who doesn’t offer me beans saves me from farting). Eat that beans at your own risk. As for me it’s no thank you.
Have a fruitful week
By Joe Mwansa Lombe Kaluba
The post Opinion: Opposition Parties Are Selfish appeared first on Zambia Reports.