THE POST WRITES: DIVIDED (EDITORIAL COMMENT FOR SATURDAY 25TH OCTOBER 2014) The Patriotic Front is truly a divided party. It is a divided party because its leadership is divided. But what is it that has divided the Patriotic Front leadership? It is the political methods of its leaders that have divided the Patriotic Front. It is a party in which divide-and-rule tactics are defined and practiced at the highest echelons of the party. It is a party in which factionalism is encouraged or tolerated because it’s seen to be beneficial to the key leadership of the party. In the Patriotic Front, low-level cadres are set on top leaders to weaken them. And when that is done, no one is disciplined. If there is anyone disciplined, it is the victims of indiscipline who are disciplined without being charged with any offence and without being heard. That is how the Patriotic Front operates. The Patriotic Front is a political party where everyone, including very high-ranking party officials, openly proclaim themselves to be nothing. How can one be a top leader of a ruling political party, its secretary general, and declare himself to be nothing and expect to be respected by the people as a leader? All power in the Patriotic Front has to be seen to be flowing from one and only one direction - the direction of the party president. Apart from the party president, everyone else is nothing. And to be safe, to survive, one has to continually declare himself to be nothing. But we all know that nothing is nothing and nothing comes from nothing. What can come out of a party that is led by nothings? And how can nothings be expected to lead us to something? We all know that nothing plus nothing amounts to nothing. How can the Patriotic Front be expected to be united if its unity can only come from one person - the party president? As Nelson Mandela correctly observed, it is a mistake to think that a single individual can unite a political party forever or can assume the role of a messiah. No one in the leadership and membership of the Patriotic Front can today deny that the party is divided. They are all acknowledging this fact. What they are not stating correctly is the source of these divisions. Yes, some have blamed Wynter Kabimba for these divisions. But is the party more united today without Wynter? The answer is a categorical no. Who then is to blame for these divisions? Our view is that the entire leadership of the Patriotic Front, including President Michael Sata himself, cannot escape blame for the divisions and chaos that their party is today facing. For all his strengths, for all his commitments and for all the good things he has done, President Sata cannot be credited with having built a strong, united and disciplined political party. The Patriotic Front is where it is today not because of discipline and unity but because of President Sata’s personal popularity. And this popularity is personal, which means it cannot be easily inherited. It doesn’t mean that if your father or your mother was very popular with people, then you yourself can simply fit into his or her shoes and enjoy the same popularity. The other problem that is causing this disunity is dishonesty in the Patriotic Front. The Patriotic Front is full of crooks, liars, concocters and manufacturers of falsehoods. It is also full of corrupt elements who are ready to engage in any dishonest activity for personal gain. These are people who are ready to manufacture documents, emails and other forgeries to vilify their opponents. Such methods have never been successful anywhere in creating unity in any organisation. They have always been sources of divisions and discontent, bitter quarrels and fights. Power everywhere is contested. And there is nothing wrong with people contesting for power. What may not be acceptable, what may be wrong are the methods they deploy in their competition for power. Competing for power is not a bad thing in itself. What may be bad are the methods deployed. There are people who are ready to harm or kill their competitors for power. That type of competition for power is not acceptable anywhere because the contest for power is one for service and not for the destruction of the other. The competition for power must not be confused with a battlefield, where the aim is to destroy the other. But even on the battlefield, where the aim is to destroy the other, there are rules of engagement that are universally accepted, there are war ethics that all civilised people should adhere to. But in the Patriotic Front, any method goes. There are no scruples. What type of people are these? Are these the type of people who can build a united and disciplined political party? With this type of attitude and conduct, it will not be possible for the Patriotic Front to hold power for a long time after President Sata leaves its leadership. There is an illusion among some leaders and members of the Patriotic Front that this popularity of the party that President Sata has given it will last forever, will go beyond him. They are cheating themselves. If the Patriotic Front wants to remain in power for a long time, many things have to change. They have to change the way they relate to each other and the way they relate to others who are not members of their party. They also have to reduce on their greed and vanity - their corruption. They may think building roads everywhere is a guarantee for them winning any future election. They are not building these roads with their own money; these roads are not a donation from them to the Zambian people. These are projects that are being paid for by the Zambian people themselves. It is not Alexander Chikwanda paying for these roads with his own money. It is not anybody’s money but people’s money paying for these roads. Moreover, who doesn’t know that the more money they allocate to the construction of roads, the more money goes into their pockets because it is much easier to get benefits from these contracts. Moreover, Chikwanda himself has made it very clear to all of us that there is a lot of irresistible corruption in the road construction sector. So whatever they allocate to the road construction, a part of it goes into their pockets. Look at how rich some of them have become in a very short time because of kickbacks from road contractors! Look at where they lived three years ago and where they live now! Look at what they own now and what they owned three years ago! It really personally benefits them to allocate more money to roads. But the competition for all this money is what is breeding, in part, the divisions that we are seeing in the Patriotic Front. Corruption is a very big factor in the divisions we are seeing in the Patriotic Front today. And as experience has shown, corrupt elements always want to turn to the tribe for protection. This is seen all over Africa. So, corrupt elements are usually very tribalistic. And this is why today you are seeing a tendency towards tribalism in the Patriotic Front - it is simply meant to service their corruption and protect them politically. These are the things primarily causing divisions in the Patriotic Front. And the first division is between the corrupt and the incorruptible. The second front for division is among the corrupt elements themselves arising from who gets what share of the loot, who gets what contract or bribe. And then, of course, like in every criminal activity, there is usually a godfather. And this corruption of the Patriotic Front has got a godfather who everyone has to pay homage to for this or that favour. And the godfather is usually not a secret. This is what the leadership of the Patriotic Front, including President Sata himself, has failed to deal with. And because of that, divisions, factionalism, indiscipline have become the order of the day in the Patriotic Front. What a shame! What a disappointment from a political party that many people expected so much from!
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 09:31:14 +0000
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