The Post (Zambia) / Wednesday, 28 June 2006 From the very beginning, the way UPND was organised created a great potential for serious regional problems and contradictions. At the core of UPND has been Southern and Western provinces, or put in more precise terms, it has been a party whose main support base lay with the Tongas and the Lozis with some fragmented support in North-Western Province. This in itself meant that any weakening of the cohesion between the Tongas and their traditional cousins, the Lozis had the danger of seriously impairing the party’s capacity. And this is what seems to be emerging from the contest between Hakainde Hichilema, a Tonga, and Sakwiba Sikota, a Lozi, for the presidency of UPND. It is not in dispute that Hichilema has managed to secure the support of the great majority of party members and leaders who are Tonga. And on the other hand, Sikota has absolute control of the Lozi support - a fact Hichilema acknowledges as normal. Yes, this may be normal. But the political support that runs more or less on the basis of one’s tribe or region has a lot of inherent problems. You cannot create a strong political organisation on such a formula. No durable or long lasting unity can be constructed or carved out of such type of political alliance. This is because unity built on this type of formula has no depth, it has no roots. All that it needs is for one opportunist to descend on it and attempt to exploit it and all is in flames or tatters.We are not saying UPND is the only political party in our country that has this problem. Most of our parties, to varying degrees, suffer from it also. But at the moment, this problem has found the highest expression in UPND where it has resulted in an open crisis. We were brave enough in the past to point out this problem to the leadership of UPND so that it could be addressed before it became a permanent disability. The response was a very defensive one and we were denounced in all sorts of ways. We can still be denounced today for expressing our views on this issue and making these observations. It’s okay, let it be. Time - that great teacher and equaliser - will one day come to our rescue and absolve us. This is because no matter how hard its adversary - falsehood - may try to overwhelm it, truth refuses to yield; it always comes to the fore to haunt those who tried to bury it. When problems are masked in this way, they incubate and multiply just to explode when least expected. Today all sorts of opportunists in UPND are cashing in on this problem, trying to use it to feather their own nests. It is really sad that a man’s merit and abilities can be subordinated to his tribal origins; it is painful that today in Zambia after almost 42 years of independence, one’s tribe or regional background takes precedence over his merits and abilities. As for UPND, as we have already done, our advice is that the form of political organisation that they take in their party should promote unity, not only in the party itself, but as well as in the nation at large. The organisation of their politics and intra-party democracy doesn’t seem to be promoting or advancing unity.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 23:42:33 +0000
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