EDITORIAL: Vernon and tribalism, regionalism | Post #Zambia: postzambia/news.php?id=5305 If there is anything in our politics in which Vernon Mwaanga really stands out, it is having pursued a clear path of non-tribal and non-regional politics. We agree with Vernon when he says that “if there is anyone among the many leaders and former leaders who cannot be accused of tribalism, it is probably me”. Truly, Vernon’s “political history speaks for itself”. Tonga tribalists and regionalists nicknamed Vernon Mwaanga as Vernon Mwansa for simply not going with them in their tribal and regional expedition. The same cannot be said about Rupiah Banda. He has a totally different record. To Rupiah, tribe and region matters a lot. In 2008 when Rupiah started his presidential campaign in the election that followed Levy Mwanawasa’s death, he told the people of Eastern Province to chase away anyone from other regions coming to campaign there and tell them to go back where they come from. Rupiah is known for wako ni wako, umodzi ku m’mawa. Vernon is not known for any of such things. Truly, this is the first time Vernon is supporting a politician from Southern Province in a presidential election. And it is difficult to disagree with him that he is doing so on the basis of having weighed the merits of each candidate in this election. If it is for any other consideration like tribe or region, then Vernon has enough arguments that can stand on the judgment seat of reason and effectively hide his other motivations that have got little or nothing to do with merit. His long and clean record on issues of tribalism and regionalism fully protect him from such accusations. And we actually believe that in this case, Rupiah’s endorsement of Edgar Lungu may not be that much motivated by issues of tribe and region. We believe Rupiah’s support for Edgar is as his son Andrew put it - it is for selfish reasons. It is simply out of a deal to have his corruption prosecution ended so that he can continue to enjoy a comfortable and peaceful life. Rupiah could have done this for any other candidate with a very high chance of winning if he was approached. So, this is not so much about Edgar’s tribe or region of origin. It is about Rupiah’s personal interests. Rupiah does have some political influence among some of our people in Eastern Province and Edgar, out of desperation to win this election, has embraced him regardless of the other baggage Rupiah carries. What seems to be more important for Edgar now is to win this election; everything else is secondary and can be dealt with later. As for the UPND, the political party Vernon is today supporting, we hope they will learn something about the need to support merit at all times. There is no doubt they have got a superior candidate in this election and if merit was the only consideration, they would win this election. But the problem is that they themselves have not taught their supporters and all our people the need for merit in everything one does. The UPND has supported individuals and causes that seriously lack merit. They have sometimes done so purely on partisan, tribal and regional considerations. Merit is not something that the UPND has really taken seriously in its politics. And the best example we can give of their performance on this score is the election of the Speaker of Parliament in 2011. The UPND, on a purely partisan basis and totally devoid of merit, sponsored and supported Richard Kapita to be the speaker of our Parliament. They vigorously opposed and campaigned against the candidature of Dr Justice Patrick Matibini, who was sponsored and supported by the Patriotic Front. For all his merits that are beyond any dispute, Dr Matibini won that election by one vote - one vote only. The UPND denied him all their votes and gave everything to Richard, a man who is on all fronts nowhere near Dr Matibini. But today, this same political party, these same elements want merit to prevail. What merit? Is it the same merit they denied Dr Matibini or it is another type of merit they are seeking? If they had taught our people to respect merit, to abhor tribal and regional politics, this election would be theirs without question. But because of the seeds of tribalism, regionalism and lack of respect for merit, they will have to do a lot more than normal to win this election. And the challenge for them is that time is not on their side to start sending a new and clear message to our people. Today, the UPND is a victim of its own practices. We are on record warning them about the dangers of their tribal and regional politics. Instead of addressing the issues we are raising and improving their appeal to the great majority of our people, they went for us, accusing us of all sorts of things - being anti-Tonga, hateful of UPND, of having killed Anderson Mazoka, of hating Hakainde Hichilema and so on and so forth. If they had done even a little bit to address the issues we are raising with them, they would today be in all parts of our country and could start their victory celebrations even before the first ballot paper is cast. But today, they will probably have to wait for the last vote to be counted. We hope the UPND and its leadership and indeed all our political parties and their leaders are learning something from what is happening. This may be a painful experience for most of them but it is also a valuable one. If they learn the lessons well, tomorrow they will have better political parties and leaders and our homeland will be cleansed of all the vices of yesterday. Anyway, some say politicians don’t learn, they keep on repeating the same mistakes all the time. We can only hope this time around, our politicians learn something, a little something and move our country in a slightly different direction on issues of merit, tribalism and regionalism. In a society that is fair and just, virtue opens the way for itself, merit prospers, and conniving, greed, vanity and cheating fail. In such a society, the best among our politicians, in the moral, civic, political, and professional sense, regardless of their tribe, region of origin or even political affiliation, wins. - See more at: postzambia/news.php?id=5305#sthash.1Q53SOIG.dpuf
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 17:24:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015