Opinion: Another Angle at Tribalism in Zambia By Dr. Munyonzwe Hamalengwa Zambia now has had five presidents. The sixth President has just been inaugurated. The new president as have many other presidents and writers have decried the prevalence of tribalism in Zambia, especially how it influences or has the potential of influencing election results. My thesis is that it is more difficult to pinpoint the effects of tribalism in election outcomes than it is to point out the existence of real tribalism in post election behaviour reflected in who gets appointed to ministries, civil service, foreign service, directorships, promotions and so on. Unlike the former, which can sometimes be based on speculation and emotion or knee-jerk reactions and mindless insults, especially in blogosphere, the latter is verifiable with actual empirical evidence which President Lungu has to guard against. Zambia has a rich and documented history about Presidents Kaunda, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, Banda and Sata’s appointments to all levels of society. That history does not lie. Insults denouncing the verifiable evidence are mindless. Appointments where real tribalism or its negation is evidenced can be categorized as reflecting national, tribal, regional, nepotistic or family character. Evidence is that we can have a national tree (no or little tribalism), tribal tree, regional tree, nepotism tree and family tree. Without feigning ignorance, Zambians know who perpetrated what tree. Let’s spell it out. Of all the Zambian presidents, starting with President Kaunda and ending with President Sata, whose appointments reflected a national character, that is, an effort at the negation of tribalism? No insults please, do your research, the evidence is already available and easy to access. Of all the presidents from KK to Sata, whose appointments were evidenced by tribal, regional, nepotistic or family biases and character? It is of course clear that the family tree overlaps with nepotism, tribal and regional. In other words, these categories are not mutually exclusive. However, the more family appointments a president makes, the more virulent will the tribal biases be demonstrable. The question now is, after having denounced tribalism, will President Lungu continue to perpetrate this cancer through his post election appointments? It is much harder to fight pre election tribalism than it is to fight it post election through appointments. One exercises no or less control of this cancer during elections, but exercises more or direct control over this beast because it is the president and his inner group that appoints ministers, heads of the civil service, judges, ambassadors, directors and so on. Thou shall be judged not by thou words, but by thou deeds. zambiareports/2015/01/27/opinion-another-angle-tribalism-zambia/
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 16:56:25 +0000
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