THE IMMORALITY OF ZAMBIAS POLITICS: RBS ENDORSEMENT OF EDGAR LUNGU By Henry Kabinga Recent news stories suggest that Rupiah Banda has endorsed Edgar Lungu for the 20 January election. This has been buttressed by a Muhabi Lungu statement carried in the Post Newspaper of 25 December that the NEC of MMD (though it was only 25 of them) had met and 21 of them voted to support Lungu as he was, (and this is really weird) the ‘better enemy’. Coming from an intelligent person like Lungu, any ordinary person who has followed Zambian politics would be left truly bewildered by such a statement. It appears this meeting was purely for propaganda purposes as a quorum was not formed and it was not called by either the party Chairman or President. The meeting was chaired by the Women’s Chairperson Faustina Sinyangwe who only a few days ago was in the Mumba camp. Such are the high levels of opportunism in the MMD today that one morning someone will be in one camp but by the afternoon, they would be in the opposing camp and the following day, supporting another party’s candidate! What is particularly mind boggling is that the MMD faction of Rupiah Banda is today supporting a PF candidate! Rupiah has, since losing the 2011 election been harassed, intimidated and humiliated by this same party. He is today facing charges of plunder in the courts of law after his immunity was removed by the same party that is today led by Edgar Lungu who voted along for the removal of his immunity. When all this was happening, the only outside voice of some strength supporting RB was that of Hakainde and the UPND. This came at a very high personal cost to the integrity of Hakainde who faced real hostility for this stand. Hichilema suffered all manner of abuse with one daily newspaper likening him to being a thief like Banda with editorials about how birds of a feather flock together and other such unpalatable things. We understand all sorts of promises of withdrawal of cases, restoring of confiscated vehicles, safe return of his son and the like have been made to Mr. Banda as a person. We cannot confirm the veracity of these reports but if true, Mr. Banda should exercise a bit of decency and morality, yes, even in politics! The least Mr. Banda could have done is to probably stay out of this endorsement game. Mr. Banda should realize that a lot of harm to his person and reputation has been caused him by the selfish people who ill advised him to come back into politics by standing on the MMD. Mr. Banda should be informed that he was being advised by a group of very selfish individuals who sought to benefit personally from him in all manner of ways. Mr. Banda would have without doubt come a distant third behind the UPND and the PF in that order in the January election. He should have listened to the wise counsel of his son Andrew, someone I have known as a very good and principled political campaigner since 1991, rather than to inexperienced and very poor judges of political mood and temperature. We all know that Muhabi Lungu has from time immemorial made very poor political judgements in his political career and has suffered grave consequences for his poor political decisions. These decisions have seen his political star dwindle to the very lows that it finds itself in today. The MMD is now literally dead, torn between three factions that today do not see eye to eye. The MMD will not live beyond 2016 as its only existence remains courtesy of its Parliamentary presence, something that will be totally wiped out come 2016. Equally, by even attempting to stand, Mr. Banda has done his legacy a great deal of harm. His standing in the Zambian public’s eye has suffered a mortal blow. He will not carry the same respect as he did before and if more news about whatever deal has been made with the PF comes through, this may even undermine his legacy further. As a footnote, I would like to engage in a bit of speculation. It could well be that this endorsement has been secured not on the basis of what I have put across, but rather by a more bane and primordial instinct. Could this endorsement be one that smacks of the sort of tribalism that Elizabeth Mulobeka recently exhibited in Kasama when she urged Bembas to vote for Nevers simply because he was Bemba? Could it be one that should conjure up images and memories of the antiquated ‘umodzi ku mawa’ syndrome of the late 1960s with its ‘wako ni wako’ offshoot? Is Lungu being endorsed simply because he comes from the Eastern Province where Rupiah also hails? I rest my case.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 09:04:05 +0000
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