Maravi

Battle lines are drawn

Battle lines are drawn
By Editor
Monday June 11, 2007 [04:00]

“Lifting a rock only to drop it on one’s own feet” is an old folk saying to describe the behaviour of certain fools. There are many politicians who are fools of this kind. Their schemes to ignore people’s wishes and to impose their will on the entire nation only serves to accelerate the people’s unity and opposition to them on a broader and more intense scale.

Didn’t Frederick Chiluba’s anti-people political schemes only accelerate the unity of our people against him? Thus, forced by Chiluba to do so, our people in 2001 congregated under the Oasis Forum to challenge him in so many ways, in ways that have led to the removal of his presidential immunity and prosecution. Similarly, riding roughshod, Levy Mwanawasa has made himself the opponent of our people and is increasingly isolating himself.

But all political leaders of this type are nothing but paper tigers. In appearance, they seem terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful. From a long-term point of view, it is not these political leaders who are powerful, it is the people who are really powerful.

Just as there is not a single thing in the world without a dual nature – this is the law of the unity of opposites – so misrule, disregard of public opinion have a dual nature. They are real tigers and paper tigers at the same time. All reputedly powerful political leaders are merely paper tigers. The reason is that they are divorced from the people. Look! Wasn’t Chiluba a paper tiger? Look at his state today and compare to the Chiluba of 1991 to 2001, the Chiluba who was the president of the Republic of Zambia!

Make trouble, fail, make trouble again, fail again… till his doom; that seems to be the logic of Levy in dealing with people’s cause, and it seems he will never go against this logic. Look at the trouble he caused over the Bulaya nolle, look at what he said, the declarations he made over that issue. Try to recall how this issue ended. It seems Levy will never change, he will never become something different till his doom.

Fight, fail, fight again, fail again, fight again… till their victory; that is the logic of the people, and they too will never go against this logic. The development of our politics is following this law, this logic.

This teaches us that our people should never relax their vigilance against frenzied political plots by the likes of Levy and their running dogs. Whoever relaxes vigilance will disarm himself politically and land himself in a passive position.

The tricks of 1996 are back. When the Catholic leadership opposed Chiluba’s approach to the constitution review process, some opportunists, political mercenaries were assembled and given unlimited space to denounce the church’s leadership. We haven’t forgotten the names, identities and activities of those citizens who went under the name of concerned Catholics. Their activities are back again. We are seeing their cheap propaganda in the state owned and government controlled Times of Zambia newspaper, carried as news items. But again, like they did in 1996 they will fail.

If these were mock engagements we wouldn’t worry much. But they are not mock engagements; they are serious political issues with serious consequences on the governance of our country. It is very dangerous for one to start a process that undermines unity in the nation, that undermines the credibility of government.

The process Levy and his friends have embarked on is going to seriously weaken government and threaten whatever progress we have recorded so far. It is sometimes necessary for political leaders to mull over things and listen to the voice of the people, to the concerns of the people and meet them on their terms. In politics one must not be too stiff-necked, too harsh and unyielding; it is sometimes necessary to avoid splits, disunity and yield even to views or approaches one does not agree with. Sometimes it is necessary to yield even to people we think are wrong – among those moving towards us.

Yielding is legitimate and essential in two cases: when the yielder is convinced that those who are striving to make him yield are in the right – in which case honest political leaders frankly and openly admit their mistake – or when an irrational and harmful demand is yielded to in order to avert a greater evil. It is said that little annoyances should not be allowed to stand in the way of big pleasure, that a little opportunistic folly and a little anarchistic talk is better than a big split or disunity in the nation.

The issue at hand is Levy’s mishandling of the constitution review process. It is very clear that Levy is not honest and is far away from being sincere on this issue. The contradictions in his statements on the constitution review process, and especially on the Constituent Assembly, are embarrassing. Levy has for the last four years been contradicting himself. One day he wakes up and says he is for the Constituent Assembly, three or four years later he comes up and says he is opposed to the Constituent Assembly and will vote against it. If there is anybody who has been an opportunist on the issue of the constitution review process, Levy stands out at the very top.

Levy has been very opportunistic on this score and he has tried to use it for personal political ends. He has been talking about leaving a legacy! What legacy? Is our country’s constitution review process a matter for an individual to gain and leave a legacy? This is not a matter for an individual and no individual should look for personal credit on this issue. We are not looking for a Levy constitution; what we are looking for is a people’s constitution – a constitution that arises from the people, adopted by the people through their representatives at a Constituent Assembly and enacted by their representatives in Parliament. That’s all we are looking for.

Levy will not be allowed to achieve his opportunistic and egoistic goals. Probably there is need here to explain a little bit what we mean by an opportunist and why we think Levy is an opportunist. An opportunist, by his very nature, will always evade taking a clear and decisive stand, he will always seek a middle course, he will always wriggle like a snake between two mutually exclusive points of view and try to ‘agree’ with both and reduce his differences of opinion to petty doubts, innocent and pious suggestions, and so on and so forth. This is why Levy today is able to say he is opposed to the Constituent Assembly and will vote against it when yesterday he was saying he was not opposed to the Constituent Assembly, all he wants is it to come from the people. That’s how opportunists operate. This is how Levy and his ministers are operating – opportunistically.

But how should right be distinguished from wrong in one’s words and actions in the political life of our people? We think that words and actions should help to unite, and not divide, our people; they should be beneficial, and not harmful, to our democratic transformation; they should help to consolidate, and not undermine or weaken, the unity of our people and our democratic transformations; they should help to strengthen, and not discard or weaken, the political leadership of our country, especially those in charge of the affairs of the state and government. And the only beneficial way to settle controversial issues among the people is the democratic way, and not by the method of coercion or bulldozing. We must undoubtedly oppose wrong ideas of every description. It certainly would not be right to refrain from criticism, look on while wrong ideas spread unchecked and allow them to monopolise the field. Mistakes must be criticised and poisonous weeds fought wherever they crop up. However, such criticism should not be dogmatic. What is needed is convincing argument. To criticise the people’s shortcoming is necessary, but in doing so we must truly take the stand of the people and speak out of whole-heartedly eagerness to protect and educate them.

Contradictions and struggle are universal and absolute, but the methods of resolving contradictions differ according to the differences in the nature of the contradictions. Some contradictions are characterised by open antagonism, other are not. In accordance with concrete development of things, some contradictions which were originally non-antagonistic develop into antagonistic ones, while others which were originally antagonistic develop into non-antagonistic ones.

In ordinary circumstances, contradictions among the people are not antagonistic. But if they are not handled properly, or if we relax our vigilance and lower our guard, antagonism may arise. This is what dialectics teaches us. This is what Levy and his minions need to know. This apparently non-antagonistic contradiction over the constitution review process, if not handled properly, may turn into an antagonistic one. Our worry is that Levy doesn’t have sufficient political skills to handle contradictions among the people, even those which he himself wittingly or unwittingly creates.

It’s not good to start something one cannot handle. It is not good to start a process that may prove harmful to the unity of our country. We have more than enough problems in the economic sphere, our people are wallowing in abject poverty and need to be removed from this as quickly as we can. In the light of all these problems, why start new problems that may prove a big drain on our country’s financial resources and indeed that may threaten our political stability in a way we cannot adequately foresee? Why this obstinate approach to straightforward political issues? If things go out of control over this issue, Levy will be held responsible because he is starting a process that can be very costly to the country politically and otherwise.

The Red Campaign has been launched by the Oasis Forum and other civil society organisations and it deserves the support of all Zambians of goodwill. We urge all those who stopped Chiluba from having a third term to join the Red Campaign and stop Levy from stealing our people’s right to give themselves a constitution they desire, and not one Levy wants to give them or desires. We urge all our people to dare to struggle, to dare to speak out and stop Levy’s evil political schemes on our constitution review process. The battle lines are drawn!

Labels: EDITORIAL, OASIS FORUM

posted by MrK @ 8:29 AM