Maravi

Beware of political opportunists

Beware of political opportunists
By Editor
Saturday July 21, 2007 [04:00]

Nearly a month after the political party presidents’ summit at Mulungushi International Conference Centre, there is enough evidence now why politicians should not be allowed to posture as servants of the people.

Going by the behaviour of some of our politicians over the constitution-making process in the aftermath of what was mistaken for a breakthrough over this process, the cynicism with which people view politicians is justifiable.

Prior to the inter-party dialogue among political parties, we do recall that most politicians were singing the song of going by the people’s will in the constitution-making process. Now that politicians think they have succeeded in geting what they have always wanted, they think that it is time to change the rhythm of the original song.

We are not surprised because our politicians are the kind of people who, once they see some light at the end of the tunnel in terms of personal benefits, they can go to the extent of buying the whole tunnel just to make sure that they can derive maximum benefits unto themselves.

Now that some of these unprincipled, job-seeking politicians have seen some potential benefits from the constitution-making process, they want to go to the extent of ‘buying out’ the entire process. They are now willing to sacrifice the will and wishes of the people just because some prospect of this or that benefit is blinking in their faces. What crass political opportunism is this?

Listening to some of our politicians and considering their sudden infatuation with a process which they were originally not so keen on, it is clear that they have all along been posing as servants so that they become the masters over all of us. It is truly funny, yet scary, that some opposition political leaders are now speaking as if they actually belong to the ruling party and not their parties. Even some members of the ruling party are sounding more reasonable than some of the so-called opposition leaders over the constitution-making process.

Maybe we can understand this and perhaps we need to be more fair to some of our politicians because after all, they need jobs and their parties are nothing but shells; their parties are just on paper and they are a nullity to our political process and they think they can only add value to themselves by trying to align themselves to the party in power.

We have repeatedly stated that when it comes to the constitution-making process, the people of Zambia can only trust politicians at their own peril. There is a consistent pattern of dishonesty and inconsistencies that serves to show why politicians should not be left on their own to deal with the constitution-making process.

As we have stated already, some of the politicians have conducted themselves in a manner that shows clearly that nothing positive should be expected from them in terms of their role in this process.

Our position remains the same on this matter: The people, and not politicians, will have to take a leading role if a genuine and long-lasting constitution has to come out of this process.

Yes, we have heard some politicians claim that they are an integral part of the political system and they cannot be reduced to by-standers, just to observe the process from the sidelines. Nobody denies the fact that this process should be a collective one because the new constitution should not be a product to serve the interests of a particular set of people.


This is the reason why we are opposed to the idea that politicians, under the mask of the Zambia Centre for Interparty Dialogue, should now claim more relevance and importance to the constitution -making process when they have all along not shown any serious commitment. It is actually downright mockery to the people of Zambia for some politicians to talk about inclusiveness in this process when they want it to be hijacked by themselves and unto themselves.

The people’s wishes are well articulated in the Mung’omba Constitution Review Commission (CRC) report, and those who will go against the recommendations in the CRC draft report will certainly not be relevant to the process.

So even as the constitution conference bill is being circulated and debated, of prime importance will be the fact that its final form or content should be informed by the CRC draft report and recommendations. Anything short of that will not be of any use to the desires of the people of Zambia to have for the first time a constitution that they can truly claim to be theirs or their own.

Needless to say that it would be difficult to completely eradicate political opportunism in this process because some politicians simply cannot survive without being opportunists.

What is important, however, is for all of us to remain vigilant and ensure that political opportunists are not given space to push their pocket agendas in a serious process like this one. Obviously, the opportunists will not announce their arrival or disclose their identity, but they can be identified by their talk and their actions.

And so far we have already identified some of them. So, let’s keep our guard on high alert so that we can keep all political opportunists out of the constitution-making process.

Labels: CONSTITUTIONAL CONFERENCE, CRC, DEAN MUNG'OMBA, EDITORIAL, ZCID

posted by MrK @ 3:25 AM