Maravi

Political hooliganism

Political hooliganism
By Editor
Sunday November 11, 2007 [03:00]

Nelson Mandela once observed that when leaders have the honesty to criticise their own mistakes and their own organisations, then they could criticise others. The criticism of Luapula Province minister Chrispin Musosha by Patriotic Front vice-president Guy Scott is not coming from an honesty heart. Before setting out to call for the removal of Musosha as minister for beating up PF cadres in Chingola, Guy should have looked at the events that led to Musosha’s misbehaviour in totality. If he did that, Guy could have realised that even PF cadres also deserved to be disciplined.

But we have a problem with our political leaders across all parties. They are not honest enough to criticise their own mistakes and organisations. But they are quick to criticise the mistakes and weaknesses of other people.
The pockets of violence and some undesirable scenes that took place during campaigns for the Nchanga parliamentary elections were not new. Our politicians have no value and respect for divergent views. When they hold different political beliefs and belong to different political parties, they consider themselves as enemies rather than friends pursuing a similar agenda for the benefit of our people, but from different platforms.

And to cement this enmity among them, politicians have found youths in their political parties to be very useful tools for achieving this agenda. They use them, the cadres, to insult, humiliate and sometimes to physically injure their enemies. Such scenes are manifestly evident during times of the campaigns, like we witnessed last week in Nchanga, because that is when politicians are very thirsty for power. During such times, politicians resort to using very uncouth language against each other. They bring out all sorts of libellous allegations against each other. Those who are very desperate even go to the extent of concocting very damaging lies about their political enemies, all in the name of winning elections or propping up their parties.
But this is all unnecessary. We have said before, especially to our youths that they should not allow themselves to be used just for a few litres of opaque beer. These political leaders are supposed to be inculcating in their youths a sense of national responsibility. They should teach them how to be good citizens and to respecting elders in society.
There is an adage which says it is easy to defeat people who do not kindle fire for themselves. Traditionally, the elders would sit around the fire and discuss issues of concern to the community in order to maintain stability and unity. If the fire is not kindled for this purpose, or symbolically if people do not value and appreciate each other, this adage warns that they will easily be defeated in a time of trial.
Our politicians have no time to maintain stability and promote unity in our communities. To the contrary, they spend most of their time corrupting the minds of the young ones on how best they can embarrass and humiliate their political enemies. They are always busy scheming on how to bring down their political enemies. That is why Guy did not find it appropriate to counsel his cadres on how they should be respecting those who hold contrary views from theirs. Without doubt, these youthful PF cadres poked fun at the elderly Musosha just because he was from the MMD. They showered him with all sorts of obscenities and unprintables. They abused him with unpalatable language. Some of these could even be seen from the picture we carried on our front page yesterday.
But all Guy could do was to criticise Musosha for having a small heart as a minister; that he allowed himself to lose guard of his emotions at the slightest provocation of PF cadres. Guy wants President Levy Mwanawasa to discipline Musosha for that unministerial behaviour but he has not told us how he intends to deal with such unruly behaviour from his cadres.

In saying this, we are not in any way suggesting that Musosha should not be condemned for that behaviour. What we are saying is that those who want to criticise or condemn others for whatever mistakes and weaknesses should not forget to look at their own shortcomings or faults. It is said that it takes two to tangle. Musosha could not have beaten up those cadres if they did not deliberately humiliate him. And if those cadres were well taught by their leaders, they could not have behaved in the manner they did towards Musosha.

And this is our major concern. The political hooliganism that we witness from time to time, is designed by senior politicians who are expected to set a model for the younger generation. However, we need to move away from such kind of politics. In more advanced democracies, political opponents usually sweat to outdo each other on national issues. It is usually a battle of wits, not a battle of fists. The battle is about which political party or politician has the best or better policies, and not which politician can insult the most or fight the hardest.

We urge all our political leaders to begin to embrace more civil ways of practicing politics. Dr Kenneth Kaunda once said that politics are not dirty, but that they are made dirty by some dirty politicians. In short, if our political leaders are not violent, there will never be a time when we shall witness violence perpetrated by them through cadres.

And as it is said, you will know them by their fruits. Violent leaders will be seen through the violence of their cadres. And leaders who want to maintain peace and promote unity in our communities will also be seen by such attributes in the people they lead.

Labels: CHRISPINE MUSOSHA, GUY SCOTT

posted by MrK @ 2:37 PM