UNIP and its future

UNIP and its future
By Editor
Thursday February 07, 2008 [03:00]

If UNIP does not move quickly to sort out its leadership crisis, it runs the risk of being extinct. The problems UNIP is facing today are not necessarily as a result of its membership, it’s because of its poor leadership. It is the party leadership that has failed and not its membership. Of course leaders lead, but in the end the membership determine the future of the party.

There is a lot of work UNIP needs to do to bounce back to power, to see a reversal of fortunes. They should win the next elections not because the MMD are despised, but because UNIP is understood, supported and trusted. But who understands UNIP today to be able to support and trust it?

There is still a lot of time for UNIP to reorganise and make itself understood, trusted and supported. If they do this, they can win the next elections. But there is no choice between being principled and unelectable; and electable and unprincipled. Nobody should torture oneself with this foolishness any longer. UNIP should only win the next elections because of what the party believes in.

The task of renewing UNIP is certainly not one for the faint hearted, or the weary, or cynical. It is not a task for those afraid of hard choices, for those with complacent views, or those seeking a comfortable life.

At the next elections in 2011, the Zambian voters would have had the MMD in power for 20 years. They may hate them, but they know them. UNIP would have been out of power for 20 years and most of the people who knew it may not be there.

In 2011 people who were 10 or 15 years old when the MMD came to power, and UNIP moved out of government, would be 30 or 35 years old. It is the duty of UNIP to make these people know it now because they hardly know this party, its identity and its character as a party. And change is an important part of that.

UNIP has changed. The UNIP of today is certainly not the UNIP of 1991, the UNIP of Kenneth Kaunda. They have the right to change because parties that do not change die. And UNIP should be a living movement and not an historical monument. If Zambia changes, if the world changes, and UNIP doesn’t change, then it will be of no use to the country. Its principles will cease to be principles and will just ossify into dogma.

But UNIP shouldn’t change to forget its principles. It should instead change to fulfill its principles. It should change not to lose its identity but to keep its relevance.

We say this because change is an important part of gaining the nation’s trust. It should change to reach out and touch the people, to show them that politics is not some Byzantine game played out over screeds of paper in wintry meeting rooms but a real and meaningful part of their lives. It should show them that it wants to build a nation with pride in itself.

A thriving community, rich in economic prosperity, secure in social justice, confident in the future. A land in which our children can bring up their children with a future to look forward to. UNIP should show that this is its hope, not just to promise change – but to achieve it.

Their daily deeds as a party must produce an actual Zambian reality that will reinforce our belief in justice, strengthen our confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all our people.

And UNIP will only win the next elections if it succeeds to implant hope in the breasts of the millions of our people and take away their despair and make all the work that has gone on benefit not just a few.

It gets dark sometimes, but the morning comes. People should never give up on just causes; they shouldn’t surrender. Suffering breeds character. Character breeds faith. In the end faith will not disappoint.

UNIP leaders and members should know that no revolution ever comes to an end and that all the revolutionaries have the duty to keep its ideas, principles and goals alive. Even if UNIP was to try to close off prospects for future progress, it wouldn’t be able to do so.

Nobody controls the future. Nobody can deny that UNIP was a revolutionary political movement. We say this because any organisation that struggles to free its people from colonial, imperial domination is a revolutionary organisation and its leaders and members are revolutionaries.

Of course there are other higher forms of being revolutionary but they don’t take away anything from these revolutionaries we are talking about. We think that UNIP did some great work in our country, effecting great changes and engaging in important social projects that will last. Nobody can wipe them out or suppress them. And because of this, there is no reason why UNIP should write itself off completely or anyone else should write it off.

But to guarantee that UNIP does not change its colour, it must not only have a correct line and correct policies but must strain itself and bring up hundreds of thousands of successors who will carry on the cause of its founding revolutionaries.

To us, it is clear that the current leadership of UNIP has failed to run the party, recruit cadres and mobilise support for the party. And we say this without hatred or in any way attempting to undermine any individual. We sincerely believe that this once great party may take a very long time to rise and take its place in our country’s politics if serious changes are not made in its leadership.

There is no need to cling to power if one is not able to deliver because here, what is at stake is an extremely important matter, a matter of life and death for UNIP.

It is a matter of fundamental importance to the continued existence of this political party which deserves attention from all its leaders and members. UNIP needs a new leadership. But what are the requirements for worthy leaders of this party?

They must be genuine Humanists and revolutionaries and not opportunists wearing the cloak of Humanism. They must be revolutionaries who wholeheartedly serve the overwhelming majority of the people of Zambia, and not opportunists who serve the interests of a handful of members.

They must be capable of uniting and working together with the overwhelming majority of our people. Not only must they unite those who agree with them, they must also be good at uniting with those who disagree and even with those who formerly opposed them and have since been proved wrong in practice.

But they must specially watch out for careerists and prevent such bad elements from usurping the leadership of the party at any level. They must be models in applying the party’s democratic principles and must cultivate a democratic style and be good at listening to the members and the masses. They must not act arbitrarily and dictatorially.

They must be modest and prudent and guard against arrogance and impetuosity; they must be imbued with the spirit of self-criticism and have the courage to correct mistakes and shortcomings in their work.

They must never cover up their errors and claim all the credit for themselves and shift all the blame on others. Such are the qualities and style of work demanded of UNIP leaders if we are to see a reversal of fortunes in this political party.

If not, confusion, anarchy, electoral defeats, defections will continue to rock UNIP. Again, the leadership and membership of this political party have the challenge to determine which way UNIP goes – revival or extinction. The choice is theirs.