Maravi

Rupiah's campaign of discrimination

Rupiah's campaign of discrimination
By Editor
Saturday October 11, 2008 [04:00]

It is becoming increasingly difficult to appreciate what Rupiah Banda’s campaign is really about. At one time, Rupiah’s message to the people of Eastern Province was that they should tell whoever goes to campaign there to go back where they come from. And today, this same Rupiah is saying there are many problems in Zambia and he is calling for unity among Zambians if the problems were to be successfully fought.

But sharing the platform with him, Ben Mwila was asking people not to support Michael Sata because his origin was questionable: “Where have you heard the name Sata in Zambia elsewhere?”

What does this amount to? What does Rupiah and those who support him stand for, believe in? Do they believe in discrimination, regionalism, tribalism? Do they genuinely believe in national unity?

Rupiah’s camp seems to be motley assortment of contradictory elements joined only by their desire to be in the ruling party, by opportunism, selfishness, greed and vanity.

Rupiah’s campaign seems to be permanently wedded to contradictions. Today they say this, tomorrow they say the opposite. Today they speak the language of discrimination and tomorrow they are calling for unity. Sometimes they do this on the same day and on the same platform.

Sometimes they don’t have even respect for facts. Mwila is trying to question Sata’s origins but he is forgetting that the candidate he is supporting, he is campaigning for was born in Zimbabwe. It is not a secret that Rupiah was born in Zimbabwe and not in this country. But surely, why should one discriminate against Rupiah on the basis of having been born in Zimbabwe?

It’s only Frederick Chiluba who was preoccupied and obsessed with where people were born or originated. Chiluba tried to deport Dr Kenneth Kaunda to Malawi where his parents originated. He also deported Rupiah’s current special assistant William Banda to Malawi. It was only Levy Mwanawasa who allowed William to return to Zambia after he became president.

This is what happens when a leader of a group says wrong things without promptly correcting them. This is what happens when the head of a fish is rotten – the whole fish becomes rotten in no time.

Mwila is saying these things because he knows that this is the same language Rupiah was using in Eastern Province at the beginning of these campaigns and he has not said anything to repudiate those statements or apologise for making them.

No meaningful national leadership can be constructed on these shifting sands of evasions, illusions, opportunism and unending contradictions.

These characters are even insensitive to the fact that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of our people originate from our neighbouring countries.

We have many Zambians whose origins are in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Congo, Angola, Namibia and Botswana. But this does not make them less Zambian. We also have Zambians whose origins are in other continents. Also no one can question their Zambianess.

We are not trying to explain Sata’s origins. What we are concerned about is the discrimination of any Zambian on the basis of their origin, tribe, colour or creed. Dr Kaunda abhorred and outlawed these things. He taught Zambians to hate discrimination based on these things.

But it seems Rupiah and his friends failed to appreciate Dr Kaunda’s teachings on this score.

How primitive would Rupiah’s campaign look in the eyes of the American people today who have adopted Barack Obama, a man whose father originates from a poor African country with Islamic connections – Kenya?

When others are moving forward in very long steps, we seem to be moving backwards in very long strides.

There are many campaign issues that Rupiah and his friends can raise about Sata than to dwell on his origins which they can’t even explain.

This reminds us of what Nelson Mandela once said: “The universe we inhabit as human beings is becoming a common home that shows growing disrespect for rigidities imposed on humanity by national boundaries.”

All of us know only too well that discrimination based on tribe, region of origin, colour demeans the victims and dehumanises its perpetrators.

We detest discrimination of this nature because we regard it as a barbaric thing. And it doesn’t matter who it comes from.

We detest it because it pollutes the atmosphere of human relations and poisons the minds of the backward, the bigoted and the prejudiced. And we must ensure that our origins, our tribe, our colour become only a God-given gift to each one of us and not an indelible mark or attribute that accords us special status to any.

We should never allow our country to play host to any form of discrimination based on these things. We must consciously combat these things and we should not discreetly tolerate them like we are seeing in Rupiah and his campaign team.

The very fact that discrimination of this nature degrades both the perpetrator and the victim commands that, if we are true to our commitment to protect human dignity, we fight it without respite.

We hate this type of discrimination, and in our hatred for it, we are sustained by the fact that the overwhelming majority of the Zambian people hate it equally.

We should always bear in mind that what Zambians are looking for is not the origins of a leader, the tribe or colour of a leader or what degrees or certificates he holds.

They are participating in this election to vote for a candidate who will win them material benefits, who will enable them to live better and in peace, who will help them to see their lives go forward, who will guarantee them the future of their children. These are the principle things the Zambian people are looking for.

And when we talk about these issues, sometimes it is necessary for us to recall the past, so as to foresee and plan the future better. In Zambian history, the struggle for independence has been intrinsically bound up with the struggle for unity.

The struggle to defend and consolidate unity, the driving force of the independence struggle, demanded permanent vigilance and action to neutralise and eliminate the manoeuvers of national opportunists. And by defining tribalism, regionalism and racism as enemies to be fought against, just like colonialism, the leaders of our independence struggle deprived the opportunists of the chief instruments of their anti-people maneuvers.

We hail from all corners of the country, and from all parts of the world and have joined together for a common progressive and noble objective. The seeds of disunity being planted by Rupiah and his friends threaten not only the gains we have made but also our collective future.

It is said that those who are ready to join hands can overcome the greatest challenges. We have many challenges today which require us to join hands and unite to overcome them. Belonging to different political parties does not in itself mean disunity in the nation because it can give rise to unity in diversity.

The discriminatory utterances that were started by Rupiah in Chipata and are now being repeated by his friend and supporter Mwila are dangerous and deserve to be denounced. We wish to emphasise that it is definitely against natural justice and Christian brotherly love to discriminate against someone on the basis of their origins.

And such discrimination is particularly harmful in this country where members of different tribes and races live side by side. This type of discrimination, in whatever form and by whoever, should be condemned by all Zambians regardless of their political affiliations. Nothing but evil can be the fruit of this type of discrimination.

A politician who encourages discrimination on the basis of one’s origins is not fit to be called a leader. He is a danger to the nation. And for these reasons, we ask Rupiah to apologise to the Zambian people for the discriminatory statements he made in Chipata and order all his supporters not to repeat such messages.

We also ask him to distance himself from Mwila’s statement about Sata’s origins. And if Rupiah has any sense of decency, he should apologise to Sata for the remarks made by Mwila at his campaign meeting. Rupiah should take responsibility for the statements made by those campaigning for him or with him.

When they say things that are contrary to his beliefs, he should not hesitate to repudiate them. But it is difficult to see how Rupiah will distance himself from the things being said by his friends in their campaigns for him when he himself had said similar things.
This is the type of leadership Rupiah is promising the Zambian people! The choice is ours!

Labels: MMD, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 3:53 AM