Maravi

Rupiah's naked tribalism

Rupiah's naked tribalism
By Editor
Wednesday October 22, 2008 [04:00]

RUPIAH Banda's desperation to be elected president is becoming dangerous. It seems Rupiah and the charlatans and opportunists that surround him will stop at nothing to get him into power. These self-professed experts in electioneering have clearly lost their grip. If not managed, they pose a danger to our country's peace and stability.

The performance of Rupiah and his election agent Benny Tetamashimba should be denounced for the nonsense that it is. It seems there is no limit to the depth to which Rupiah will descend to get into power. He has done it all - bribery and corruption, tribalism and regionalism, abuse of public resources and now he is adding threats and intimidation.

All these are not only morally wrong and unacceptable, but they are also criminal acts under our Penal Code and under the Electoral Code of Conduct. Well, this may mean nothing to Rupiah and his sponsors because they seem to think, talk and act as if they are above the law.

We said yesterday and we will continue to say that Rupiah and his charlatans, the band of crooks that surround him, want to bring back all the vices that we have been fighting in our politics. It seems Frederick Chiluba has lent them his book on evil political practices. We say this because Rupiah's campaign is looking more and more like the campaign that Chiluba ran to try and push through his third term criminal ambitions.

Chiluba's strategy was very simple: he was going to bribe, coerce, manipulate, intimidate, blackmail and even deceive people into endorsing his evil scheme.

We have not forgotten that Chiluba got the highest number of endorsements that any politician has probably gotten for his third term from different people. He paraded chiefs, pastors, eminent personalities and all sorts of characters to support his scheme. And yet anyone who was honest and was watching the Zambian political landscape knew that this was a lie. The people were against Chiluba's third term.

Today, Rupiah is doing exactly the same thing - trying to exploit and abuse our chiefs who they have weakened financially and otherwise, who they have dispossessed and turned into beggars to sing their praises in the hope of getting some little help for themselves and probably their people.

This explains why Rupiah and Tetamashimba can share a platform to threaten with violence our brothers and sisters from the eastern part of our country if they don't vote for Rupiah. The desperation of Rupiah and Tetamashimba is leading them not only to make threats but also to engage in blatant, naked, shameless and despicable tribalism and regionalism. They are employing what evil people call in torture methodologies as carrot and stick.

On the one hand they are making threats, on the other they are promising the reward of an Eastern Province presidency. All well-meaning Zambians should denounce this.

How can Tetamashimba be allowed to say that if the people of Eastern Province don't vote for Rupiah they will be whipped? Whilst Rupiah was sitting there, Tetamashimba was nakedly spewing tribal politics, encouraging the people of the east to vote on tribal basis. Tetamashimba with the support of Rupiah told the same meeting that North Western Province was going to vote according to his wishes. This kind of politics is not right. Tetamashimba is speaking as if he owns the people of North Western Province. Who is Tetamashimba in North Western Province? What type of lack of respect is this for the people of North Western Province and those of Eastern Province?

Does Tetamashimba own North Western Province? It's only a person who has no respect for others who can speak in this way, who can act in this way. Rupiah and Tetamashimba have no respect for fellow citizens. And they don't seem to believe in human beings. They seem to think we are all incorrigible little animals, only capable of advancing if you feed them with grass or tempt them with a carrot or whip them with a stick. Anyone who seems to look at fellow citizens in this way is not fit to be a leader or to be even called a leader; anybody who looks at things in this way should never be a leader. Rupiah and Tetamashimba's campaign is an example of what lack of faith in, and lack of respect for, fellow human beings means.

If Rupiah was the kind of leader that he has been claiming to be, he would not have allowed Tetamashimba to make those threats in his presence. He would also not have allowed tribal politics to be preached at his campaign rallies. But to expect that from Rupiah is to expect too much. After all, is it not this same Rupiah that launched his campaign with tribal and regional politics urging this same great people of Eastern Province to chase other candidates and their campaigners who hail from other parts of our country when they step foot in this part of our country? Tetamashimba is simply following his leader. He is simply putting a chorus to Rupiah's hymn. Anyway, a person is judged by the type of people who surround him.

And Rupiah today is surrounded by a motley assortment of contradictory elements whose only common characteristics is opportunism, manipulation, arrogance, disrespect for the Zambian people, corruption, bribery, tribalism, regionalism and thuggerism.

It is not too long ago that Rupiah's sidelined campaign manager Mike Mulongoti threatened to have us sorted out when Rupiah becomes president. These threats of violence were made when Mulongoti was in Rupiah's company. And to date, Rupiah has never denounced it. This is the kind of leader that Rupiah is.

The desperation of the Rupiah camp is beginning to show the marks of a failed campaign. They have taken the Zambian people for granted and now they are beginning to feel all is not well, it's not plain sailing - it won't work, it won't do. Rupiah's campaign in Eastern Province is clear evidence of desperation. If his tribal politics are to be accepted, the east should be Rupiah's strongest base.

So he is going there at this stage to produce some good pictures for his image-makers so that they can give the public the impression that he is very popular. And because of the arrogance of the charlatans that he has hired and the in-fighting that he has stoked in his campaign, Rupiah has failed to run an effective national campaign. And probably this is why Hakainde Hichilema is saying Rupiah cannot win the October 30 elections without rigging. Probably not even rigging will do because the extent required for it to succeed may be too high, they may need to rig the whole country, every polling station.

We have not forgotten the Chiluba-run election of 2001 where the northern parts of our country had no spoiled votes. Probably that's why they are keeping company with him today so that history can repeat itself. But times have changed. People will not accept this. It is unquestionable, and dialects teaches us, that what in a given moment works, later on may not work. That is what dialectic teaches us. Anything else is dogmatism. But that's what people do when they are desperate, when everything else seems to have failed.

There is a lot of dishonesty in the Rupiah camp. They are living a lie. His campaign people have been selling Rupiah on the basis that he was a transitional figure who will help the MMD retain power in 2011 by handing over to someone else. But even before he is elected, Rupiah has already shown his hand, he has began to shift the goal post by telling the people of the east that they should vote for him so that he can be voted again in 2011. What are we saying? This whole edifice called the Rupiah campaign is founded on lies, deceit, manipulation, bribery and corruption.

Rupiah and his charlatans deserve each other. They cheated themselves that they would ride on Levy Mwanawasa's popularity in his death. Their opportunism is so wicked that they were ready to use a dead man to achieve their goals. But they have made some cardinal mistakes, including denouncing Levy's legacy. Some of Rupiah's key campaigners went on television and told the nation that there is nothing like Levy's legacy. The conduct of Rupiah's campaign team clearly shows that they were serious when they said there was nothing like Levy's legacy.

One of Rupiah's first acts on being nominated presidential candidate for the MMD was to embrace a lot of people that had problems with Levy because of their personal integrity.

On the fight against corruption, Rupiah's clear indication of where he stands was to embrace Chiluba and defend his misdeeds. Rupiah's election agent Tetamashimba, who used to denounce Chiluba's corruption when Levy was alive, changed song and started to sing psalms in defence and praise of Chiluba.

Rupiah's sidelined campaign manager Mulongoti told the nation that they were seeking Chiluba's political support because, according to him, any politician in Zambia would want to have Chiluba's support. And Rupiah himself, in a television interview, more or less repeated the same line. He maintained that even prisoners vote, clearly indicating that keeping Chiluba's company was not a wrong thing as long as he could deliver the political support or the votes he needs.

And Rupiah's gesture seems to have been very well received by Chiluba who has not hesitated to give that support even if we know that it amounts to nothing. Chiluba is a discredited and shameless thief who has stolen from his poor people, sending some of them to early deaths. In the company of Rupiah, Chiluba is now attending state functions that he used to shun under Levy. Last Sunday Chiluba danced his lungs out in the company of Rupiah at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. And we will not be surprised to see him dancing again at State House on Friday - a thing he never used to do under Levy.

This is how Rupiah and his sponsors want to 'defend' the legacy of Levy!
Rupiah cannot defend a legacy of good governance and accountability, of honesty and integrity. It is beyond him. A man can only give what he has - no more.

Labels: BENNY TETAMASHIMBA, RUPIAH BANDA, THE POST, TRIBALISM

posted by MrK @ 1:21 PM