Maravi

Genocide!

Genocide!
Written by Editor

Southern Province minister Daniel Munkombwe on Friday told Parliament that some church leaders were being arrested because they are becoming political agents of genocide. This was in apparent reference to last week’s arrest and detention of Radio Icengelo station manager Fr Frank Bwalya. Munkombwe also said that some churches had become more political. He said some people were being assisted by churches which have become more political and this is why some church leaders are arrested.

These are very serious accusations against Fr Bwalya and the Catholic Church in general.

It appears it is increasingly becoming fashionable for our politicians to accuse those who oppose them, those who question their decisions and actions of genocide, subversion and of all sorts of criminal acts. Even the politicians we thought were more realistic, were more honest have joined in this type of behaviour. The reason is not difficult to discern: it’s political desperation arising from increasing isolation.

What must be recognised is the fact that today, we are witnessing an awakening among an important sector of Christians in Zambia. And if we base our analysis on this fact and on these concrete conditions, it is absolutely correct and fair to say that our politicians should have a correct approach to the subject and they should avoid at all costs unjustified statements and rhetoric that goes against the religious feelings of the population because to engage in such rhetoric would only serve the interests of those who want to see our country move backwards for their own benefit.
And faced with a new reality, our politicians should change the way they have dealt with the problem and their approach to the subject.

We think that the enormous historic importance of what the Catholic Church is doing today, its social teachings lies precisely in its profound impacts on the political views of its followers. We could define the Catholic Church’s social teachings today as Christianity’s going back to its roots, its most beautiful, attractive, heroic and glorious history. It’s so important that it forces all our politicians to take note of it as one of the most important events of our time. We can describe it as such because it can deprive the exploiters, the oppressors, the plunderers of our people and those who keep them in ignorance, illness and poverty of the most important tool they have for confusing, deceiving and alienating the masses of our people and continuing to exploit them and abuse them.

That’s how we see what is going on and all these attacks on the Catholic Church and its leadership. It is not surprising that these characters are beginning to take or to recommend a firmer stand against the Catholic Church and its social teachings as something subversive, something genocidal.

Logically, a religious position that seeks out the best in the history of Christianity completely contradicts the interests of corrupt, greedy, vain and narrow-minded politicians. And we can understand their rabid opposition to the Catholic Church, just as we can appreciate the historic importance of the decision made by an important part of the Zambian Church to side with the poor. We believe that the cry of pain reached the church – above all, reached those priests closest to their flocks, who could hear their cries and note their pain and their suffering more clearly.

Never before had the Catholic Church had as much influence and prestige in this country as it has had since many priests and bishops begun to directly and openly identify themselves with the cause of the poor.

It’s very clear that those politicians attacking the Catholic Church are making a great mistake, one they will live to regret.

What they need to accept is that the political system they have created and are running in this country is beset by many contradictions, by many problems which are every day creating crises. It is their divisive political practices that should be said to be leading this country on the path of genocide and not Fr Bwalya’s radio programmes. But as usual, our politicians, as a result of their dishonesty, never take blame for the results of their decisions and practices, they always try to blame others no matter how much they are responsible for what is happening.

Comparing Radio Icengelo programmes to what happened in Rwanda is simply a dishonest attempt to mislead the people, to scare the people and stop them from participating in the affairs of their country, from speaking out or speaking against the wrong doings, the corrupt political practices of their politicians. And it simply won’t work.

In accusing the Catholic Church leadership of having entered politics, what these ignorant politicians are forgetting is that we are living at a time when politics has entered a near-religious sphere with regard to man and his behaviour. We also believe that we have moved to a time when religion can enter the political sphere with regard to man and his material needs.

In conclusion, we would like to sum up what is central to the things we have been saying. In the ecclesiastical life of the Catholic Church, the political dimension of the faith – or, if one prefers, the relationship between faith and politics – has not been discovered by purely theoretical reflection, reflection made before the church has acted. Such reflection is important – but not decisive. Such reflection becomes important and decisive when it does indeed reflect the real life of the church. But it is rather in the actual practice of service to the poor that the political dimension of the faith is to be found, and correctly found.

In such practice one can discover the relationship between the two, and what distinguishes them. It is the faith that provides the first impulse to incarnate oneself in the socio-political world of the poor, and gives encouragement to actions that lead to the better management of national affairs and are also socio-political. And in their own time, that practice and that incarnation make concrete the basic aspects of the faith.

So the Catholic Church has to go on making judgments about politics from within a changing scene. At the present time, the outlook is not clear. And in accordance with its own specific nature, the church will go on supporting one or another political programme to the extent that it operates in favour of the poor among the people. We believe that this is the way to maintain the church’s identity and transcendence. It enters into the real socio-political development of our people.

We judge it from the point of view of the poor. In this way, the church encourages every political activity that leads to justice and peace for the majority of the people. We think this is the way to preserve the transcendence and the identity of the church, because in this way they preserve their faith in God. The early Christians used to say Gloria Dei, vivens homo (the glory of God is in the living person). We could make this more concrete by saying Gloria Dei vivens pauper (the glory of God is the living poor person). And we believe that by putting ourselves alongside the poor and trying to bring life to them, we shall come to know the eternal truth of the gospel.

This is what our politicians should understand and not trying to see criminality, genocide, subversion in every statement that denounces or criticizes their decisions and actions. And it is wrong for our politicians to think they are the only responsible citizens, the only patriotic citizens when we know very well how reckless, how dishonest, how corrupt, how irresponsible, how manipulative, how deceitful, how selfish they are. We live in the same country and we know them very well, probably more than they know us. And some of them anyway have already told us they are in politics for personal benefit, for selfish reasons – they are not in politics to serve anyone else other than themselves.

What is distinctly lacking among our politicians is a culture of tolerance and humility which places the humanity of others before self and accepts that all citizens have a right to participate in the shaping of their destiny, directly without fear of reprisal. Tolerance and respect for our fellow citizens makes us allow our critics to express their opinion about our views and actions without inhibition, whether these seem to be unpalatable or not. Despite all the omens, our politicians believe in themselves and the uprightness of their vision only.

And they have established a reputation for intolerance that is difficult to match. To date, people are dissuaded from criticism in several ways. First, the politicians make loud pronouncements against critics and criticism – genocide, treason in their eyes.

Should this fail, they resort to harassment and intimidation. And harassment takes many forms, the most common ones being arrests and detention on tramped-up charges.

In arrest and detention, they will either be thankful to the white man for this most expedient means of silencing criticism. Intolerance must surely rank as one of the worst forms of immorality in human affairs. To agree with everything they say is divine, but to disagree is genocide, treason. In their eyes, criticism per se is non-existent. Anything else is destructive.

Opposition is an expression of hate, not pure disagreement. And because of this, they are incapable of seeing any criticism in any other light other than hatred, genocide, subversion or treason.

This is the type of politicians we have. Yesterday, it was The Post and today it is the Catholic Church. And tomorrow, who will it be?

Labels: DANIEL MUNKOMBWE, FRANK BWALYA, FREEDOM OF SPEECH

posted by MrK @ 9:24 PM