Maravi

Rupiah is wedded to regionalism

Rupiah is wedded to regionalism
Written by Editor

It seems Rupiah Banda is permanently wedded to regionalism and tribalism. During the last election campaigns, Rupiah elevated regionalism and tribalism to levels that this country had never experienced before from a presidential candidate. In broad daylight, he publicly told the people of Chipata not to entertain anyone coming to campaign in that province who hails from another region. He directed them to chase such people away and tell them to go back where they come from. And today, this same Rupiah wants to cheat that he promised unity of the people of Zambia.

It is very clear to everybody that Rupiah believes in regionalism and tribalism and sometimes uses this in an extremely patronising way. Rupiah yesterday said to the people of Kasama: “People of Northern Province, I sent you an Eastern bull, he is very quick to learn, he is already speaking Bemba fluently so that others cannot say, ‘you sent us somebody who cannot speak our language’.

I know him very well, he performed in Eastern Province, and I know he will perform well here because he is in front of his own cousins.” This was in reference to Northern Province minister Charles Shawa. What has Shawa’s coming from Eastern Province got to do with his performance in Northern Province? What is this nonsense of tribal cousin got to do with a government official performing his duties?

Clearly, contrary to his claims of unity, Rupiah is a dangerous regionalist and tribalist.

And sometimes in life, it is better to be honest about things and not credit oneself with collective achievements. Peace in this country is not a product of Rupiah’s presidency. If anything, Rupiah, more than any president before him, has endangered national unity and peace in this country the most. It was not his political abilities or values that have enabled this country to stay united and peaceful after the October fraudulent elections in which Rupiah exhibited, to the highest level, political and electoral corruption. And there is no need for Rupiah to start reminding people of the wrong things he did to enable him to become president. His embarrassing corruption record in the last elections is still very fresh in the minds of people for him to go around bragging and saying senseless things. It is better for Rupiah to avoid talking about things that are divisive and concentrate on trying to tackle or solve the many problems our people are today facing. Today, Rupiah wants to mislead Zambians that he promised them peace and they are enjoying that peace under his leadership as though peace was lacking in Zambia before he became president. And Rupiah must understand that peace is not just the absence of conflict, of war. Hunger disturbs peace more than anything. Unemployment leads to more instability than even differences over the number of votes each presidential candidate got in an election. It is said that a hungry man is an angry man. Since Rupiah came to power, there are more hungry people, there are more people without jobs than before. How does Rupiah expect thousands of miners and others who are every day losing their jobs to enjoy and contribute to peace in the nation?

Peace cannot be reduced to the mere absence of open political conflict; it is the tranquility of order. And to guarantee peace, all are called to maturity, tolerance and responsibility. And the peace that we have today cannot be said to be a product of Rupiah’s maturity, tolerance and responsibility. It is actually the maturity, tolerance and responsibility of his opponents who could have chosen to act otherwise. It cannot be a product of somebody who is going round provoking the situation as he was doing yesterday in Kasama.

Rupiah is today conveniently avoiding to mention the many things he promised to deliver. He made so many promises during the election campaign. However, we will just remind him of a few of those promises. Rupiah promised to create more jobs as soon as he was elected, to reduce the price of fertiliser and make it more accessible and affordable to the farmer, thereby increasing food production which in turn was going to reduce poverty which he said was demeaning to human beings. Rupiah also promised to reduce mealie-meal and fuel prices; to increase Constituency Development Fund from the current K400 million to over K1 billion. He promised to improve road networks, especially in the rural areas, health and education services, among many other things. And more importantly, Rupiah promised to improve the economy from where Levy left it because he believed his predecessor left a solid economic foundation. However, the moment Rupiah ascended to power, Zambians started experiencing the opposite of his promises. The economy is in shambles, with no promise of an immediate reversal of fortunes. And things are going to get worse. Zambians should brace themselves for more difficulties, for more hardships, for more sacrifices and for more suffering. Rupiah is not only incapable of being a magician or someone who can place alchemist to the problems of our economy, but he also seems to be empty and inept when it comes to running the affairs of this country.

And given the global challenges that are today hitting the hardest the poorest of the world’s countries like ours, Rupiah is certainly at sea. And this is why he is telling the people of Kasama that he is not a magician who will solve all their problems overnight. No one expects Rupiah to be a magician. People are simply asking or reminding Rupiah to fulfil his election promises. They are not asking him to turn stones into nshima, chicken, meat or fish because they know that he is not capable of doing so. The promises they are reminding him to fulfil are the ones he made of his own free will in his quest to become president. So people have the right to remind him to deliver because he became president on the basis of those promises. And the Zambian people are not interested in his litany of excuses or mitigations. It is said that “people who promise things that they never give are like clouds and wind that bring no rain” (Proverbs 25:14). Rupiah will live with the consequences of everything he said during the election campaign (Proverbs 18:20).

What we should realise is that true democracy is not just about emerging with a few thousand votes over the other candidates and claiming to have the support of the majority. True democracy is a growth in the confidence in the power of ordinary people to transform their country, and thus transform themselves. It is a growth in the appreciation of people organising, deciding, creating together. It is a growth of fraternal love.

And no one should cheat the Zambian people that things are going to be easy for them because Rupiah is President. They must be prepared to meet difficulties, hardships and suffering. They have difficulties today, and they will have even greater ones tomorrow.

Rupiah should not be allowed to make a virtue out of his inadequacies by claiming he is not a magician. Although no one can build an economy or a society purely on the basis of entitlement, there is nothing which makes people more appreciative of a government than that it should be able to deliver services. And this is what and why the Zambian people are reminding Rupiah of the promises he made during the election campaign.

Again, this should serve as a reminder to all of us that democracy itself guarantees us nothing. It offers us instead the opportunity to succeed as well as the risk for failure. It is both a promise and a challenge. It is a promise that as free human beings working together, we can govern ourselves in a manner that will serve our aspirations for personal freedom, economic opportunity and social justice. We say it is a challenge because the success of our democratic enterprise rests upon our shoulders as citizens of this country and on no one else. In the end, we get the government we deserve.

Labels: REGIONALISM, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 2:09 AM