Maravi

The violence of MMD cadres

The violence of MMD cadres
Written by Editor

This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless it’s a good place for all of us to live in. No doctrine, no principle or proclaimed political position can justify atrocious acts such as the beating of opposition Patriotic Front provincial youth chairman Ashell Kampenge by MMD cadres in Lusaka yesterday.

We are hearing with increasing frequency cases of criminals masquerading as MMD cadres, harassing innocent people; these rogues should have no place in the MMD, in our country’s politics. Political power without civility, without the ability to live in peace, means nothing at all.

The MMD was not founded on a platform of violence. And that principle of non-violence, of respect for the humanity of others should be maintained by the party whatever changes of leadership it goes through. We know very well that the MMD of 1990 is not the MMD of today; it has changed, it has new cadres and leaders. And there is nothing wrong in a party changing itself, recruiting new cadres and leaders. Change is an important part of life. Political parties that do not change die. If things around us change, and we do not, then we become of no use to things. Our principles cease to be principles and just ossify into dogma.

But we shouldn’t change to forget our principles. We should change to fulfill them. Not to lose our identity but to keep our relevance. Change is an important part of gaining the nation’s trust. And if change results in a loss of that trust, then it’s negative. There is no choice between being principled and being unelectable; and electable and unprincipled. And we should torture ourselves with this foolishness.

The violence that MMD cadres are involved in and that is increasingly being tolerated is very dangerous. There is no action that is being taken by the leadership of MMD to stop this violence. What they are actually doing is to encourage it by turning a blind eye. And it is this that is making our partisan police not do anything about it lest they offend the appointing authorities.

We are living under a multiparty political system. This in itself means that our people should be free to hold divergent political views and belong to political parties of their choice without fearing that those in the ruling party, with the state machinery behind them, will harass them, will victimise them.

We must work unceasingly to lift this nation to a higher destiny, to a new plateau of compassion. There is need for courage in the ranks of the MMD to stop this rot. There must be realisation that the future does not belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave, to those who can pluck up courage and oppose injustice, brutality and criminal behaviour.

The leadership of the MMD today is dominated by many new people from other political parties. And usually latecomers try very hard to earn acceptability and legitimacy by showing excessive commitment and militancy. They don’t need to resort to these extremes. They have every right to join the MMD. But let them be good members, and unless they are moderated by colleagues who have more understanding and sensitivity, their excessive zeal can turn into horrendous vices. And the problem today in the MMD is that most of the members with both the courage and the ability to take on the new leadership of the party are no longer there, are no longer in the position to do so. The MMD is headed for serious problems. And only resolute and urgent action will avert its impending Armageddon. All we know is that to see wrong being done, and not speak about it, is a great betrayal.

The strength of the MMD will never lie in the physical ability of its cadres to harass and beat the perceived or real opponents or enemies of their party, of their leaders. The ultimate strength of the MMD, or indeed any of our political parties, will lie not in the amount of violence they can unleash or exhibit, but will lie in their ability to unite with all the people of our country. They have to put this ahead of any divisive partisanship. And in these times as in times before, it is true that a house divided against itself by the spirit of faction, of party is a house that cannot stand.

So we ask all members and leaders of the MMD, whatever their personal interests or concern, to guard against violence, divisiveness and all the ugly consequences that accompany these vices. It shouldn’t be forgotten that this country has always only moved forward when all our people united. And what has been achieved by this unity should not be lost in the cheap politics of violence.

The greatest danger with violence is that no one has the monopoly over it. There is no one who is too weak to fight back. Violence invariably begets violence. And it is said that those who live by the sword will die by the sword.

What is clearly lacking in our politics is a culture of tolerance and humility which places the humanity of others before self and accepts that all citizens of this country have a right to participate in the shaping of their destiny directly without fear of reprisal. Our tragedy lies in our inability to value every single innocent life and bring happiness to our people without intimidating them into silence.

The peace we talk about in our country will not last long if it is not a dialectical result of competing parties under common broad-based democratic constitutional rules supported by a culture of tolerance and civility.

It is very clear that the Zambian body politic seriously lacks tolerant value premises and doesn’t seem to have a mechanism for accommodating more than one political party and national leader as a matter of serious national unity. It is still functioning, in many respects, like a one party state – with the ruling party as the vanguard. To suggest that meaningful participation in the politics of our country is only possible within the context of the machinery of the ruling party is tantamount to saying that what is good for the MMD is good for everyone, a suggestion which is patently false as far as what is known about the diversity of the human condition goes.

There is an explanation for this unsatisfactory performance of the MMD on the question of democracy over the last 18 years. Since its coming to power in 1991, the MMD abandoned the goal of the struggle for democracy in favour of a desire to stay in power at all costs and by all means necessary. Failure to realise the problems of this approach to politics constitutes part of the explanation why the MMD has sought to restrict rather than broaden democracy to a point where people start to feel it’s not possible for them to play a meaningful political role if they are in the opposition.

What this means is that the MMD has failed to develop a political culture that can be used to broaden democracy in Zambia outside monopoly politics.

It is negative conservatism to assume and believe that any one political party can ever have the final and perpetual solution to all the problems facing this country and its people. And such conservatism has no existential basis. It becomes more dangerous when it’s accompanied by violence. If one plants the seeds of violence, what they should be expected to reap is the fruits of violence and not those of peace.

Labels: ASHELL KAMPENGE, CADRES, MMD

posted by MrK @ 3:06 PM