Maravi

Rupiah should listen to KK on tribalism

Rupiah should listen to KK on tribalism
Written by Editor

If Rupiah Banda was not stubborn, as he says he is, he would learn something from what Dr Kenneth Kaunda is saying about tribalism. There is no doubt that Rupiah’s political outlook is anchored on tribalism and regionalism.

There is nowhere Rupiah goes in this country where he doesn’t talk about or allude to the issue of tribe. In his defence of Frederick Chiluba, Rupiah has continued to tell the Bemba-speaking people that they should defend and support Chiluba because he is their own.

And this was his message in Kasama last week when he told his campaign meeting that Chiluba’s acquittal has brought relief and he would have been miserable if he was found guilty and sent to prison on corruption charges: “Yes, you hate the guy but you have to think through that he was your president particularly you here in Northern Province and Luapula.”

Why particularly Northern and Luapula provinces? The fact that Chiluba is Bemba-speaking does not mean that the people of Northern and Luapula provinces should support him. For what? Why? Chiluba has stolen from them. Why should they defend and support a thief who has robbed the Zambian people of millions and billions. To Rupiah, that does not matter. What matters is simply the fact that Chiluba is Bemba-speaking and because of this, all those who speak the same language as him should come to his defence and support.

This is the political, tribal consciousness of Rupiah. For Rupiah everything starts and ends with one’s tribe. And this is why even his presidential campaign last year started and ended with tribalism. To date, Rupiah has never denied or repudiated the tribal remarks or sentiments he made at the beginning of his campaign in Chipata. Rupiah told the people of Eastern Province not to welcome anyone coming there from other regions, tribes, of our country to campaign there against him. He directed the people of Eastern Province, where he hails from, to chase such people away and tell them to go and campaign where they come from.

To him, everything is seen through one’s tribe, one’s region. Rupiah is truly a tribalist. And an audit of his appointments to state and government jobs may reveal a disproportionate leaning towards his own tribe, or region. This is how Rupiah is running the country.

If Rupiah was not stubborn, was not arrogant, he would pay a lot of attention to what Dr Kaunda is saying about tribalism and meditate deeply over it. Dr Kaunda says: “When we undertook to unite God’s people in Zambia, bringing together 72 tribes, it was not easy. But because we were guided by the forces of love, we managed to unite our country. The moment you find somebody pointing a finger at somebody, ‘Ah, he is that tribe, she is this tribe’, know that their brain has gone wild.”

Tribalism is a cancer that needs to be uprooted from our minds with all the urgency and tenacity that can be marshalled. It took many years and a lot of effort on the part of our forefathers, on the part of those selfless people to build this nation, but it is taking a very short time and very little effort for selfish Rupiah to destroy all that.

The political methods of this man are extremely dangerous because they are anchored on division, on setting one humble section of our population against another, of dividing even family members and friends just to maintain his hold on power, the power that he is consistently abusing in his own favour and that of his family and friends.

Any political approach that is anchored on tribal or regional framework is wrong and dangerous. This may appear to be the easiest way to organise, to mobilise, to agitate but it is the most dangerous way of doing politics, of trying to gain and maintain political power.

It is very tempting for weak souls, for unprincipled politicians and their supporters to take this route but the ending will always be disastrous. And we urge those behind the UPND-PF pact to guard against going about their alliance on these lines – an electoral alliance of tribes and regions. This may appear to be an easy way to gain some instant political strength but the consequences will be bad because such an alliance will not last long.

We say this because no true or lasting alliance can be built on a tribal or regional foundation, on the shifting sands of evasions, illusions and opportunism. There is need for them to mobilise using the most difficult but most correct and enduring methods.

Our people must be told, must be taught to give up the pernicious habit of identifying only those who come from the same village, the same town, the same province as themselves, who speak the same language and have the same culture and traditional background. They must be taught that those with whom they must identify and see as their brothers and sisters, giving them their friendship and affection, their help and fraternal warmth, are all those who, like them, are marginalised, exploited, and who are with them in the great struggle to move themselves and their country out of poverty and misrule.

It is the task of our decent politicians to bring up the next generation of Zambians free from tribalism, regionalism and even racism, free from the archaic attitude of passively accepting tribalism and regionalism, and imbued with a national feeling and patriotism.

At the same time, efforts must be made to explain to all our people that their experience of suffering, marginalisation, exploitation and abuse by those they have elected to serve them is the same in all parts of our country – in Kaputa, Chadiza, Sinazeze, Shang’ombo, Chavuma and so on and so forth. All bear the same scars, all have known the same hunger, the same poverty, the same suffering, the same tears caused by being mistreated, cheated, deceived, manipulated, abused by those who govern the affairs of their country.

They should be united by the discovering of common wounds and scars, but above all, unity should be realised through common effort; links are forged through collective struggle and work, through criticism and self-criticism, and through action against those who are misgoverning their country or are governing against them.

Our people must be taught in an honest way to learn from the experiences of their brothers and sisters throughout the world. By opening their minds to the experience of others, they will not only learn useful lessons, but will also understand that all countries, all peoples are waging the same struggle as they are: a struggle against discrimination on the basis of colour, tribe or creed, a struggle against corrupt politicians who have no tribe or race.

Struggling for unity, it is necessary to combat firmly the fabricators and abettors of division. They should seek to clarify this position to the masses of our people, and not to leave them impeded by divisive political positions.

To struggle for unity is, necessarily, to struggle against divisionism, tribalism, regionalism. It is also necessary to unmask and isolate the tribalists, regionalists wherever they appear, conduct campaigns of division, intrigue and of provocation, at times using intolerable methods of tyranny. We should not understand unity as mere declarations of goodwill and good intentions. Unity is expressed, manifested, consolidated and developed in common activity and struggle.

It is also in this light that we must look at Rupiah’s consideration to appoint Sakwiba Sikota as his Vice-President. Rupiah has the right to appoint whoever he wants to his government and he will never have a shortage of people to take up such appointments. But his approach that is anchored on regionalism and tribalism should be denounced.

It is a big insult to the people of Western Province for Rupiah to think by appointing Sikota or anyone else from that region, then all the people of that tribe should give him their political support. Sikota is not a representative of the people of Western Province. That province is much bigger than Sikota. And Sikota has never been their representative.

Anyway, people whose brains have gone wild – to borrow from KK – with tribalism have serious difficulties understanding things in this way. To them, everything is calculated, measured and traded on the basis of tribe and region. But Rupiah should know that tribalism has been weighed in this country and all over the world and found wanting. Tribalism is detested because it is regarded as a barbaric thing that pollutes the atmosphere in a nation and poisons the minds of the backward, the bigoted and the prejudiced.

We must therefore ensure that tribe in our country becomes only a God-given gift to each one of us and not an indelible mark or attribute that accords a special status to any. Tribalism is a blight on our conscience. And we should never allow our country and the institutions of our state to play host to tribalism or regionalism. Tribalism must be consciously combated, denounced and permanently discredited and not discreetly tolerated. We all know how stubbornly tribalism can cling to the minds of stubborn people like Rupiah and how deeply it can infect their souls.

The practice of tribalism is contrary to both justice and charity. Tribalism is harmful to this country, where members of different tribes live side by side. And, therefore, any form of tribalism or regionalism should be denounced and condemned by all. Nothing but evil can be the fruit of tribalism, a practice contrary to both justice and brotherly love.

Labels: KENNETH KAUNDA, RUPIAH BANDA, TRIBALISM

posted by MrK @ 6:22 AM