Maravi

The Litunga needs support

The Litunga needs support
By Editor
Sat 05 Dec. 2009, 04:00 CAT

The various regions or provinces of our country cannot be developed in an arbitrary way, in a firefighting-like manner.

Developing a country and its various regions requires planning and discipline; it requires consistent work guided by a strong vision. It’s easy to dish out a few brown envelopes, some cash to a few individuals here and there and win or secure their praises. But a country and its regions or provinces cannot be developed in that way. For this reason, the people of Western Province should not allow themselves to be deceived by Rupiah Banda that he can do this and that for them simply because they are drawing away from him and he wants them back to vote for him in 2011.

As Patriotic Front chairperson Inonge Wina has correctly observed, Rupiah is not interested in the welfare of the people of Western Province. What he is interested in is their votes in the coming elections. Rupiah is not out to serve the people of Zambia heart and soul. Rupiah does not in all cases proceed from the interests of the people. Rupiah proceeds from self-interest. And in this case, what is driving Rupiah today is the fear and desire to retain power in 2011. Whatever he is doing today is not as a result of devotion to the Zambian people without any thought of self. Rupiah doesn’t have the interests of the people and the sufferings of the great majority at heart. What he has at heart is self-interest.

Today Rupiah can go and promise the people of Western Province things that are not in the budget. Where is he going to get the money from to do all those things? If the Mongu-Kalabo road was important to Rupiah and his government, why didn’t they make adequate provision for it in the budget? If all this was important to them, why treat it as if it is an afterthought? These things are not important to Rupiah. He doesn’t lose sleep over the lack of development and high levels of poverty in Western Province or indeed any part of our country.

What is making Rupiah jump up and down today is simply the reality that things don’t look okay and if they continue this way, he will be out of power in 2011. This is what is bothering Rupiah and making him promise the things that are not in the budget. Yes, it’s easy for him to dish out a few brown envelopes here and there but a country cannot be developed that way. And his political crisis is spreading and deepening. At the rate things are going, we don’t know how many promises of this and that he will have to make across the breadth and width of our country. We say this because Rupiah will need to go to North Western Province and make some new promises after losing Solwezi Central parliamentary by-election. He may have to do the same in Kasama.

There is also a storm brewing in Ndola Rural. In short, there is veritable chaos everywhere in the nation. Even Eastern Province is not firmly under his control and he shouldn’t cheat himself that he owns the people of that province and they will vote for him come what may. The truth is the great majority of our people are starting to see and understand who Rupiah is and what he stands for. They are starting to see through his lies, dishonesty, deceit, manipulation, ineptitude, laziness, lack of capacity to work, extravagance, recklessness and so on and so forth. All these things are not recipes for governing well. Rupiah has sown seeds of confusion and discontent in the nation and he is starting to harvest the fruits of all this.

It is not possible to build a strong and prosperous nation on arrogance, corruption, intolerance and unbridled lack of humility. Rupiah has been arrogant. He has been the most ardent defender of corruption in this country. And the worst form of corruption in this country has been that of Frederick Chiluba. And this is the corruption Rupiah has defended and still defends without respite. Rupiah has not hesitated to tell lies about humble citizens, including those working for him. One can’t run a country successfully on such terms.

And this whole episode should teach our people a lesson in what it means to be self-reliant, to participate in shaping the destiny of their country. As for the Barotse Royal Establishment and the people of Western Province, Rupiah’s behaviour should teach them that their development rests upon their shoulders and no one else. The people of Western Province have to realise that the Litunga and the entire Barotse Royal system depends on their support to maintain integrity, pride and dignity.

Even the strongest, the most prominent of all the Barotse kings, Lewanika himself, his strength came from the people, from their support politically, economically and otherwise. The Barotse Royal Establishment is very big and cannot survive on brown envelopes from Rupiah, cannot be maintained on favours from those in power in Lusaka. A way has to be found to make the Barotse Royal Establishment financially independent and prosperous. There is no reason why such a rich and prestigious royal establishment should be broke, should have no money when it has so much resources at its disposal, including highly educated subjects and members of the royal family.

This lack of respect that the Barotse Royal Establishment and indeed the Litunga himself are today experiencing from the likes of Rupiah and others, including some Barotse royals and subjects, is as a result of the establishment being financially crippled. Today, the people of Western Province have very little to expect from their most prestigious leadership, that is the Barotse Royal Establishment. We sincerely believe that the Barotse Royal Establishment has people with very valuable talents, education and experience to turn things round. We also believe that the Litunga himself is a man with sufficient education, experience and wisdom to lead his people in a different direction and on a route to prosperity.

To make Barotseland rich and strong needs intense effort and a policy of diligence and frugality, relying on their own strength and efforts. Relying on the forces they themselves can organise, they will overcome their problems and see a reversal of fortunes.

Yes, they will need help from the government in Lusaka and from the international community but cannot depend on it totally; they should depend on their own efforts, on the creative power of the Litunga, his Ngambela and indunas, on the creative power of the entire Barotse people.

This is the only way the prestige of the Barotse system can be developed and maintained. They must thoroughly clear away all ideas of getting a better life through good luck, through handouts and brown envelopes from Rupiah, without hard and bitter struggle, without sweat. We know that some people don’t like to think much about difficulties. The options we are advocating are difficult.

It is very easy to sit under the shade and wait for handouts from someone in Lusaka. But difficulties are facts; we must recognise many difficulties as they are and should not adopt a policy of thinking someone will do it for us. We must recognise difficulties, analyse them and combat them. There are no straight roads in the world; we must be prepared to follow a road which twists and turns and not try to get things on the cheap. It must not be imagined that one fine morning, the skies of Barotseland will open up and all that we want will float on the waters of the Barotse flood plains. In a word, while the prospects are bright, the road has twists and turns. There are still many difficulties ahead which we must not overlook. By the Barotse Royal Establishment uniting with the entire people in a common effort, they can certainly overcome all difficulties and see a reversal of fortunes.

This is the only way to maintain the dignity and prestige of the Litunga and the Barotse Royal Establishment. Lewanika, with literally no formal education in the way we know it today, built a country, a nation. His son, Yeta, took over from him and extended his efforts, including the building of the Limulunga Palace that we see today.

We have every good reason to expect the same from Litunga Lubosi Imwiko, the grandson of Lewanika. And in saying this, we are not in any way overlooking the changed circumstances, the immense difficulties that the current Litunga and the entire Barotse Royal Establishment today face under the current political dispensation. And we therefore make a clarion call to all the people of Barotseland and all Zambians of goodwill to give all the support they can – politically, financially and otherwise – to the Litunga so that the dignity and prestige of the Barotse system can be developed and maintained or sustained.

This is the only way we can stop the corrupt politicians – flying around with brown envelopes – from abusing and undermining our people and their traditional leaders.

Labels: LITUNGA

posted by MrK @ 4:29 AM