Maravi

Going to bed with the terminally ill MMD

Going to bed with the terminally ill MMD
By The Post
Sun 30 May 2010, 04:30 CAT

Life is not just about money, economic wellbeing and having power. Life cannot be looked at exclusively from a material standpoint, because material things alone don’t make for happiness.

A sense of justice, dignity, self-respect, respect for others, and love for your fellow citizens and other human beings also have a great deal to do with happiness, as have moral principles; the feeling of being free, equal, and respected and of taking part in the battle for the progress of one’s country, of the world you live in; and working like beavers, shoulder to shoulder with the rest of your people.

Corrupt elements look at everything from a material standpoint; they think everything can be solved on a prices basis. But there is something more valuable, more powerful than money and that is consciousness. That’s why principled politicians are more powerful than the corrupt ones who have piled up huge amounts of money by stealing from their people and abusing public offices. Principled politicians are not for hire or for sale to the highest bidder who has nothing but money. Corrupt politicians don’t have even a country they truly love, they love nothing but money.

Their country is where they make the most money, they go where they can make more money. Honest and principled politicians fulfill their duties wherever necessary toward their own people. That is the kind of politician the Zambian people want. Being in politics should simply be a moral duty, a matter of principle, of conscience to contribute to our country and to humanity. Of course, what we are saying is difficult to appreciate in a world plagued by egoism.

This is not in any way to say the welfare of our people is not important. It is very important and sometimes we may have to adopt measures imposed by necessity, by reality to deal with these issues. Reality imposes its rules and its formulas on society, and it’s up to the politicians and their organisations to develop consciousness. And being a principled politician will never depend on there being vast wealth, wealth so vast that there is enough to spare. No, no one can expect consciousness to be dependent on abundant wealth.

The way we see it, in the development of a more just, fair and humane society, wealth and material base must grow hand in hand with consciousness, because it can also happen that as wealth increases, consciousness diminishes. It is important for our politicians to give thought to this matter. We are convinced that it is not solely wealth or the development of the material base or anything of the kind that is going to contribute to the development of consciousness, of a more just, fair and humane attitude. Far from it.

There are countries that are much richer than ours is. We shouldn’t make comparisons of any kind, that wouldn’t be correct, but we do know of countries where consciousness was overtaken by wealth, and that can lead to terrible things, to veritable chaos. But there may be a great deal of consciousness without much wealth.

There are countries with a lot of money but without a political leadership and citizenry with principles and ethics. In such countries poverty, confusion and anarchy accompanies wealth. And the impact of wealth is not felt by the great majority of the people because where there is no consciousness, there are no principles and ethics and corruption becomes the order of the day.

Let’s educate our people about their own interests and inspire them to push ahead in carrying through all the necessary political changes that need to be made to realise them. Nobody should be allowed to occupy public office because of ambition or pleasure. Public office should only be for those who have a single purpose, which is to serve the cause of our people.

Why are we saying all these things? We are saying all this to lay a basis for our disagreement with the views expressed by Vernon Mwaanga and all those he says spoke to him and share such views on the nature of political alliances in our country. The Zambian people have seen enough of the MMD and understand their practices very well.

It is very important for Vernon and his friends to recognise the scale of their problems. First, the MMD and its leadership has become associated increasingly with the most disagreeable messages, thoughts and practices. It is a party that is seen by many of our people to be permanently wedded to corruption, crookedness, deceit, manipulation, lies, abuse and theft of public funds. It is a party of the corrupt, by the corrupt, for the corrupt.

And this must be appreciated as a deeply felt distaste, rather than momentary irritation. They are linked to harshness, intolerance and violence. They are thought to be uncaring about poverty. They are considered indifferent to the moral arguments against corruption. The MMD is today truly a party whose leadership defends corruption and corrupt elements. They have embraced Frederick Chiluba and his corruption and they are hoping to politically benefit from corrupt and evil association.

Second, the MMD leadership is thought to be arrogant and out of touch and insensitive. Corruption has disgraced them in the eyes of the public. Their perception is of corruption and unfitness for public service. These distasteful perceptions will endure and do the MMD damage for a long time. People need a rest from them, and the MMD needs time to reflect and listen and understand the feelings of our people better.

If the MMD leadership understood all these issues clearly, they would not at all be talking about a pact with UPND or with UNIP. Yes, they might have – as Vernon claims – similar economic policies with UPND. But they certainly do not share the same practices where corruption and abuse of public resources are concerned. It is very surprising that today UNIP can be said to be a political ally of the MMD! Is this how finished politically, morally, ideologically UNIP is?

MMD is diseased and whoever goes to bed with it is likely to get infected by this deadly disease that today afflicts it. If by any chance UPND decides to go to bed with MMD, they will contract a terminal disease and that will be the end of them. Like some carriers of some deadly virus, the MMD doesn’t want to die alone, it wants to go to its grave with many others. It knows it is sick.

But it is not abstaining. You see, there is a similarity between the individual behaviour of diseased MMD political leaders and that of their party – lack of concern for the lives of others. We can probably understand UNIP prostituting itself with the MMD because it has nothing to lose as it is dying anyway from a terminal virus of its own. UNIP seems to have resigned itself to its fate.

This cannot be said to be the same with the UPND. The UPND of today is certainly not that of 2001 in terms of political popularity or influence. But it is still there. Given the right therapy and discipline, it can respond to medication and live on for some time. It may not be able to win the 2011 election on its own, but it can still be there after these elections to fight another day. As for UNIP, it is gone and it may not care what finally kills it. But still even under such extreme desperate situations, one can still decide to die in dignity.

Douglas Syakalima, the UPND member of parliament for Siavonga, has put it very aptly: “I don’t think that any sane human being or political party would like to align themselves with the MMD at this hour… the choice of who to work with lies with our morals ourselves as UPND. I don’t think it would be moral for any normal party to align themselves with the MMD.”

Any political party in this country has the liberty to form any alliances they want with anybody. But there are consequences in who we choose to go to bed with. If there are dangers of being contaminated, abstinence may be the best option. For the MMD, it is a question of die and let live. They must really be very desperate for them to be looking for allies when all along they have been boasting about how themselves are stronger than all the others and don’t need pacts. What has changed their view about pacts?

If by any crazy happening, the UPND decides to disengage from their pact with PF and got it with MMD, they must be prepared to die with them. It may even prove to be worse for UPND than the MMD because they are used to this virus, they have lived with it for a much longer time and know how to survive even if it is on a day by day basis. But again, everyone has the right to choose who they want to go to bed with as long as they equally accept the consequences of doing so.

Labels: DOUGLAS SYAKALIMA, MMD

posted by MrK @ 6:30 AM