A bubble pact

A bubble pact
By The Post
Sun 11 July 2010, 04:10 CAT

AS we stated in our comment of yesterday, whatever pretensions, whatever posturing, there is no true pact that will be built on the current shifting sands of evasions, illusions and opportunism that today characterises this PF-UPND pact.
Strictly and truthfully speaking there is no pact or meaningful alliance between PF and UPND as things stand today. What is there is merely an opportunity for them to work together to fulfil what appears to be a public desire.

What is really there other than that little piece of paper called a Memorandum of Understanding between PF and UPND to go for a pact? The truth is after signing that memorandum, very little, if not nothing, has been done to consummate this pact. In fact, instead of coming together and reducing the competition between the PF and UPND, the opposite is happening.

There’s increased competition, especially in Western Province, between the PF and the UPND for hegemony. Since the Pact agreement it will be interesting to count how many trips the top leadership of PF and UPND have made to Western Province trying to outdo each other. Clearly, since the Pact, there has been more competition between PF and UPND in a manner that was not there before. What type of a Pact is this? The truth is there is a Pact but no real pact – there’s an illusory pact built on the shifting sands of evasions and opportunism.

Yes there is an opportunity for PF and UPND to work together but this can only be meaningful and profitable if it is done honestly and sincerely with a view to benefiting our people. More has to be done to address fundamental political problems instead of trying to build an edifice of lies and half-truths. The problems that our people face are real. They are not going to be sorted out by childish role-playing in the hope that somehow child-play will translate into reality. The leaders of this Pact have to be prepared to address real problems not imaginary ones. Winning next year’s elections cannot and should not be an end in itself. There is life after elections.

People’s expectations have been raised. This has nothing to do with this one or that one ending up in Parliament or in State House. That is not why people participate in elections. Those who think that people participate in elections for such short-sighted reasons are prone to the use of wrong political approaches and practices such as tribalism and regionalism which provide a fertile ground for corrupt and normless politics.

It is necessary to remind all the leaders and members of PF and UPND that politics, including pact politics, should be for the good of the people and the country, and not for a political survival of any individual or party. If the spirit of the primacy of the common good were to animate PF and UPND in their pact, we would not be witnessing the schemes, intrigues and intra-pact skirmishes over the adoption of this one or that one which are starting to leave the public dismayed and disheartened. It is also important for us to remind those in this Pact of the noble goals of the alliance they are seeking to build.

What our people are looking for, the reason why they participate in elections of any form is not because of any hatred or dislike of one person over another, or one tribe over another, it is because they want to improve their lives and the lives of those around them. This is what politics is about. Any differences that might exist among us in terms of ethnicity or any differences for that matter should never be allowed to be used for cheap political points scoring.

It doesn’t make sense to go into a pact with people one does not like, one speaks evil of and one wants to isolate. The leaders of the Pact must do everything possible to challenge any appearances of intolerance of any kind that might appear, especially that which is based on tribe, race, region, gender and other illegitimate grounds for discrimination. What will it profit the Pact for PF or UPND to go to any province of our country and do what Rupiah Banda did in Eastern Province in 2008 by telling people not to accept anybody who does not come from that or this area?

Again, we ask the question: why go into a pact with people that one finds intolerable and illegitimate and one wants to kick away from areas they have declared their fiefdoms or their exclusive preserves? What type of a marriage is this and what can one expect from it? This is what we are seeing in this PF-UPND pact and we challenge Michael Sata and Hakainde Hichilema to deny it, especially in the case of Western Province!

One would have thought that the logic of the Pact is to unite our people regardless of tribe, race or even gender. This is the higher principle that our people are aspiring to. Our people are looking for leaders who are going to solve problems not create some. In our history as a nation, there has been a time when people like that great freedom fighter Sikota Wina have been members of parliament in areas far away from where they were born.

Even that selfless and heroic freedom fighter Mainza Chona went and became a member of parliament in Mankoya, now Kaoma, far away from the village where he was born. These were the type of politics that were designed to unite our people. They were not denying the existence of any problems but these great heroes of our liberation refused to accept or succumb to such sentiments as a given, as a reality that they had to obey.

We have no doubt that this must have been because of a realisation that giving in to such base instincts of tribalism and regionalism would destroy the country and we would not have had Zambia in the form that we have it today. No one should be allowed to play this reckless Russian roulette of tribalism, all in a bid to get power. Gambling with sectionalism, factionalism and other divisive tendencies should not be tolerated by any of us.

It is madness for anyone to think that winning an election is reason enough to drive Zambia to a brink of destruction. Those who want to create this Pact must be ready to do the heavy philosophical and intellectual lifting that needs to be done to achieve such a feat. Lazy political opportunism can never deliver any meaningful rewards for our people.

Any political party that wants to confine itself to a certain region of our country will never have a meaningful place in the politics of our country. If one province, or one tribe, or two or three tribes of so-called tribal cousins is all a political party can marshal for support then that party should abandon that dream of ever forming government in this country. These friends of ours who aspire to forming winning political alliances must find a better basis for their pacts than cheap tribal or regional gymnastics. A pact of Bantustans will not do for this country.

The Zambian people have stood together many times as one indivisible people, but no time has been more important than this. The campaign that stretches before us now is a struggle for the souls and future of Zambia. The Zambian people are more than a political election pact. We are all trustees of a dream – a dream that was taken to very high heights by Dr Kenneth Kaunda and his comrades.

We still have a duty to pursue their vision, their values and the hopes they awakened. As we approach next year’s elections let’s remind ourselves that the journey that these patriots had started is unfinished, and that we stand for change in order to march again towards these enduring ideals that they had set, and that we do not have to settle for things as they are.


We must work unceasingly to lift this nation to a higher destiny, to a new plateau of selflessness.
We don’t agree with the claim that “there is no option to the Pact”. How can there be no option to nothing? The Pact is nothing but a bubble that can burst any time.

This nation is far much bigger than this Pact bubble. And to think that there’s no option to the PF-UPND pact shows a serious lack of understanding of what this nation and its people is about. How can this be when even those leading this Pact don’t know where it is and their true positions in it and see as their biggest challenge “which party can help the PF and UPND pact win an election”. Why should this be so?

This is so because they are not honest with themselves and with each other. If they were honest, they would know their true worth and would have no difficulties accepting who is better placed to win an election for them in any given area. It is true that this Pact is not of equals in terms of political support and capacity in every area. And there are two elections to show this. But even that cannot convince them to accept the reality that is before them. They still want to believe the ground has shifted in their favour since the last elections. How and where?

It is as a result of this dishonesty with themselves and with each other that they are speaking with double tongues. With one side of the tongue they are dismissing regionalism while with the other, they are trying to chew and devour it, feed from it.

Yes, they can talk about the so-called “bigger picture”, but the bigger picture for the Zambian people is not simply the removal of the MMD from power and replacing it with a coalition of Bantustan political parties. The bigger picture for the Zambian people is the building of a more united and progressive nation that is able to tackle their problems and improve the life of every citizen.

For the Zambian people, there will always be an option to the PF-UPND pact. Even for the PF and UPND there will always be an option of going it alone. And this probably explains why they have gone for a pact and not a merger of the two political parties so that they can continue to maintain their identities and go it alone if need be.