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(LUSAKATIMES) Why the MMD should not celebrate The Pact’s Ill’s

Zambia: Why the MMD should not celebrate The Pact’s Ill’s
Tuesday, October 12, 2010, 10:10
By Daimone Siulapwa

Peasant farmers pondering their next move after the Food Reserve agency failed to buy their maize. They are now spending nights in the cold in Kasama

The ruling party, the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) seems to be celebrating the happenings in the PF-UPND Pact. Well, understandable. The more problems there are in the Pact, the brighter the chances the MMD has of retaining power. That obviously is the thinking in the MMD.

As things stand, the chances of the Pact surviving through to 2011 look all but over. However, that scenario does still not absolve the MMD of any blame for putting the country in the economic position that it is today.

The MMD came to power on the back heel of goodwill from the Zambians. They, in turn, promised to reverse the ‘misfortunes’ that the UNIP government of Dr Kenneth Kaunda had created.

No prizes for guessing whether that really happened.

The MMD government found a very vibrant middle-class existing in this country, only to destroy it through their reckless privatisation policies that left thousands of workers redundant some of them without any pay. No where else was this felt than on the Copperbelt and Lusaka were industries closed like taps of water.

If the MMD wants to know why they continue to perform poorly, this is the reason.

Having caused much of the damage during Frederick Chiluba’s tenure, there was some glimmer of hope that the administration of Levy Mwanawasa will correct the mess, but little happened other than the re-opening of mines in Luanshya and the selling of the Anglo-America Mines to Konkola Copper Mines (KCM).

But if you ask miners or their children whether their life is better off now than it was during the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM), the answer again, does not carry any prizes for guessing.

As has happened in the three elections, the MMD is likely to draw most of its votes from the rural areas. This is not because they have taken development there. Forget about the bumper maize harvest and the Fertiliser Input Support Programme (FISP), these have done little to improve the welfare of our people in the countryside.

The majority of our people in the rural areas are peasant farmers, and believe me; they are among the poorest despite largely feeding us. The price for which we pay the maize, grown by our peasant farmers is a joke to say the least. And it has its history.

Maize is always a political crop in this country. When President Kaunda tried to raise the price of maize in 1989, it triggered riots by youths. And since then, the urban population and the government have come to treat the issue of maize as a sensitive issue while being insensitive to the needs of our rural folk. We fail to pay them a good price for the maize they produce so that we can keep those of us who do not want to get a plough happy. In other words, we have enslaved our rural folks. They are subsidizing our living so that we can buy the latest vehicle on the market and drink our favourite beers in the most cosy bars.

Like Lusaka economist David Punabantu said in his article of October 26, 2009 in the Times of Zambia that 45 years after independence, many peasant farmers still use hoes and sell maize under mango trees at frighteningly low prices.

Indeed if maize is that cheap, why don’t we all not grow it instead of looking for a white collar job? While we want our peasant farmers to sell us this maize cheaply, we do not offer them anything. They do not have clean water, have to walk long distances to access a school and clinics.

Unfortunately, these rural folks are the people the MMD continue to hoodwink for votes with fertilizer in return for votes. Whatever the outcome of the elections, the MMD owe the rural folks.

Labels: FARMERS, MAIZE, MMD, NEOLIBERALISM, PF-UPND

posted by MrK @ 2:21 PM