Maravi

Alliances based on regionalism

Alliances based on regionalism
By The Post
Thu 25 Nov. 2010, 04:00 CAT

Virtue must be nourished but vice springs up spontaneously like weeds and grows by itself. If we do otherwise, while nourishing virtue, we are simultaneously paving way for vice. That’s the reality we must not lose sight of.

What are things coming to? For a man like Vernon Mwaanga who has fought so much against tribalism and regionalism, on the one hand, on the other to be promoting them, it raises a lot of questions about the state of our country’s politics. But there is a sort of chain of events here.

For if good ideas foster other good ideas, bad things can foster on the other hand, other bad things. Today, Vernon is calling for an alliance between the MMD and UPND on the promise that in 2016, they will back someone from Southern Province to be president. There is nothing wrong with political alliances or coalitions.

In fact, wherever there is a good basis for them, they should be encouraged because they will help strengthen the positions of our political parties and improve the stability of our politics.

But these alliances should be based on principles that are opposed to tribalism and regionalism.

We say this because tribalism and regionalism have been weighed and found wanting and as such cannot be the basis of a sound political alliance.

The obligation that all our political parties have is to stand up for what is right.

They don’t have to accept our country as it is, they have the right to seek to make our country what they want it to be.

But the society they seek should be a more fair, just and humane one.

The imperfections of our society today should move our politicians and inspire them to struggle for a much more superior society and not to deepen or worsen those imperfections.

If there are any elements of tribalism or regionalism in our politics, these should not be deepened by forming alliances that strengthen them or perpetuate such outlooks.

Constructing a better society has never been an easy undertaking for anyone, for any nation.

And if we are honest with ourselves, we should realise that this will require a lot of work.

And there are times when it seems that a better society is an impossibility – days when our opposition and the imperfections that we daily live under may tempt us to take an easier path that avoids our responsibilities to one another.

But this calls for sacrifice if we are to see the triumph of principle over mere power.

Winning an election can be an easy thing. What is the difficulty in forming tribal alliances that bring together a motley assortment of contradictory elements simply to win an election?

The dishonesty of men like Vernon is very disheartening. This is a highly experienced man who was given maximum exposure by his people at a very early age.

But what type of experience Vernon has raises a lot of questions.

And as it has been observed, “in judging our progress as individuals, we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one’s social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education.

These are, of course, important in measuring one’s success in material matters and it is perfectly understandable if many people exert themselves mainly to achieve all these.

But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one’s development as a human being.

Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others – qualities which are within reach of every soul – are the foundation of one’s spiritual life.

Development in matters of this nature is inconceivable without serious introspection, without knowing yourself, your weaknesses and mistakes.

Never forget that a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying”.

We wish, above all, to recall the past, so as to foresee and plan the future better. Vernon knows very well what happened at the UNIP congress of 1967 when regional alliances were created around Simon Kapwepwe and Reuben Kamanga.

UNIP, probably, never recovered from the wounds of that tribalism and regionalism infested congress.

Kenneth Kaunda was extremely disgusted and disappointed with the tribalism and regionalism that was unleashed out of that congress and resigned as president of the Republic because he was not ready to lead a tribally and regionally divided party, government and country.

It took a lot of effort to persuade KK to change his mind. Vernon knows all these things very well.

If today Vernon is promising an alliance that will deliver the presidency of this country from one individual or group to another on the basis of tribe and region, then he is unleashing a force in our country that he and his friends will not be able to control.

What this will mean is that the country will not have one tribal or regional alliance – we are bound to have more and more of these.

And there is nowhere in the world where tribalism or regionalism has been the basis for national unity, peace and stability.

They have always been a recipe for tribal or regional conflicts or strife.

Vernon knows very well that the struggle to defend and consolidate unity after independence demanded permanent vigilance and action to neutralise and eliminate the manoeuvres of political opportunists who were ready to use the tribal or regional card.

And by defining tribalism and regionalism as enemies to be fought against, just like colonialism, this deprived the opportunists of their chief instruments in their anti-people manoeuvres.

It is necessary to understand the grandeur diversity and complexity of our country.

Knowing this complexity means studying the divisiveness in our country and the ways of combating it.

Why is there this blindness to all this reality?

Why is there this inability to reckon with the moral and spiritual facts?

Why is there this forgetfulness of the ideals by which our Republic was inspired?

If one promises the people of Southern Province that come 2016, the president will hail from there, they are creating a very big problem.

There is nothing that should stop anyone hailing from Eastern Province to be president of our country next year and another one from the same area, even the same town or village to take over from him in 2016.

What matters is not where one hails from but what type of leadership that person is able to provide our people.

What difference did Frederick Chiluba’s presidency make to the lives of our people who hail from Luapula Province?

And is the president going to be allowed to use national resources to prop up one region of our country – the area where he comes from – at the expense of the rest of the country?

Are the Zambian people going to tolerate such abuses? Kaunda hails from Northern Province.

But can anyone, in all honesty, accuse him of having done one thing in that region of our country simply on account that he hails from there?

Chinsali is as poor as any other part of our country, notwithstanding the fact that it is KK’s home district – a district that has produced many heroes of our independence struggle.

If this is the alliance Rupiah Banda wants with UPND, let it be.

But the Zambian people are not fools to support such a backward and nationally divisive political alliance.

And we have no doubt that those who engage in such an alliance will in the end be smeared with their own offals.

An alliance between the MMD and UPND that is simply premised on making someone who hails from Southern Province a president will not do.

Let them find many noble and more acceptable reasons to justify such as alliance.

There are many serious challenges and problems facing our people.

There is no need to create unnecessary ones for them – tribalism and regionalism just to benefit a few selfish and greedy politicians seeking power for themselves.

We cannot encourage tribalism and regionalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought and in action.

Advocating tribal and regional political alliances is being narrow-minded, being narrow in thought and in action. We must hold together.

Unless we face this fact, we shall pay the price that must be paid by all those who trade principles for political expediency.

We need to pay a lot of attention to the politics of our country.

We say this because judging by the record of the past, the two most decisive factors affecting the future consolidation and expansion of our democracy will be economic development and political leadership.

We say this because economic development makes democracy possible; political leadership makes it real.

Labels: REGIONALISM, VERNON MWAANGA

posted by MrK @ 5:42 PM