Maravi

Ruling parties should help the opposition survive - Bishop Mususu

Ruling parties should help the opposition survive - Bishop Mususu
By Ernest Chanda
Fri 20 Apr. 2012, 11:59 CAT

BISHOP Paul Mususu says politicians should form parties based on ideologies and principles in order for them to survive even after losing elections. Bishop Mususu, the former executive director of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia, also said ruling parties should help opposition parties survive.

Commenting on visiting German law maker Stefan Liebich's appeal that Zambian political parties should learn the art of surviving in the opposition after losing elections, Bishop Mususu said there were so many factors contributing to such a scenario.

"I absolutely agree with him, he's right. But there are many factors at play why our political parties fail to survive after losing power. One, there is a problem with the way we are constructing our own political parties. What I mean is, once a political party is formed, everything is centred on the person in charge," he said yesterday.

"You will find that principally there is more belief and trust in the leader of that party as opposed to the ideology which that political party may hold. Others hang on tribal lines and things like that. That's why you will find that someone will leave MMD today and tomorrow they belong to another political party because it is not based on ideology or principle."

He said political parties in Western countries survived because they were based on ideologies and principles.

Bishop Mususu said since survival instincts were embedded in those principles, parties continued to exist for long.

He further said ruling parties also had a share of the blame because they tended to embark on wiping out opposition parties.

"Second thing, and I'm afraid is very evident even in the arrangement today; every political party that has taken power has not enhanced the survival of other parties. They've gone flat out to champion the mood of really making the party that was there dead and buried. MMD did the same to UNIP, and it was the same after a change over from Chiluba to Mwanawasa. You remember the majority MPs were in the opposition in the National Assembly," he said.

"Before you knew it, they MMD lobbied and there were several by-elections; Dr Sipula Kabanje, the Nedson Zowas and all the opposition members that made the majority in parliament overnight they swung. So, to me the whole blame would be on the sitting government, and PF is no exemption. In their appointments now, whatever they're doing it's a killer instinct for them to win the majority. We are bent towards one party state, and it's there to see."

Bishop Mususu said the large number of political parties in the country also contributed to a weakened opposition.

He suggested trimming the number of political parties so that people could continue supporting them.

"We cannot afford to have 55 political parties. In as much as I would want the freedom of expression, freedom of association, surely we can do something. Like we have church mother bodies, we only have three," said Bishop Mususu.

[In Germany, which has a proportional representation system, there is a 10% cutoff point for representation in parliament. They mainly do this to exclude the extreme right from parliamentary politics, but it makes sense. There will still be upto about 10 parties in parliament, probably fewer than that. - MrK]

In an interview after he addressed delegates at a cocktail party at the German Ambassador's residence on Tuesday, Liebich, a member of parliament in the Left Party said democracy demanded that political parties continue to exist.

"In a democracy it is important, if you lose power, to learn how the opposition works. I hope that the former ruling party MMD here in your country will get a chance to learn it," said Liebich.

"My party was 10 years in a coalition partnership in the Senate of Berlin, after the last elections we were sent to the opposition. That's life, it's how democracy works and I hope in your country it will be the future. It makes no sense to disappear after elections."

Labels: BISHOP MUSUSU, OPPOSITION, PAUL MUSUSU, POLITICS

posted by MrK @ 4:21 PM