Maravi

UPND's insincerity is starting to grate on MMD
By Editor
Tue 09 July 2013, 14:00 CAT

Bowman Lusambo, MMD Die Hard Youth Wing national coordinator, says it has become apparent to all the youth in the party that UPND and its leader Hakainde Hichilema do not mean well for the MMD.

Lusambo says, "The UPND is clearly insulting our intelligence. This party is insincere and selfish. It has become clear that HH and his UPND are not our friends, so it's better we support the PF, which is more of a progressive party than the UPND. The PF as a ruling party means well in many areas compared to the UPND. No wonder the PF-UPND pact crumbled…because the UPND is not trustworthy. They don't want to work with other opposition parties in honesty".

Are these words really coming from someone in MMD? Yes, they are. These seem to be the true feelings of MMD's Lusambo and his colleagues in the youth wing of that party.

We understand the feelings of Lusambo because we came to this conclusion a long time ago. Lusambo and his colleagues are seeing what we saw in the UPND many years ago.

When we expressed similar views about the UPND, we were called all sorts of names and accused of all sorts of things. We know that the UPND will dismiss and denounce Lusambo and what he is saying. They will call him all sorts of names. That's how they react to criticism of their party and of their leader Hakainde. They seem to pay very little attention to criticism. Yet, there is a lot to learn from honest criticism.

At this rate, the UPND and its leadership will soon find itself totally isolated. Their relationships with other opposition political parties have never been that good. They have tried to get into alliances or pacts with other political parties but all have failed. Why? It is simply because they are greedy and too full of themselves. They have no regard for others. All that matters to them is what they themselves want.

But it is not possible to have a meaningful relationship with others if you have no respect for them and if all you think about is yourself and your position in things.

The problem with the UPND is, as Lusambo correctly put it, their lack of respect for others and their propensity to underrate the intelligence of others.

UPND doesn't have much to say politically, but it's a party of people who believe they know more about politics than others. If they are more intelligent than others, Why are they not in government? Why don't they have a majority in Parliament? The truth is that there is a lot of emptiness, arrogance and lack of humility in the UPND.

If you want to enter into meaningful relationships with others, you have to accept their integrity. If you are not prepared to respect others, then you must not enter into or think about political alliances or pacts. And as we have repeatedly pointed out before, no true cooperation, political alliances or pacts can be built on the shifting sands of evasions, illusions and opportunism. There is too much opportunism in the UPND. And the UPND leadership seemed to be permanently wedded to an illusory political world which they dominate.

There seems to be a lot of desperation on the part of Hakainde. And this is understandable because Hakainde came into politics to quickly become president of the Republic of Zambia. Following the UPND's very good performance in the 2001 elections, Hakainde thought he was going to be president after the 2006 elections. He miscalculated. The performance of UPND has never gone back to 2001. The party's political standing has been declining. Hakainde today doesn't seem to know what to do: he is not moving forward and he doesn't seem to be ready to move backwards. Hakainde seems to be in a casino and doesn't know when to leave. Every dice that is thrown, he hopes it will reverse his fortunes and as such, he keeps going on and on. Today, Hakainde barks at anything - he even barks at the wind. His presence has to be felt by talking even when he has nothing to say. As a result, the man is talking nonsense most of the time.

This desperation has pushed Hakainde and the UPND to start recruiting even from political parties that are supposed to be their allies. Anyway, prostitutes try anything; they have no respect even for the spouses of their friends. This is certainly not a recipe for the revival of UPND's political fortunes. Hakainde has ruined UPND and the party will never even be able to recover with him at its helm.
Of course, Hakainde will dismiss all this as hatred for him and his party - and sometimes he doesn't even hesitate to extend this to hatred for his tribe. Anyway, for Hakainde everything begins and ends in that way.

Today, all can see what Hakainde and UPND stand for. Their opportunism has become difficult to conceal. That's why even young politicians like Lusambo can see through Hakainde and UPND. They can see that they don't mean well for anybody other than themselves. And they are today in a position to appreciate why the pact between the UPND and the Patriotic Front could not work.

The only person who thinks he can benefit from the MMD's association with UPND seems to be Rupiah Banda. For some reason, Rupiah thinks the UPND is better placed to defend his interests. And indeed they have tried. It takes a lot for a person like Hakainde, who not very long ago used to accuse Rupiah of corruption, to be defending him against corruption charges today. Of course, Hakainde does nothing for nothing.

Hakainde is doing all this in the belief that Rupiah will deliver the Eastern Province vote to him. But how can Rupiah deliver to Hakainde that which he failed to deliver to himself? Rupiah doesn't own Eastern Province. Rupiah is not a factor in Eastern Province today. If Hakainde is banking on Rupiah to deliver Eastern Province to him, he is certainly working on the wrong thing.

And the close relationship between Rupiah and Hakainde is not difficult to discern. A good number of people who were politically very close to Rupiah have left the MMD for UPND. And they still maintain that close relationship with Rupiah while in the UPND. But again, all these, Rupiah's people, whom UPND is getting from MMD, failed to deliver for Rupiah himself. The question is: how are they going to deliver for Hakainde? These are the shifting sands of evasions, illusions and opportunism on which Hakainde and UPND want to build political alliances with others. Can it work?

Labels: BOWMAN LUSAMBO, MMD, OPPOSITION, UPND

posted by MrK @ 1:54 PM