Maravi

MMD and lies
By Editor
Sun 22 Dec. 2013, 14:00 CAT

"THE MMD thought telling lies was going to make them stay in power forever. But where are they now? It doesn't pay to cheat people because what goes around comes around. That's why as PF government, we will not engage in promising you what we shall not fulfil."

This is lands minister Harry Kalaba's diagnosis of what led to the MMD's "collapse". It is also a challenge to the Patriotic Front to be careful and very truthful in the promises it makes to the Zambian people. It is always better to promise less and give more.

And there's a beautiful teaching from Amilcar Cabral on this score: "Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories…"

We believe that we serve the cause of the other peoples to the extent to which we work well, to the extent to which we are sincere, to the extent to which we are honest, to the extent to which we have eradicated demagoguery and lying from politics and to the extent to which we have eliminated compromise and deceit.

It is good that Kalaba realises this and we hope his comrades in the leadership of the Patriotic Front see things the same way. This is very important because that is precisely what the radical changes they are trying to push through consist of: bring about a radical change in society, not only hitting those "upstairs" - the powerful, the abusers - but effecting a change, hitting them also in their vices, of which compromise, lying and deceit were among the most characteristic.

This is a challenge to the cheap politicians of every ilk who are every day telling lies to have the courage, just once in their lives, just once in all their history, to tell our people a single truth.

Why didn't the lies of the MMD win acceptance? They failed to win acceptance simply because those lies did not answer the great desires of the masses of our people; they did not answer to the needs of the masses of our people.

What the Patriotic Front said or promised won acceptance simply because those ideas, those truths answered the great desires of our people; they answered the needs of the masses. And that is why all the lies of the MMD began to crumble; all their lies were slowly defeated by the overwhelming advance of the Patriotic Front's ideas which represented the interests of the masses of our people.

Of course, in that struggle, everyone took a position. Not everyone was won over to the Patriotic Front's ideas. This is a process which cannot be cut short. This is a process in which opinions and the different sections of the nation cannot be sliced neatly because it is a very complicated one. It would be necessary to analyse why some reacted in one way and others in another.

And there were some who held opinions which were not in accord with their own interests. There were people of the poor, humble sectors of our nation so confused by lies that they reacted against their own interests.

All these realities marked a struggle; they marked a struggle between the ideas of the Patriotic Front and the lies and deceit of the MMD. Which ideas came out victorious? The ideas of the Patriotic Front were victorious; the ideas of the masses came out victorious; the new truths came out victorious. All lies, all falsehoods, all hypocrisy were defeated.

Does this mean that the struggle has ended? No, the struggle has not ended. The struggle assumes very different forms, very subtle forms at times.

We feel that any citizen may have made a mistake at any given moment, but then he may make great and extraordinary efforts to vindicate himself. Nobody claims that what is being done is perfect no matter how much effort we devote to trying to make things turn out in the best possible way. Only life itself will be able to tell us where the shortcomings are and which aspects or details leave something to be desired. But we should always be able to improve the instruments we have established.

The MMD told too many lies about themselves and others. They lied about who they were and about what others were. They lived in a world of lies and got to a point where they started believing their own lies. And they don't seem to be changing. They have continued on the same path of deceit and lies about themselves and others. They can't even value themselves at their true worth. And because of this, they are not able to value others at their true worth. Today they are even dreaming about Dr Kenneth Kaunda and Rupiah Banda weighing the same on the scale of respect and dignity!

They lied about so many things when they were in government. They told the Zambian people that if they voted for Michael Sata, there would be chaos in the nation, there would be war and men will be marrying other men, women other women! Their lies seem to have caught up with them.
They lied even about us. They accused us of so many things. And today, they have difficulties abandoning their lies even in the light of all truths. Look at their lies about us owing the Development Bank of Zambia billions! Look at their lies about us relying on Michael Sata to protect us from paying the billions they claim we owe the Development Bank of Zambia! There was a Supreme Court judgment last week on some aspects of this issue. Look at how they are trying to play them down!

This is how liars live. The truth crushes them. And to survive, they have to continue telling more and more lies, piling up one lie on top of another. How else can they explain their earlier lies if not with more lies? How can they today explain the lies they told about Michael if not with new lies?

As Kalaba correctly observes, they are today "reaping what they had sowed". In Bemba, they say ubufi bulaya nokubwela!

Labels: LYING, MMD, NEVERS MUMBA

posted by MrK @ 5:23 PM