Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once said: “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
Many voters in 2011 chose to believe what the PF promised to deliver – “more money in your pockets, lower taxes, jobs”. They believed the PF because their words offered hope at a time when frustration with the MMD government had reached an all-time high after 20 straight years in power. So out of a desperate bid to eject the MMD, they chose to believe what was not true. And how things have since changed.
In the two years under PF
In a space of 2 short years under the PF, our kwacha had tumbled to its lowest level in our history; there are very few decent new jobs to speak of; prices of mealie meal have reached an all-time high and the mismanagement of our economy has meant that instead of Zambians having more money in their pockets, they are left to fiddle around with unwanted coins.
To make matters worse, largely as a result of the general lack of clear policy direction and haphazard, unplanned and uncoordinated governance directives, inflation – the rate at which the price of goods and services increase over time – has risen, hitting the poorest hardest. The official statistics do not come close to reflecting just how difficult it has become for people to survive. This can easily be demonstrated through the example of our staple diet, mealie meal.
The Poor
Studies show that a 25 kilogramme bag of industrially milled maize costs between K75 and K90 (or more depending on which part of the country you are buying it from). What these surveys do not reveal, however, is that the majority of Zambians do not have enough money to buy their monthly mealie meal requirements at one go. Instead, they often have to purchase their staple diet one meal at a time. Being forced to purchase mealie meal in small units (pamela – one standard cup measure at a time) means that the poor spend in total K126 (over Kw50 more) on buying a full bag of mealie meal than those in the middle class who may have enough ready income to purchase a full bag at one time for Kw75.For the poor, the cost of living has become so high that relatively few people can afford to have even one decent meal a day.
As a party dedicated to addressing the plight of the vulnerable, we are deeply saddened by the suffering we witness in numerous communities across the country. Let us be clear and frank, there is no spare money in most people’s pockets, costs are constantly going up and the future seems as bleak as ever.
Lets stop pretending
We could go on pretending, as the PF would want us to do, that all is well; that things will come right and we only need to be patient. We could entertain the idea of refusing to believe what is true and pretend that our national leaders really care about the people. Unfortunately, we see the continued harassment of Opposition leaders. We face, daily, the threat of being ambushed by knife-wielding cadres whenever we walk into a public market or try to reach out to supporters at a public bus stop. We see continued lawlessness against innocent citizens prevail without a word of condemnation from the leadership in power. We are neither fooled nor hopeful of any commitment to the people by the PF. All we see in their style of leadership is a desire to be in power at any price, no matter who gets injured in the process.
We strongly urge the PF to be more tolerant of alternative views and to listen to the people. We urge them to consider the wise words of Abraham Lincoln: “You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time”.
It is time for us to believe what is true and act upon it. The PF have increased the suffering of the people and desperately undermined the democracy we fought so hard to attain in 1991. Let us not give them any more excuses or reasons to fail the people of Zambia again.
Elias Chipimo
President
National Restoration Party
We warned you that you were voting for a F.O.O.L who has no clue…. did you not insult us?
I am actually loving it because an hungry man is a wise voter
Stop insulting your friend, or he will call you same.
The man has put blame on his chosen ones, and told us that they are useless.
– The wise are in UPND
– The smart one are in NAREP
– The humble and good people are in MMD & UNIP
– The thugs are kind of retarded are in PF & 4th Republic Party
@ Nostradamus
if according to you the retarded in PF can rule over the “wise in UPND”, the “smart in NAREP” and the “humble and good in MMD and UNIP”, then what kind of wise, smart, humble and good people does the country have that can be outsmarted by “retards?”
is it not that the opposite is whats in fact true?
@Nostradamus
i think am starting to understand Sata, the man is addicted to facebook, there are alot of nice photos of women with boobs on facebook,,, so it difficult for him sata to attend to his national duties,,,while and when facebook is on,,,
Tháts why Sata gets angry when people want him to address them in person,,,because he is always busy on facebook and facebooks is always calling in his mind
NOSTRADAMUS YOU ARE A WISE MAN.WE NEED TO GIVE HONOR TO PIPO WHO MERIT IT………
The cost of living is really biting. We were fooled big time and it is strange that we still have some people pretending that all is well. We change governments for our lives to improve and not to worsen. Frankly speaking, we were much better under RB. Hardship was there under RB but there was stability, direction and orderliness. Food production and security was good, these new guys we voted for cant even distribute fertliser. They promised 15bags of fertiliser which was a lie, but even to distribute fertiliser which people want to buy is a challenge.
We had hardships under RB but there was stability, ordeliness, bumper harvests and diginity. Now we have lack of planning,hunger, violence and arrogance. Even just the president to leave the country is sheer acrimony, the man just sneaks out. To distribute fertiliser is a major challenge, just to distribute. Political parties cant hold rallies, that avenue closed, they try to go to radio stations to speak to people,its an issue. They try to hire a hotel for conferences, it is denied. Believe me you, they will find an avenue which government wont handle some day. Muichindike!
One wise man once said “opinions are like as.s holes,everyone has one” I respect your opinion man because you are entitled to one.Seleni tubombeko !
And you respect his as.s hole too?
Your I can’t respect your opinion of seleni tubombeko, first go and tell your boss that people need:
– Presidential press statements
– State of the Republic address, not when other presidents who are working (HH) plans one, you get jealous and cancel it.
– Tell your boss that Facebook is childish, no one is interested in seeing is face online, people want to see him on TV.
Tell him to move out our way, we need to run Zambia with smart people, HH, Chipimo and Nason.
Tubombeko wakuti when there are no jobs and the only ukubomba Ukwa Urine bag is swearing in or insulting his minions?
Your mental degradation is worrying me son. So you really have no specific comment with regards what Chipimo has said? All you can say is that it’s his opinion when he is actually stating fact? Why do you insist on lowering your intelligence levels to that of typical PF cadres? Is that a prerequisite of being a member of this hopeless dunderhead-filled party? Sometimes I feel blogging about what is going on in this country should be left to some of us who are actually in Zambia and not you chaps who just come here occasionally. What you should know is that Sata won’t stand mu 20!6 and that will kill your party coz everyone will want to be head of state. And then the militias will swing into action
what is soothing for me is the fact that those who are affected most are the ones who refused to listen to the voice of reason from chanda chimba. as for me even if the bag of millie meal went up to K200, I can still afford. so let the 1diots suffer a bit more till 2016 may be they will have learnt something then and listen to the enlightened and make a proper choice
True that bro. Most of the morons I used to tell not to vote for that chi thing are now coming back ati ‘Kanshi mwalishibe ba kamba ayi?’ They need to feel it!!
Ya thats right. Music to my ears this!
You ain’t seen nothing yet. Wait for 2016 elections.
Sata and PF main objective is to reverse the democratic gains made this far. The reason for doing so is to continue serving self and family forest. This is confirmed by Sata’s right hand-man Willie Sanda who is on record saying he is now eating now that Sata is at plot 101.
And I want you to celebrate naked in the night again.
Elizabeth Chitika said Chiluba said it in 2001 that i can’t give the Presidency to Sata; “teti asunge abantu, kuntu abapatanya” and here we are.
I am very upset that innocent citizens are being harassed just for belonging to a different party. Chili ndwii mu state house and very primitive as usual. wake up and start leading, iwe chi Sata. Say something about the violence. Also there is a provision for resigning in your contract in case you are not aware.
Ba Elias another imitation of a politician. HH and Chipimo have no programme for this country and want to gain support at every juncture. This country does not need jokers whose only preoccupation is State House. The PF is the only party committed to improving the lives of the people of Zambia. No chongololo politicians such as the tribal bitter leader or gayload chipimo will cheat the masses and they are definitely heading for a rude shock in 2016
you are just a hired PF thug blogger. i dont see sense in your comments. grow up and face the reality. am sure you are blogging from one of the net cafes in the shanty compounds within lusaka. your reasoning is shallow and uselesss. get life you foollll!
Yu pipo why troubling yoself. Wht do you expect from a grade 4 dropout, former railway cleaner who did not think of improving himself academically. Asking sata to improve the economy is like asking a grade 4 to solve a statistical question using chi square. Forget about economic transformation, press conference by the way wht is he going to talk about. I don’t think the man can even answer any question from journalists. George continue writing on face book but we know the language of yo boss. We shud expect violence, borrowing, intimidation and backwardness in panga family.
kaloba Nkongole
It’s boring to repeat myself but I will. Chipimo if you are any good, get one parliamentary seat. Otherwise accept you are an armchair theorist
IS IT THE WAY WE OFFER CHECK AND BALANCE TO THE GVT ? JUST CRITICS WHICH LL NEVER HELP .CHIPIMO YOU WERE ONCE OFFERED A TRIP ABROAD AND YOU NEVER SHOWED ANY STANCE BY SAYING THATS MISS USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS. TO DAY YOU ARE TURNING AGAINST THEM AFTER FEEDING YOUR STOMACH . GO TO HELL