Friday, March 29, 2024

Fear and Greed Grip the Nation

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People in a queue for mealie meal in Chililabombwe this week
People in a queue for mealie meal in Chililabombwe this week

It’s now becoming increasingly clear that fear and greed have permeated every sector of our beloved nation and firmly taken root.Except for a few principled individuals, almost everyone is seemingly held in total captivity and they can’t dare interrogate government on some of its shortcomings for reasons best known to themselves.

Whereas some politicians such as MPs and councillors especially from MMD are slowly flocking to the ruling PF obviously because “njala yabanyokola” as former President Rupiah Banda would say, vital institutions that are expected to speak up for the downtrodden such as the media, the church, labour movement, LAZ, UNZASU, TIZ and civil society have all suddenly lost their voices.Surely, is it in order for the said institutions to stand aside and watch when all is not well in the nation? MMD may have made mistakes, many mistakes in fact, but should we go to sleep after putting PF in power and only become vigilant after 10 years or so of PF being in power?

[pullquote]In the 1990s we created a demi-god in FTJ. We watched him defraud us and make our fledgling democracy fray at the edges[/pullquote]

We are repeating the same grave mistake we made 21 years ago after ushering Chiluba in power. If I may borrow Field Ruwe’s words from his recent article on Zambian Watchdog, “We never learn. In the 1990s we created a demi-god in FTJ. We watched him defraud us and make our fledgling democracy fray at the edges. During FTJ’s reign we witnessed denial of fundamental human rights, arbitrariness, absence of the basic freedoms, corruption of the worst kind, dissipation of the treasury, and misappropriation of millions our dollars.”Indeed, we never learn as a nation! Many of you would agree that a number of things Field Ruwe writes about run parallel to what we are either reading or hearing about today. Allow me to categorically highlight some of the shortcomings of PF ever since they assumed power:

Denial of fundamental human rights

When President Sata lost to Banda in the elections of 2008, he immediately hit the campaign trail a few days later. He made sure he combed the breadth and width of this nation lamenting how victory had been robbed from him and pontificating about how he was going to rebuild the nation within 90 days if voted into power come 2011 elections. And people obviously cheered along; here was their long awaited messiah. The question that now remains to be answered is: why shouldn’t President Sata allow leaders of the opposition to interact freely with their members when Banda willingly allowed him to do so? Is he probably afraid that PF would be relegated to opposition ranks come 2016 because of their failure to effectively govern the nation?

Corruption

During his days in the opposition, President Sata was always the first one to paint the MMD administration as blatantly corrupt! And upon assuming office, he openly declared that he was allergic to corruption and promised that he would deal firmly with ministers or civil servants suspected to be entangled in any corrupt practices. To any analytical mind, the President may not be allergic to corruption after all. If indeed he was allergic to corruption as he claims, why didn’t he ask his Justice and Defence ministers to step aside to allow ACC to freely investigate them following mounting allegations of corruption on their part?What about the company alleged to have been single-sourced to carry out renovations at State house,doesn’t this amount to an act of corruption? Remember, former Communications and Transport minister Dora Siliya in the Banda administration is in court for a similar offence; she is alleged to have influenced single sourcing of a firm to supply radar equipment at KK international Airport. What is good for the goose must surely be good for the gander!

Dissipation of the treasury

While we appreciate the creation of additional districts by the President as this would enhance development in one way or another, we are concerned with the manner the exercise is being carried out. The President would just wake up and declare this village or outpost a district without taking into consideration the cost implications. The creation of more districts has to be budgeted for otherwise this is going to be a drain on the treasury as more money has to be allocated towards the construction of offices for the new Boma as well as salaries for the district commissioner and other civil servants.

Arbitrariness

At the height of fuel shortages during MMD rule,Mr. Sata went to a fuel station with a container to queue up for fuel – this picture made it to the front page of The Post newspaper. Did anybody attempt to arrest him, then? Why is he blocking the opposition from visiting markets or arresting them for visiting markets or traditional leaders? While this gross violation of human rights is slowly taking root in the nation, the church, labour unions, civil society and the media are scared of speaking out for the voiceless because they are either afraid of the unknown or they are greedy fellows who have been simply compromised. While the majority of citizens are enduring pain and hardship, these people are daily frequenting State house to lobby for government jobs or contracts. This is so disgusting!

By a disgusted citizen

20 COMMENTS

  1. Only in PF can such happen. Ruling party digging its own grave after only one year in power. Anyways watch on You Tube ” President Sata first nation address” hilarious PF gvt in self distruction mood.

  2. Malabishi Silubanji, you are just lazy. What do you expect from an individual when the PF hasn’t fulfilled its 90days promises to the people of Zambia. The allegations you are putting on this man are stupid. You are the same people discrediting the PF govt, let the PF govt work with its MPs. You yourself should be FIRED. Why didn’t you protest against Kabimba’s alleged corruption at ACC. Silubanji u are foolish,stupid dog

  3. The unintelligent political opportunism this lumpeneering MMD cadre is manifesting stinks to the very heavens above.

  4. IF THIS IS TRUE THEN IT IS VERY SAD. I HAVE A LOT OF RESPECT FOR HON LUBINDA. BUT IF HE IS DOUBLE DEALING THEN ACTION NEEDS TO BE TAKE. WHY SHOULD A RESPECTED MAN LIKE HIM ENTANGLE HIMSELF IN SUCH DEALINGS? THERE IS NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE. I MEAN THE FIRE CAN EITHER BE INHERENT OR JUST IMPORTED. CAN LUBINDA BE A “KABEMBA MUCHA ABELI”? AND I HOPE THESE ARE NOT KABIMBA’S TACTICS TO HAUND OUT LUBINDA.

  5. Kabwata Constituency chairperson David Silubanji is playing to the gallery of the combined vicious genetic pool of Wynter Kabimba and his perceived boss. The floating of Namulambe and Panji in the PF circus introduces another interesting dimension. The people of Kabwata are known to have forged strong links with Given Lubinda who understands the aspiration of people he represents in his constituency. Lubinda responds humanly to a diversity of people’s problems in Kabwata, as he has been seen to attend to funerals irrespective of the political affiliation the bereaved families hold. The real litmus paper test will be demonstrated if PF ditches Lubinda to force a bye-election in Lusaka.

  6. Dont worship people,if the constituents of kabwata strongly feel that he is not representing them as they feel he should,then they should go ahead and denounce him. but dont just stop at lubinda,go ahead and denounce the president for not keeping in tune with his 90 days promises. if you dont,then i will think it is a personal vendetta against this man mr.lubinda.

  7. The main problem with Zambians is ignorance and shockingly low levels of ability to think about and understand complex issues. Zambians are intellectually incapable of learning from their mistakes and FJT himself put it more clearly when he said Zambians are docile. He was wrong because being docile pressumes that the citizens understand their environment. But Zambians are still at that level where they are incapable of understanding the world around them and as a result treat their life goals with such simplicity. One case in point is how an entire population in 21st Century could believe, without feeling insulted, Sata’s election mantra that he was coming to literally put more money in their pockets. Is it a wonder why Kabimba is behaving blatantly like a monkey without any worry!

  8. Lubinda has been denounced in his constituency, does that mean we can also denounce Ukwa? he has done nothing so far, only his complexion has changed.

  9. @ LITUNGA – instead of calling me an amoeba in your broken English, present your counter-argument. As I said in my earlier posting, most of Zambians like YOU are incapable of making any coherent intelligent argument on any subject that affects your lives. You just talk too much without any substance, that’s why most Zambians tend ot be loud people – to them increasing volume is the only way to attrat attention. Now, I challenge you to come out of that hiding and proffer your perspective. Zero – you won’t. You are total c.r.a.p…and you are the type that disgust the author of the article above.

  10. It is sad that internal problems of the ruling party are brought in the public for consumption instead of being solved silently within the party amicably. Obviously Lubinda will not accept and admit allegations labelled against him but will defend himself just as Kabimba. Why should Kabimba give an ultimatum to his colleague without first dealing with issued raised against him? Mathew 7:1-5.
    These guys were so united when they were in the opposition. But my question today is: Where is this division and hatred emanating from?
    Fights in the ruling party and fights in the opposition……………what are the people who voted saying?

  11. if all of us started to smoke dagga so that it can remove fear we have to challenge these happenings then Zambia we will be liberated from all these cries. umwenso mweba Bantu wachilamo

  12. I can’t imagine , people are starving of hunger when thousands of tones of grain are rotting in government storage. The new season has started and still some poor farmers have not yet been paid.

  13. Non un dettaglio, quindi, quantomeno a livello simbolico. Che va ad aggiungersi ai motivi di disaccordo, alle divisioni e alle contestazioni di un’opinione pubblica divisa sulla figura e sull’eredità controversa di Margaret Thatcher, fino alla fine.

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