Thursday, March 28, 2024

A Critical Analysis of the Imperialist Driven Constitution by Chief Chitimukulu (Part 4)

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This is article 4 of 6 in the series ‘ A Critical Analysis of the Imperialist Driven Constitution by Chief Chitimukulu ‘

    1. A Critical analysis of the Imperialist Driven Constitution Part 1- The Preamble
    2. A Critical analysis of the Imperialist Driven Constitution Part 2- One Man,One Vote
    3. A Critical Analysis of the Imperialist Driven Constitution Part 3 – The Consequences of Nationalisation
    4. A Critical Analysis of the Imperialist Driven Constitution Part 4 – The Art of State Craft
Dr Chiluba addressing people at the Ncwala
The late President Frederick Chiluba

By Henry Kanyanta Sosala-Chitimukulu

The Art of State Craft

We have read how UNIP used the referendum to get the licence for easily doing everything the government intended to do. And the imperialist-driven constitution is tailored for the capitalist-exploiter to check and easily control the ambivalent movements by which the government would function when their stooges are in control.

The major obstacle for the supposed intellectuals’ breakthrough has been because the so-called ‘’narrow-minded’’ are the king-makers, through ‘’one man, one vote.’’ And 120 parliamentary constituencies out of 150 are in the rural areas.

In fact what is at play in the Mung’omba Draft Constitution is the question of ‘’power.’’ In terms of the issue of where ‘‘power’’ lies has been simple in all the previous Constitutions, which recognized the people, irrespective of their stations in life as being sovereign, but the current draft constitution which was an instrument of the black imperialists and under-written by the capitalist-exploiters looked in an entirely different direction. And it is being hailed as the apotheosis of emergent intellectual nationalism and the concept of equal political rights for every Zambian and more particularly the uneducated sub-human beings (better known in cultivated circles as the ‘’scum and garbage’’ of the nation) have been shot down.

[pullquote]protagonists have now re-defined ‘’democracy’’ to mean ‘’pursuing the interests of the stronger[/pullquote]

Every autocratic and authoritarian scheme of social action rests on the belief that the needed intelligence is confined to a superior few, who because of accumulated wealth or their high level of education are automatically endowed with the ability and the right to control the conduct of others; laying down principles and rules and directing the ways in which they are carried out.

And very surprisingly due to the ideas that developed in the early history of mankind, even in institutions where democracy should be preserved now exist men’s minds and feelings still permeated with ideas about leadership from above. For example, David Assaph Luche wrote:

‘’The church in Africa is currently better placed to begin to shape the destiny of Africa. Sadly the Church in Africa has been bought, compromised, polluted, divided and encroached with all kind of vices’’

(Monitor & Digest 20th July 2007).

The art of ‘’state craft’’ is a set of particular outcomes in which control over state power is cleverly taken away from the poor to attain class objectives and domestic compradorial and parasitic elites under the tutelage, protection and for the ultimate benefit of the capitalist-exploiter.

‘’Statecraft’’ is a concept and a practice that consciously aims to demobilize the people as a motive force for change and treats them as objects; citizens who obey class biased ‘’rule of law’’ and religiously follow directives from a vanguard leadership. The goal of ‘’statecraft’’ is to create a state of democratic, well-governed nation that can meet the needs of their citizens and conduct themselves responsibly (according to the capitalist-exploiter’s rules). This is the best way to provide enduring security, not for the ordinary people, but for the capitalist-exploiter.

In this respect, the protagonists have now re-defined ‘’democracy’’ to mean ‘’pursuing the interests of the stronger.This had to be achieved through the Chiluba regime’s commitment to the Bretton Woods institutions and its imposed restructuring and privatization policies and the so-called ‘’financial stability’’ has only brought more hardships and poverty on Zambians.

For example, an international organization, the National Citizens’ Coalition reported in Social Watch Report 2002:

“When former President Chiluba took office from President Kaunda in 1991, the poverty rate was 56 per cent. When he left the government after ten years, poverty had risen to upward of 80 per cent.’’

On the other hand, the human side of the reforms were not deliberately taken into account by the international institutions or considered sufficiently by the government since the appeal was to speed up privatization, even at the price of widespread corruption, which was condoned by these institutions. And as the Social Watch Report 2002 went on:

‘’Large-scale corruption had diverted resources meant for the people of Zambia, while they watched in sorrow and desperation as their country headed towards becoming the poorest in the world. A characteristic feature of Zambia’s poverty is that the government and the international institutions bred it. Zambia’s poverty did not just happen; it was caused…..Former Chiluba’s government was the most corrupt in the history of this country. Resources that should have been used to improve the people’s quality of life were misappropriated in grand corruption episodes..” (emphasis mine)

According to BBC Focus on Africa monitored on 12th April 2002, Zambia was counted among the ten most corrupt nations of the world. NGOs are funded mostly by Western donors and here is The Posts’ editorial comment on NGOs: “…

the civil society, for more than four years remained largely silent on corruption. And when some members of the civil society spoke on this issue, it was often an attack on those who were making the most humble contribution to this fight and not against the thieves. In short, they started to appear as if they were defending thieves. Thus, sending the wrong message; the wrong signals to our people which confused them.” (ibid., 20th September 2006).

And indeed, corruption has now become the graphic symbol of our society.And corruption is just a deliberate policy to make people docile and manipulative and hence people to be totally submissive to the powers-that-be. The aim is to break the moral fibre of our society.

NGOs are funded mostly by Western donors and hence submissive to the powers-that-be. The Social Watch Report also noted:

‘’Recently, Zambia was admitted to the highly-indebted Poor Country initiative of the IMF/World Bank. A key condition for the HIPC initiative is that government produces a ‘participatory’ poverty reduction plan. But the plan being drawn by the government and the World Bank can in no sense qualify as ‘participatory.’ There is no single face from the poor on the team that is developing the plan. The government simply identified likeable NGOs and put them on the team to make it look like there was grass-roots participation. No one on the team has experienced the insecurity and desperation of being poor.’’

And here is the greatest and shameful scandal: Dr. Kamoyo Mwale, a career intelligence officer disclosed:

‘’…we discovered that the MMD government had changed the printers of our money from Harrison in England to Thomas de la Rue because they did not want Kaunda’s portrait on the money. This sounded very plausible, but later on we discovered that they exploited the loopholes at Thomas de la Rue. So they asked for the first consignment of K6 billion (now K6 million) to be shipped outside the Bank of Zambia arrangement. That money came into circulation in this country. But some of it was already circulating in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo)…..My friend Xaviour Chungu, the new intelligence director whom I was helping in his new position had a correct conscious in the beginning. He saw what the new leaders were doing….getting money directly from the mint….there were many actors involved Katebe Katoto and others.’’ (Sunday Post 26th March 2006).

Please note: A characteristic feature of Zambia’s poverty is that the government and the international institutions bred it. Zambia’s poverty did not just happen; it was caused…

…..To be continued

13 COMMENTS

    • Democracy is indeed a means of pursuing the interests of the stronger..as evidently seen across Africa.It is very disheartening that in 1991 a turning point in our history we were robbed of development by greedy and selfish men. The MMD under Chiluba was a disaster but it’s time to rise from our ashes of shame.Another great read with a some big words I had to google.Loving it!Thank you -the great Bemba Chief -Chitimukulu

  1. ….from these articles the Chit knows alot about (the first Presidence of the) MMD’s corruption. Just wondering whether he does know anything that the late Sata didn’t want the chief to tell us especially looking at the hatred that existed between this two.Kaya. Maybe

  2. Interesting read indeed. Where are our artists to follow this up? And maybe turn it into Zambia’s first thriller miniseries for television? We want to see what really happened coz not many can have a chance to read such an article.

  3. I hope this information is correct. However, Levy mwanawasa and former DPP mutembo inchito investigated this issue for 8 years ,but were is the money collected from the investigation if the chief is to be proved correct?

  4. No wonder Sata did not like this ka Sosala. The guy is supposed to be a writer and not a chief. He supposed to be looking after his people and not locked up in a room all day over a computer writing to Lusaka Times. Bemba must fulumuna this ka chief. Chief Monze is better.

  5. Full of knowledge,i am aware that most of the infor under chiluba were classified and only few zambians kno about chiluba ‘s greedness.the problem is we hav a broken system.

  6. I do understand the politics behind most African countries, in principle, but this article is an eye opener to most Zambians who blindly support some political leaders. Corruption has become the tradename for most political leaders in the SADC. Botswana is exception, perhaps followed by Namibia

    • Those are the Diamonds of the Southern region ( No pun intended ). Look at how they have used Zambia’s brains to develop their countries.

  7. Ha ha ha. They want to turn Democracy into Meritocracy through the backdoor. Who will benefit? Those corrupt and rich ofcourse. We are in for a rude shock if we continue sleeping.

  8. The democracy that Chiluba practised was genuine from the beginning but later on became riddled with all sorts of mismanagement of resources. The poor who had started to have hope under Mwanawasa were crushed beyond acceptable levels with successive regimes. The agenda has changed, peoples representatives are no longer loyal to their electorates but their parties..we settle for mediocre leaderships and hence poverty remain a promoted factor.

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