Mr Chiluba who is a former a student leader and activist at Copperbelt University (COBUSU) said the people that fought for Multipartism did so for citizens to use political parties as platforms for expressing themselves to the government and not for propagating hate and cheap propaganda.
He noted that of late it has become fashionable for political parties whether big or small to champion the individual agendas of their leaders as opposed to using the platform to speak for the downtrodden in the country.
He adds that placing the interests individuals by political parties has the potential to weaken the governance system of the country hence the need for them to stop the retrogressive tendency.
“Our democracy is been used to champion the agenda not of the majority but that of the few selfish individuals. A number of political parties are becoming petty and slowly loosing there relevance because they reflect more on the views of the few selfish individuals instead of reflecting on the sentiments of their members.
“Political parties are one of the major platforms through which people’s aspirations should be brought to the attention of the government and the nation, but what we are witnessing today is a sad state of affairs. They have become a platform where these selfish individuals are using them to express their frustrations.
“Some political parties no longer give hope to the people when campaigning but only give assurance of vengeance and retaliation which have nothing to do with improving the wellbeing of people,” he said.
He said political parties should revisit the reasons for their being formed and get back to the co-duty of being the voice of the voiceless in society.
“We are of the view that a number of political parties should go back to the drawing board and put their houses in order. They should start practising politics which are in line with the provisions of the Republican constitution, which is aimed at providing a basket of broad ideas and an ideal environment for innovation and creativity.”
Mr Chiluba further called on the registrar of societies to sternly deal with parties abrogating the republican constitution.
“We want to also take this opportunity to appeal to the registrar of societies not to relent in deregistering parties that do not adhere to the requirements of the Republican Laws and rules and provisions within their Party Constitutions, as certain individuals have hijacked these political platforms to propagate hatred and cheap propaganda thereby making politics unappealing especially to the youths and eventually killing the participatory democracy which we as MMD fought hard to bring,” he said.
Is he son of Frederick Chiluba? He is critising PF government.
@Nistradamus I’m also trying to figure out what he’s point is, after giving a good heading and then he doesn’t say anything sensible
He is talking about the party which is using democratic rights to champion tribalism
A Bowman Lusambo clone…. O, clown! kkkkk
You made a good observation regarding the objective of multipartism. However you’re too general in your articulation that you missed the opportunity to explain the point in detail. You sound like you’re scared of offending your boss or something like that. Are you MMD- Nevers Mumba, MMD-Mutati, or PF/MMD?
I wasted my time reading this junk of an article. Chiluba, get some balls and give us names, don’t be vain. Be clear on your message.
we the people that fought for democracy are saddened that what we fought for is slowly being high jacked to a one party state again; Chiluba looks too young to know how hard we fought for democracy;many of us left MMD when Mumba came in as party president and it got worse with the Mutati faction. Youngster if you want to write articles; be factual and donot be afraid to speak out as to which ever party you are talking about; Kaunda done one very great thing and that was to bring up THE ONE ZAMBIA ONE NATION; it brought us together; then came the PF s Mumbi Phiri and the Kambwili s and they brought tribalismn;
Surely everyone in Zambia except foreigners know that its is UPND which is tribal.
Hazaluza Hagain hijacked the peace and left under five card brains’ supporters, masters of negativity in the “pity latrin!” They must be sent to Chimbokaila too!
This is the best article this year written by a sensible Patriot. Well done Mr Chiluba. Your article is short but packs a lot of widely held views by tired citizens watching the democratic process being bastardised by uncontrolled ambitions. The article aptly states the truth and gives wise counsel to ‘lost’ politicians. Thank you.
This message is to all the political parties starting with the MMD destroyed by that Nevers Mumba to UNIP, UPND, PF etc. Political parties have become personal to holder vehicles for some people who refuse to give way. MMD is the only party which does not belong to anyone because it started as a movement for the people but refusal for Mumba to let go is a classic example.
The genes of Zambians are meant for One Party Participatory Democracy. Our fore fathers knew this hence the Choma declaration.