2018: A Year Memorable for Progress Moving the Country Closer Towards Vision 2030 – Despite Progress Being Insulted by Envious Habitual Haters

By Sunday Chilufya Chanda

Prologue- A Half Hearted end of year “Whine” and Dine

2018 draws to an end today with a tale about how some Habitual Haters, filled with Hypocrisy, Falseness, Double standards, Envy, Depression and supported by a few other nondescript Depravities met up for an end of year soiree to plot the down fall of Progress.

Alas! They did more whining and whinnying than dining and they left the place more depressed – having gluttonously partaken of a menu of spite, malice and all manner of nastiness garnished with mutual deception; served on a platter of plastic smiles and other simulated courtesies.

They parted company at the end of the evening, with a more profound mutual suspicion and disdain of each other. Their cocktail of bitters didn’t help either- literally!

They had come from seven directions that evening, and they fled in seven different directions, three sheets to the wind, drunk with envy about Progress.

Their buncombe and mind numbing propaganda against progress had made them lose their minds; their darkness could not withstand the light of progress!

Progress in the Face of Calumny and Insults During 2018:

As some Opposition leader and his posse insulted Progress, the Zambian economy grew by five percent in the third quarter of 2018 compared to 4.5 percent recorded in the same period in 2017.

During 2018, they insulted Progress day after day week in week out, and found Progress guilty of cooperating with China to better the lives of Zambians by accelerating development of infrastructure in the country.

One Opposition leader waged a relentless xenophobic campaign against the Chinese lying through his teeth that some strategic state assets such as ZESCO, new Kenneth Kaunda International Airport, ZNBC, among others, had been sold to China.

However, in a bizarre twist of events, some Opposition leader, bitterly envious of Progress with Chinese Infrastructure Development, secretly wrote a love letter to the Chinese Embassy attempting to sweet-talk them, saying that he “valued their relationship” and unsuccesfully pleaded with them to stall works until his Party assumed power in the not so foreseeable future – when pigs will fly.

And as they continued to disparage Progress and generate false news and misinformation about the state of Zambia’s economy, the Duke of Sussex visited Zambia.

While they condemned Progress, British politician Sir Richard Ottaway commenting on Prince Harry’s visit to Zambia described our country under the PF Government of President Edgar Chagwa Lungu as:

“A vibrant, democratically stable, environmentally aware nation and ONE OF THE MAIN SUCCESS STORIES of post colonialism”

2018: Progress Made a Haggard Hostile more Irrelevant:

The more some Opposition leaders insulted progress, the more Progress developed and the less relevant the Hostile Haggard became in whatever form he morphed; whether as Hateful Hypocrite or Habitual Hoaxer.

Progress drove Zambia to winning the “Best State Strategy In Africa” award at the Africa Investment Forum and Awards Ceremony held in Paris, France.

This was in recognition of the Patriotic Front Government of President Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s efforts in improving the business environment and attracting domestic and foreign direct investment.

While the Opposition haters et al disparaged the Zambian Economy and the state of doing business in the country, the 2018 edition of the World Bank Doing Business Report named Zambia as one of the best 10 performers in the world, ranking fourth in the sub-Saharan region in business reforms and efforts to reduce the cost of doing business.

And as the arch villain of Progress and Peace – the self-seeking Opposition spewed forth insults against Progress; organisations as varied as the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), African Union, Food and Agriculture Organisation, UN Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank , jointly conferred a medal of recognition of Progress; His Excellency President Edgar Chagwa Lungu was awarded as a champion of the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa (IDDA3); speaking volumes of the international community recognising President Lungu as an astute leader working to improve the lives of Zambian Citizens.

Even though the Opposition tried to poison the political atmosphere with toxic tales about Zambia’s relationship with the World Bank and the IMF, Progress prevailed; and Zambia’s hosted the World Bank International Development Association [IDA] 18 high-level mid-term review.

This event, to the chagrin of the Hateful Hobo in the Opposition, was a huge statement of confidence by the World and the international community in Zambia’s progress. Progress!

While the cynical ilk of the Opposition was fixated on deriving satisfaction from bescumbering the country and scattering their ordure of toxic talk, fake news, and misinformation; President Lungu and the PF Government was throughout 2018 firmly focussed on delivering human-centred development driven by economic and social infrastructure development in conformity with the Seventh National Development Plan (7NDP) with the aim of developing Zambia to a prosperous middle-income nation by 2030. Progress!

As they drove around the capital city they saw the Progress on the Lusaka Decongestion Project and as they visited other parts of the country, some Opposition leader and company became more Envious and, Depressed because Progress with infrastructure Development increasingly made them irrelevant. Progress!

The infrastructure development around Zambia in Health, Education, Roads Agriculture and other sectors is plain to see, but they choose to look the other way.

Progress has also ensured that all Constituencies across Zambia regardless of geographical location or political affiliation have received their Constituency Development Funds (CDF) in 2018. Progress!

A named Opposition leader and his ilk appear to have lost their tongue to acknowledge Progress in this regard.

However, when they have found it, they has been very deceitful and have had the Dutch courage to credit the disbursement of CDF to one Opposition leader. Enemies of Progress!

Progess has not been distracted by the insults and cheap propaganda. Being insulted offers us an opportunity to practice decency and having a non-response internally; because what drives the propaganda with rage is being ignored while we make Progress. It is much more of an insult to them that they are not even worth noticing!

The Entrenched Denialism of Despots in 2018:

While 2018 saw Progress in the entrenchment of intra-party democracy in the ruling Party, the year also witnessed the entrenchment of a deep-seated despotism in the opposition.

The irony with the Opposition is that while they are in the habit of insulting others, they cry foul the loudest and label the truth as insults when they are confronted with the truth.

They are an insult to truth; and strangers to reality- making noises about dialogue, democracy and good governance, whilst they themselves are tyrannical Life Presidents in their party; they consequently do not practice dialogue, democracy and good governance within.

They take it as an insult when questions are asked of them:

1. Apart from the fact that their current leader is de facto Life President having unsuccessfully contested 5 elections without even so much as a sniff of internal opposition – Have they ever held an elective convention since 2006?
2. Do their structures even hold elections like the ruling party does? If so how often?
3. Do they have the moral ground to talk about dialogue and good governance when their Party is a personality cult- One Man is their party and their Party is One Man; the infallible Life President and the centre of their universe?
4. What right do they have to talk about violence when they encourage wholesale violence in their “strongholds” against people from other tribes and regions and they also welcome perpetrators of violence who have been expelled for violence from other political parties?

When some parties spend twenty years opposing everything and anything including Progress just for the sake of opposing and when they spend more than two decades of their life inflating their ego and insulting Progress just for the sake of trying to sound smart; they become blind to Progress and their hearts become embittered with jealousy while their conscience becomes seared to all that is good and progressive in the process.

Jealousy is a reality-distorting disease…we wish the Opposition a quick recovery as we start 2019!

The Author is Patriotic Front Media Director At the Patriotic Front Secretariat Lusaka