By Fred M’membe
The cruelty and killings going on in our country today under the presidency of Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu makes me reflect and deeply meditate over the presidency of Levy Patrick Mwanawasa.
It is said that “if you want to find out what a man is to the bottom, give him power. Any man can stand adversity — only a great man can stand prosperity”.
It is the glory of Levy that he never abused power only on the side of mercy. He was a perfectly honest man. When he had power, he used it in mercy.
Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Levy that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except on the side of mercy.
When early in his presidency Mr Lungu declared that he will “crush like a tonne of bricks anyone who tries to stand in his way ” many of us didn’t seem to pay much attention to what he was saying. Yet the man was revealing something very fundamental about his character and rule – cruelty!
This man has really been very cruel to others. His cruelty is really that of a sadist, psychopath. Look at what he has done to Hakainde Hichilema! Chishimba Kambwili! Harry Kalaba! Kelvin Bwalya Fube! And many others!
Count how many people have been killed by police under his watch for simply assembling to offer solidarity or protest against an injustice!
Humans are the glory and the scum of the universe, concluded the French philosopher, Blaise Pascal, in 1658. When one looks at the conduct of Mr Lungu, little has actually changed. We love and we loathe. We help and we harm. We reach out a hand and we stick in the knife.
We understand if someone lashes out in retaliation or self-defence. But when someone harms the harmless, we ask: “How could you?”
Humans typically do things to get pleasure or avoid pain. For most of us, hurting others causes us to feel their pain. And we don’t like this feeling. This suggests two reasons people may harm the harmless – either they don’t feel the others’ pain or they enjoy feeling the others’ pain.
Another reason people harm the harmless is because they nonetheless see a threat. Someone who doesn’t imperil your body or wallet can still threaten your social status.
Liberal societies assume causing others to suffer means we have harmed them. Yet some philosophers reject this idea. In the 21st Century, can we still conceive of being cruel to be kind?
Someone who gets pleasure from hurting or humiliating others is a sadist. Sadists feel other people’s pain more than is normal. And they enjoy it. At least, they do until it is over, when they may feel bad.
The popular imagination associates sadism with torturers and murderers. Yet there is also the less extreme, but more widespread, phenomenon of everyday sadism. Most people would flinch from having to torture another human being, mainly because when we inflict harm on others, we share some of that pain.
Everyday sadists get pleasure from hurting others or watching their suffering. They are rare, but not rare enough. Unlike sadists, psychopaths don’t harm the harmless simply because they get pleasure from it – though they may. Psychopaths want things. If harming others helps them get what they want, so be it.
Can you ever change a psychopath’s mind? They can act this way because they are less likely to feel pity or remorse or
fear. They can also work out what others are feeling but not get infected by such feelings themselves. Many who harm, torture or kill will be haunted by the experience. Yet psychopathy is a powerful predictor of someone inflicting unprovoked violence.
Italian philosopher and diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli once suggested that “the times, not men, create disorder”. Consistent with this, neuroscience suggests sadism could be a survival tactic triggered by times becoming tough.
Sadism and psychopathy are associated with other traits, such as narcissism and Machiavellianism. Such traits, taken together, are called the “dark factor of personality” or D-factor for short.
We all have a role to play in reducing cruelty.
Sadism involves enjoying another person’s humiliation and hurt. Yet it is often said that dehumanizing people is what allows us to be cruel. Potential victims are labeled as dogs, lice or cockroaches, allegedly making it easier for others to hurt them.
There is something to this. Research shows that if someone breaks a social norm, our brains treat their faces as less human. This makes it easier for us to punish people who violate norms of behaviour.
It is a sweet sentiment to think that if we see someone as human then we won’t hurt them. It is also a dangerous delusion. The psychologist Paul Bloom argues our worst cruelties may rest on not dehumanising people. People may hurt others precisely because they recognise them as human beings who don’t want to suffer pain, humiliation or degradation.
Clearly, the exercise of power must be a constant practice of self limitation and modesty.
Wynter Kabimba and his arrogance in power is what ECL reminds us of.
If the words were coming out of someone else I might value them but from Mmembe??? He fired my friend from The Post for nothing. He was just envious of her. From the things he did as a tin-pot dictator at the Post anyone can see that he could become Idi Amin if he became President. Yes Lungu is cruel but so is Mmembe.
Ni same same na iwe….with the little power u had under the post u insulted him day in and out …..
El Mino imagine
What is worse with this man is that he doesn’t embrace the idea of paying taxes. I don’t know what this country can become with him as president.
Edgar is not cruel, atumpa fye. He closed The Post Newspaper, and his friends stole assets.
Seriously, Edgar will die from depression few months after August elections.
I don’t think he is cruel maybe he is, but I think he lacks leadership, like When Mapenzi , Frank Mugala and Vespers were shot dead by Police, he never said a word despite the magnitude of the crime. It is just now when the two people have been shot dead that he has shown some leadership by asking for a report and of course dismissing the wrong person and leaving the two main accomplices intact in their jobs.
he has shown some leadership naiwe? Wrong kind of leadership because this is a dictator’s leadership whereby you interfere with state institutions that don’t fall under you. The apartheid regime in South Africa would applaud Lungu’s actions. But in a democracy we should all know that the Police cannot be micromanaged by the President. This only happens in a dictatorship. Did Zambians remove Kaunda for another dictatorship?
You are worse than him,you think we can forget.
Fred your time expired with the post newspaper.please try some farming
Muuze the tinpot dictator himself.
Fred is very correct. This man we have is extremely cruel
The truth is that Edgar Lungu has all the qualities of a tyrant, for example not questioning Police why they are perpetually stopping opposition from assembling. In African politics it should come from a President to say these are my opponents on ideas, why are you stopping them from gathering, but he is just there as if he does not know what is going on, just deliberately playing a blind eye. And you know African Police, in trying to keep their jobs they are really oppressing the opposition to please their appointees.
This is edited coz we have read the original write up on his page
When you were the Post Look what you did TO CHILUBA THEN TO RB. YOU SENT ALOT PEOPLE TO THERE EARLY GRAVE USING THE PEN YOU WERE UNTOUCHERBLE SO LUNGU DID THE SHAKA FORMULA NEVER LEAVE YOUR ENEMY BEHIND BECAUSE HE WILL STUB YOU
I don’t know whether Edgar Lungu is cruel or not but when it comes to working, even a blind man can see that he has lamentably failed. The infrastructure development that the PF is talking about is not even linked to any number in terms of GDP growth. I would have expected a rational argument to say, this is the infrastructure that we have put up and this is the resultant GDP growth, but just an argument in the vacuum of we have put up infrastructure, the GDP growth is still in very big decline, worse than any other government’s GDP we have had in the past
Well said Mwenya. We the voters need to examine these parties’ manifestos and check out how their plans will translate into GDP growth but we are so obsessed with how humble someone’s face looks than how practical he is as a leader, We want to see if the leader turns up for church services! We the voters are to blame for the insipid leadership we have and the equally impotent opposition. We vote for people for the wrong reasons. The nation will continue sinking while our leadership prays for manna to drop from heaven
membe ubushushi too much. Remember how you treated your friends Naka newspaper and don’t forget how levy treated chiluba. One would argue chiluba stole, but so did HH and kambwili, i they had issues with the law. On the police killings I remember under levy we had shootings at unza. But no we want to behave like it’s the first time police have been this stupid. We all know the police are vultures even to ordinary citizens. I am pretty sure they use 1956 training manual ku lilayi.
Iwe Chabu Kikikikikikiki! 1956 manual!! Awe its not funny but its true. Our Police force is archaic, ancient, retarded, behind the times and should be the centre of manifestos by those contesting in 2021
to say the GDP is low is not true. Check the statistics. And there are infrastructure projects like mini hospitals and clinics that help ordinary citizens and are difficult to quantify in terms of GDP. The lungu administration has failed the perception contest, even were they are doing good very few would say it because overall perception is bad. This is due to corruption and lack of quick action at critical times.
Lungu is stup1d and dull at the same time, that very dangerous, but then again he is the brightest person in PF then give you a real picture of what sh1t you are dealing with in PF…. fical matter bonse.The ka party that delivered the ka worst president on earth
COMRADES look at who is talking: He has not changed. Mwanawasa remains the most insulted president this country has ever witnessed. The bigger chunk of scorn and abuse and insolence was coming from this chief tax evader next to kleptoh², fred Mmembe now recognizing late President LPM MHSRIP. He was called a cabbage the term coined by Mmembe. This skunk and jackalope Mmembe thrived on prejudice name calling and falsehood. He accused innocent people in the manner he is doing right now.
How can you forget LPM?? It was during his presidency that you were at the height of your power. In ECL, you found your match, he put you in your place where presidents from KK, FTJ to Sata failed. You will never have kind words for him. But at the height of your power, you were cold and heartless, Fred. You used your post newspaper to destroy people’s lives. It’s like a cobra calling a mamba cruel….
With the little power you enjoyed at The Post, remember how you also humiliated Chiluba, Mwanawasa even the ka little girl Iris Kaingu. Mmembe, you are also a sadist. You called Chiluba a thief, Levy arrogant and allowed The Post to run a satire where Zambians were referred to as animals.
Lungu is just a common theif protecting his loot , he cracks down on democratic freedoms of the opposition to protect what he is stealing but has now graduated to murder……..
Those people who think he lacks leadership qualities are wrong , Lungu is fully aware of all atrocities like the gassing of our people and police brutality , he simply plays ignorant while his leutenents are busy brutallising and killing….
Chabu
December 31, 2020 At 8:00 am
“….to say the GDP is low is not true. Check the statistics. …..”
What are you smoking ???
Every economic indicator under lungu has been on a downward spiral , even before covid
Give us your figures and compare them to those under previous administrations
Membe, Membe, Membe, please!! You can say this? You? I think ka ECL kalichita bwino kakufwanta. You want to praise Levy whom you demonized in his early years of presidency? You called people names including Michael Sata at some point. Just team up with Under 5 so you get thrashed together in 2021. Tawakatekepo, get this from me.
Viva ECL 2021.
Lungu is a common theif , he was barred by LAZ for stealing and has now graduated to murder…..
You forgot to mention yowa selufu, ECL use by 12 August 2021 has really humbled you. Sit down and read some of your editorials in The Post. RB was at your mercy. Your language was very crude against such an elderly person, the President for all Zambians. You made many of your followers to hate RB for nothing. You even called him sugar daddy. Wamona, kwa Mwika bakolwe basekana ifipato. You only spared LPM when he began to listen to your lies. How many times did Mwanawasa arrest Sata? I refer you to the trial verbatim of General Musengule and how they even almost grabbed his how. Go to Kitwe and ask former tenants of those flats in Kitwe if there was no abuse of power in the LPM Government. You were just not on the receiving end.
Under which President was Michael Sata arrested and detained for 41 days on a charge of theft of motor vehicle?
Yes lungu has killed more people for having divergent views from his pf than all former presidents combined ,
If you count the fatalities from the gassing campain , even more people have been murdered under political circumstances under lungu then during the struggle for independence…..
Not a single person has been convicted for these deaths under lungu…..
Says the tax evading sick gay pillock. We understand you may feel that way because his excellency refused to accept gay laws in this country. Mmembe if you want to do that dirty thing then move to UK and go join your fellow gay mates like tarino.
Leaving the main culprits is very sad and playing and pretending to take action.Kampyongo and Kanganja gave warnings of police action not knowing what they meant that they’d kill for no reason and they’ve not been even mentioned instead there assigned to investigate the killings they likely ordered….
Gay Fred you do tell the truth about Lungu and his cruelty yes. Kambwili however deserves what he got, what he is getting, and a lot worse!
It takes one to know another.
You are no better than Lungu.
You are both the type of politician Zambians must reject.
But you are worse you stole 54mk from tax payeers money.
KZ. You are an imbecile kunt. What president will utter the words I will crush you with gimme of bricks.
These kind of statements are unheard in the European continent.
The problem with Africans is power gets to their heads. It’s like they own the country and all it’s assets.
Your ex boss is a convict and a thief. It’s well documented.
Very soon you will be begging for in assylum
Fred Mmembe is an opportunist, he always tries to ride on chances that he does not understand their end. This Hakainde’s brother in-law has lost direction and is still living in utopia he thinks the whole country does not know that not so long ago he denied the Zambian people more than K 50 m in tax evasions which so the post being liquidated. Now his “Mast” is not giving him enough income to ride on. The result is his periodic dinosaurs-like stories. Mmembe you need to understand that “Kingdoms rise and wane” Like your kingdom that you created out of lies and selfish ends it rose but for a short time there after in waned.
M,membe you are worse of.. very cruel. You wrote all the negatives on one good man RB every day of his rain . Forcing us to vote him out. Doing the same even now… But now I’m wise enough. Won’t make same mistake
@Redo RB was no good man. He stole taxpayer’s moneys and even involved his children in duping the whole of Zambia in Nigerian oil deals. He wanted to make as much money as possible while in State House. He was as selfish as Lungu. Did you see how he fought for the house he lives in? That’s just how selfish he is. These are not the kind of politicians a poor country like ours needs
Everything has gone sour in Zambia. During the presidency of Levy Patrick Mwanawasa and Data we never experienced what we are seeing now where the police have become killers for pf. The best thing to do is to vote them out, the 2021 we were waiting for is here tomorrow. And 2021 will run fast because August will be like 8 weeks away. We want Change, HH is taking over. God given. Bally. HH, ECL will handover Zambia to you in August 2021. Congratulations messages all over the World will be pouring into Zambia. The best one from Joe Biden. We want change.
That’s why some people will never rule this country.
What First Lady above has posted about Mmembe is very true.
Lungu cruel? This must rank as the most blatant piece of fiction in the history of Zambia as an independent country.
Lungu is a failed projected. On cruelty you the author and him ni same whatsapp group.
This idi..ot called Fred has just divided Zambians because of hatred reporting and writing this is the same fo.ol who used to called our late President Mwanawasa ati chi cabbage and before long the whole country was calling him that, until he had a press briefing and made a statement to say you call me cabbage cabbage i will prove to you that iam steak. Zambians it’s hight time we become weary of is fred, such people just divide the nation by negative speech therefore let’s stay away from negativity and spend our energies on what is positive in order to contribute to the well-being of the nation. Fred get lost you fo.ol
@Dee I agree we can see that people like Fred just want to cause confusion. Always dividing the nation. From the 90s, I have never heard of Fred offering solutions. But he is very good at criticising. He is like a vulture. Vultures only want to see some life dead so that they can feed on the death.