By Wallen Simwaka
Political party defections just days before elections may not be based on ideological belief, difference or shift. The ruling MMD has witnessed two resignations of its members in the last three weeks but political commentators see these defections from the ruling party as nothing but opportunism.
MIKE Mulongoti, the former Works and Supply Minister, Lameck Mangani, former Works and Supply Deputy Minister, bigoted former Zambian ambassador to Libya Mbita Chitala and their erstwhile MMD Chongwe member of Parliament Sylvia Masebo have left the MMD and are now sloganeering the Patriotic Front (PF) maxim – a boat, evidently sinking.
Their motive has nothing to do with acute ideological differences with the MMD, the party they have over the years used to build their career and financial status, nor has it got anything to do with representing the will of the people they purport to serve.
The quartet in its judgment believes that the PF will form government this year and have played the dice but what they do not realise is that the German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein once cautioned in one of his theories that God does not play such games with lives of his people.
The foursome has purposefully ganged up in a style and manner of the ancient Roman gladiatorial fight to promote aggression, hate and hatred against the MMD and President Banda.
Listening to the quartet makes one realise that the four have suddenly become political purists yet deeply despise President Banda, not for any discernable ideological reason but for having discovered that their failure to colonise the head of State.
For Dr Chitala and Ms Masebo, switching parties has been a cancer they have suffered in decades with the former having left the MMD in 1994 to join the late Dean Mung’omba in the Zambia Democratic Congress (ZADECO) whom he later betrayed.
Ms Masebo’s sense of opportunism is quite high as her record equally shows that she has been very rickety politically having left the MMD to join the Zambia Republican Party (ZRP) of Benjamin Mwila in 2001 and later defecting to the MMD in 2006 when she saw the MMD under late Mwanawasa remaining in government.
After the death of President Mwanawasa, Ms Masebo was among the first to have wedged a malicious campaign against President Banda because she believed former Finance Minister Ng’andu Magande should have been adopted to contest the 2008 presidential elections.
It is ironic, however, that Ms Masebo, who strongly believed Mr Magande should have been president has instead defected to the PF, the political party that she vehemently loathed when President Mwanawasa was alive.
It is only logical to discern that she has joined the PF and not Mr Magande because she hopes that Mr Sata will win the elections this year and would consider her for another job in his government.
She did not stay in the ZRP because the party was in the opposition and all her desires were to be associated with the ruling party.
Mr Mwila, who is ZRP president and Nchelenge member of Parliament has described his former secretary general Masebo as a truant politician who has continued swinging from one political party to other for personal gain.
Mr Mwila said the electorate should be asking Ms Masebo why they should continue voting for her every five years on a different political party.
Mr Mwila said while Ms Masebo has the democratic right to belong to any political party of her choice, she has in her political life been confusing the electorate by changing parties every five years.
Mr Mwila says the electorate should be sensitised to stop believing in persons and following blindly politicians whose characteristics are not predictable.
“Why should the people of Chongwe continue voting for her? She has been changing political parties every five years and that is being truant politically.
Although she has the right to change political parties if she wants, she must not take the electorate for granted. For now, it is up to the people of Chongwe to look at her because it is now looking like it is tribal on her part,” Mr Mwila said.
He said Ms Masebo has been misleading the people of Chongwe by changing political parties and that her interest is not about serving the communities but to gain her own benefits from the parties she goes.
He stated that Ms Masebo lacked principles by joining the political party that she maligned and slandered ceaselessly when she was in government.
Mr Mwila said the people defecting from the MMD now have openly exhibited naked political opportunism and the electorate should be wondering why they have chosen to leave the ruling party now and not much earlier.
From the beginning, the PF has been indoctrinating its supporters, mostly the youth with its irreverent myth of complete development in all economic sectors punctuating it with the dogma of more money in the pocket and employment for all within 90 days of assuming government.
A decade down the road, the youth have seen through the political dogma and are asking the modus operandi Mr Sata will use to turn Zambia into a paradise within three months.
Mr Mulongoti and his bed fellows Mr Chitala, Kafulafuta member of Parliament George Mpombo and Ms Masebo are currently working hard to negatively compute the economic, social and political successes President Banda has recorded in the world’s shortest time for any president.
For Mr Mulongoti and his friend, Mbita, who changes names as often as he does change political parties and Mpombo, the ascendancy of Mr Sata to power will help them settle whatever scores they have against President Banda.
The obtuse band of the four political charlatans has been going around the countryside telling the people that the MMD government has done nothing, yet just months ago, the same people were eulogising President Banda for his hard work and dedication to national development and reconciliation.
When President Banda was commissioning the construction of the Isoka-Muyombe road, Mr Mulongoti was full of praise for the President describing him as the most dedicated leader who is determined to have Zambia develop.
He is now disparaging the same works he was proud of and this is nothing but out of sour grapes.
Mr Mulongoti has not been subtle in his hatred for President Banda and has openly stated that he has joined the PF so that should the opposition political party form government, he should use it to settle scores against the head of State.
Mr Mulongoti is a bitter man that he was expelled from the ruling party and would want to come back through the PF and get even with President Banda and the MMD.
He has gone to the PF not because he believes in its ideology but because he wants to use the opposition political party to victimise those he now considers his foes.
Mr Mulongoti said he has never been sympathetic about the PF but that he is going to support the party because of personal interests.
“Principles, values and beliefs do not always rhyme with reality and when this happens, you opt to sacrifice these virtues. So sometimes people move from one political party to another to get even…to teach the other a lesson from where you are coming from even if you believe in the agenda. They rejected me and I became an anathema in my own party, so certainly I have issues with them,” Mr Mulongoti was quoted as saying recently.
While in the MMD, the four thought they would succeed in gaining control over President Banda and that he would succumb to their manoeuvres and anoint one of them to be the heir to the presidency but their equation was computed with serious deficiencies which have since exposed their ineptitude.
By and large, President Banda has remained steadfast in serving the country and he has dedicated his time to planning for where next to take development and in what form.
He has also emerged not only as a pacifist in the MMD but also as Zambia’s most successful President who is ready to be disparaged to the length for ‘littering’ the country with economic infrastructure such as roads, schools and hospitals.
In President Banda’s mind, every school, road and hospital around the country is a living organism that represents the economic health of the country.
The political thermometer for the PF and Mr Sata has plunged well below zero and the chances of ever forming government he started proclaiming the demonic doctrine of reverting Zambia to a secular state that would see homosexuals and lesbians enjoy their conjugal rights.
The Southern Africa Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD) has described the recent defection of Ms Masebo and Mr Mangani from the MMD as political opportunism of the worst kind.
SACCORD executive director Lee Habasonda says those who are resigning from the MMD are not serving the interest of the people but their own.
He said in an interview that Ms Masebo and Mr Mangani should give good reasons to the people they purport to represent why they had to wait until days before elections to defect from the MMD.
Mr Habasonda has advised the PF to be cautious with politicians who defect from their political parties just before elections stating that such politicians do so more for opportunism rather than service.
The PF should not be celebrating the resignation of Ms Masebo and Mr Mangani from the MMD because there is nothing ideological about their actions. It is only a question of benefits and this is not good for our political dispensation,” Mr Habasonda said.
He said the defections have cost the country a lot of money that could have been channelled to development programmes such as the construction of schools, hospitals and roads.
Mr Habasonda said Zambia urgently needs a law that would stop politicians who take advantage of the electorate and resign from their parties knowing they would easily be accepted and adopted in their new parties.
He said it is not politically and morally right for Ms Masebo and Mr Mangani to defect from the MMD and then allowed to re-contest their seat on the PF ticket where there are many members of the opposition political party that have been eying the same seat.
“They are abusing the voters. Why have they waited until now to resign from the MMD and then the PF should happily accept them. My advice to the PF is that they should not be celebrating these defections.
It is not the first time Ms Masebo and Mr Mangani have defected from their parties. In fact they should explain why they stayed for so long and decided to defect when elections are near,” Mr Habasonda said.
He explaines that the two pretended that all was well when they were in Government and now that they are out, that is when they want to tell the people how bad the MMD is.
Mr Habasonda said the country should come up with the law that will reduce the incentives of political prostitution among politicians because such behaviour does not add anything to democracy.
The quartet proved to be dark angels in the MMD and there is every reason to believe that at some point, it will refuse to sing along with the PF; what with the hoarse voice of the choirmaster!
