Mon, 22 May 2017 14:01:38 +0000
Preamble
ccording to Dr. Lumbwe’s interpretation of the Bemba proverb, “Umulilo ucingile abakalamba taoca,’’ in English means, “the fire does not destroy when the elders screen it from you. (No matter how bad the trouble, it will turn out alright if the elders help you).’’ He went on: “Umulilo nangu ubwafya bwingakula sana nga babutwala ku bakalamba abali na mano tekuti bwafye sana pantu bena kuti bamona umwakusengulwila.’’ In others words, any situation no matter how daunting is not insoluble as long as senior wise citizens are around.
And therefore in this respect, what sort of persons are referred to in the Bemba proverb, ‘’Umulilo ucingile abakalamba taoca.’’ It is said that knowledge teaches you how to use a gun, but wisdom teaches you when to pull the trigger. Wisdom is the right use of knowledge or the ability to apply knowledge to everyday life and that is why wisdom is regarded as ‘’skill for right living.’’ It’s the ability to see connections between one fact and another and between facts and real life. No one is expected to prevent negative emotions or feelings, but the Law of Emotional Choice directs us to acknowledge our emotions and feelings, but also to refuse to get stuck in the negatives.
I have recently decided just to listen and understand rather than to respond because generally in this country we have adopted a social solecism. I believe we stayed too long in the one-party dictatorship and have wrongly grasped the tenets of democracy and more particularly the free-speech that was brought about after 1991. No one can limit the freedom of expression of another person since our ability to express our thoughts and ideas is a basic right. However, freedom of expression does best when it is controlled by self-discipline, by deference and respect for others. But we have more people as at now in this country who are hot-headed rather than level-headed. And more particularly the media landscape which has turned into a market for wickedness. And surely that made Pope Francis to go to such an extent of saying, ‘’ journalists and the media must avoid falling into ‘’coprophillia’’ –an abnormal interest in excrement. And those reading such stories risked behaving like ‘’coprophagies – people who eat fasces.
In fact true freedom and democracy involve much more work than dictatorship (For example, ‘’UNIP mulilo uwaikatako apya’’ i.e., UNIP is a deadly fire and any opposition whatsoever would be severely dealt with). And democracy is not the absence of law, work or a release from authority, but in reality, true democracy imposes more law and more work than dictatorship since it demands more discipline and self-control than oppression. True democracy is a matter of the mind and not of human law!
The Aftermath of August 2016 General Elections
The current political events after the 11th August 2016 general elections have not come as a surprise to most political analysts because we saw how the two leading rival political parties, i.e., the Patriotic Front (PF) and the United Party for National Development (UPND), effectively mobilized the people; the huge finances that were poured into their campaigns; the hiring of paid-up cadres to intimidate the people and above all how the party leaders touched even the normally unreachable remotest areas of the country by helicopters and dug-out canoes.
And it was very uncertain to pin-point at the time of the campaign before what Dr. Kaunda calls, the ‘’painless killer’’ (i.e., the ballot box), which party would emerge victorious, and hence there was generally great expectations and anticipations from the party leaders and party members as well for political rewards. And consequently there is great frustration which is normally to be expected from the losing party leaders and members especially by those who had staked everything into the campaign machinery.
And here is what Dr. Kaunda wrote about ‘’frustration’’ in his book, A Humanist in Africa: ‘’….but political frustration built up over time cannot be dissipated overnight. The psychologist defines ‘frustration’ as the condition which occurs when a blockage is placed in the way of some desired goal, resulting in the destructive outworking of the energy generated to achieve it. He further claims that the symptoms of frustration are aggression, heightened suggestibility and a reversion to non-constructive pattern of behavior. All these conditions are likely to be experienced in the immediate post-election period…’’
I wrote to Expendito C. Chipalo, one of the few journalists for whom I have great respect since he can in any circumstance call ‘’a spade, spade,’’ and is not involved in what is now known as ‘’yellow journalism,’’ to give me an overview of the past elections and here is what he sent me:
“Kanabesa,.below is the information from 1991 when the country reverted to multiparty democracy 1991.Dr. Kaunda lost to Mr. Frederick Chiluba. The loser never disputed the elections although he questioned why the women did not vote. There was friction between UNIP and the MMD caused by a spate of bombings by a group calling itself ‘’Black Mamba,’’ which everyone thought were perpetrated by UNIP and this led to the detention of former President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda by the MMD government. The late Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere came to mediate and Dr. Kaunda was released from detention unconditionally.
- 1996, there was no dispute. But UNIP boycotted the elections due to a parentage clause in the constitution which disqualified Dr. Kaunda from contesting the elections.
- 2001, founding President of the United Party for National Development (UPND) Mr. Anderson Mazoka disputed the election of Mr. Patrick Levy Mwanawasa of the MMD. Mazoka took the matter to court and the litigation lasted four years with the Supreme Court eventually ruling against Mr. Mazoka..It was this case which led to the proposal to include a clause limiting the period within which the presidential election petition must be finalized as well as staying the inauguration of the winner until after the ruling of the on the petition.
- 2006, the leader of the Patriotic Front Mr. Micheal Chilufya Sata lost the election to Levy Patrick Mwanawasa. The result was heavily disputed but Mr. Sata did not go to court citing the experience of Mazoka. He recognized Mwanawasa as President and went on to launch his campaigns for the next election.
- 2008, Mr. Sata lost to Rupiah Banda (MMD). The loser was not happy with the results but did not go to court and recognized Rupiah Banda as President.
- 2011, Rupiah Banda became the second sitting President to lose an election. He conceded defeat and even attended the swearing in ceremony of Mr. Michael Sata.
- 2015, Mr. Edgar Lungu defeated Mr. Hakainde Hichilema who disputed the election and claimed that victory was stolen from him. Mr. Hichilema did not go to court but continued campaigning for the August 2016 elections.
- 2016, the first elections under the new 50 per cent +1 was won by Mr. Edgar Lungu of the Patriotic Front. Mr. Hichilema has disputed the elections and refused to recognize Mr. Edgar Lungu as President of Zambia.
The Failure of a Reconciliation Process
I have finally decided to put it across to Zambians themselves because I had received many appeals from people from various walks of life asking me to be the trail-blazer in appealing to certain prominent senior citizens like Dr. Kaunda etc., in order to try and tackle the political dilemma that might lead to some sort of reconciliation between the warring parties so as to end the current political crisis.
I wish to report to all those who had asked me to carry out that assignment that I have failed because the two right institutions i.e., the traditional leadership and the Church that I had hoped to appeal to in this national reconciliation process have unfortunately made pronouncements that are prejudicial to this task. Normally, these are the two institutions to which people generally look up to for moral guidance. Tradition is concerned with some of the structural ways in which we relate and interact with one another in our communities and whereas religion is concerned with all the ways in which we relate to others because it is in these relationships that we relate to our Creator. But it is worth to note that the most violent conflicts today are among people with strong religious beliefs, since they are convinced that God is on their side as they murder their enemies.
Traditional rulers derive their authority from customs and traditions that have existed since time immemorial. They are custodians and repositories of traditional customs and cultural heritage. And customs and norms provide a means whereby modes of behavior for each society are fixed. These provide a means whereby young people cannot be brought in a higgledy-piggledy manner. And this simply means that traditional rulers stand on a more superior moral ground than politicians.
In 1958, D.B. Hall, then Secretary for Native Affairs wrote a paper titled: Chiefs in Northern Rhodesia (i.e., Zambia), which was intended for white officers who were recruited from overseas to serve in the Provincial Administration. ‘’What is the position of the Chief? He is the material and spiritual leader of his tribe or a part of his tribe. He is the most important person in the particular part of the country which he administers, in that he is the focus to which loyalties ___ spiritually, personal and constitutional ultimately return. He is the man to whom all his subjects can go when they feel the pressing need, go with their troubles. His functions combine spiritual, administrative and judicial duties. And to the Chief all eyes are turned in times of trouble…..’’ (emphasis mine).
I hope you have grasped the fact that one of the key roles of a traditional ruler is to keep peace, ‘’He is the man to whom all his subjects can go when they feel the pressing need, go with their troubles.’’ It is said that ‘’tolerance’’ is a virtue where you respect the views of others, without necessarily agreeing them. And indeed in this respect I have no quarrel, though it is regrettable to note the adversarial stance that some traditional leaders in Southern Province have taken against President Lungu and the PF government. On the other hand, other traditional leaders like myself have not been very comfortable with the discrimination that our Southern brothers have openly displayed whereby in the political struggle between our two subjects,(i.e., Messrs. Edgar Lungu and Hakainde Hichilema), they have declared the latter as ‘’our son.’’
Continues tomorrow
