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Post Newspapers Editor Fred M’membe could not have been more right when he recited one of his memorized quotes from his Communist mentors that “Creatures prefer their own kind”.
No one could fault even the ‘all mighty’ Fred when he is at his memorizing best quoting anything from scripture to czarist literature. For indeed M’membe and Republican President Michael Sata share a long standing affection for dictators, it does not matter on which planet they are – Zimbabwe, North Korea, China and Cuba.
The duo that is currently driving the country deep into the shackles of dictatorship have in a proverbial emperor without clothes style curved in individual libeterties and seeking to control the lives and thinking of citizens.
A scan into Emperor Fred’s philosophy hints at a man given to ruling anything around him by an iron fist through the inspiration derived from his idols among them Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Robert Mugabe, Paul Kagama, Yoweri Museveni, the now deceased Hugo Chavez and closer to home Kenneth Kaunda and Michael Sata.
Over the years, M’membe has dedicated acres of space to eulogizing these dicatators and has even donated generous amounts of space in his newspaper propping their philosophies.
M’membe for all the help that he has received through more democratized and civilized nations over time has opted to align himself to the whims of dictatorships.
To demonstrate his admiration for long standing Cuban leader Fidel Castrol, he has given him a column through which the ailing Cuban leader spells out his thoughts something that hardly connects with the Zambian leaders. It is one of the excessess that M’membe abuses for his long grip on the local media.
How Cuba has been run in terms of citizen’s freedoms is a matter of public record. While it is all too easy to sit and propagate the perceived glories of socialism, the ordinary Cuban citizens who endure the daily dictatorship are best placed to give that testimony.
It is all too easy for M’membe to massage his ego about the little high school fantasies he had about Communism and shove it down his readers but in reality it is all a great shame.
Look at the legacy Kenneth Kaunda left until he was forced out by the collective might of the Zambian people. Who can forget how even being alone in a private place was a fearsome experience as citizens feared that even walls could tell on anyone holding divergent views to that of the State in the Kaunda era.
What about the several detentions? The party dictatorship remains one of the darkest legacies this country has ever been shoved with, second only to colonialism. Now this is what M’MEMBE adores.
He also donated acres of space to Kaunda to feed his fantasies about anything he ever dreamt of but thanfully the Zambia readers saw through the sham and the poor response made the weekly column colapse.
Now M’membe is in bed with another archtypical dictator Michael Sata whose democratic credentials or the lack of them is a matter of public record. Nobody did a better service to remind the Zambian people of the dicator that Sata was than M’membe himself when he documented Sata’s atrocious public service record in the run up to the 2006 general elections.
He reminded us of the savage that forced everyone out of the MMD to pave way for himself as successor to Frederick Chiluba who was trying to go for a third term-which Sata supported.
Sata had alcohol driven youths hack at opponents as was the case in Chawama and now M’membe wants to launder Sata and sing praises to SAINT MICHAEL Sata as the editorials in The Post have now become hym books of how GLORIOUS SAINT Michael is overseeing the affairs of the poor Southern African nation.
Yet political gatherings in the country have been frozen, church, opposition and civil society leaders are beaten up or arrested for expressing their opinions and of course he does occasionally publicly dress down his opponents at swearing in ceremonies and critical media is being shut down through technlogy imported from fellow dictatorships like China and Russia.
And all this to M’membe is saintly. Today the only gospel M’membe preaches is saint Michael. Kindly note the partnerships the Patriotic Front has been forging- China, Russia, Zimbabwe, North Korea among others.
So let not anyone be fooled the M’membe/Sata love affair is consumated by their deep affection for dictatorship. For anyone with the sense to check, kindly do an independent audit of how he runs his newspaper and how employees with independent views are flushed out. And surely everything will make sense.
I rest my case! By the way who would think Wynter Kabimba is a worthy national leader ahead of Given Lubinda? At least in the M’membe secret society that is the way it works.
The post Opinion: M’membe and Sata’s Love for Dictators appeared first on Zambia Reports.