Among the three largest political parties in Zambia, one is in government and the other two spend so small amount of effort competing and fighting with each other, creating a situation of “divide and conquer” enjoyed by the Patriotic Front administration.
The wrangling among the opposition party fraternity must come to an end if they want to halt the decline of democracy being experienced under the PF, says MP Lucky Mulusa of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD).
According to a statement distributed to media today from the Solwezi Central MP, “the ever alert devil is at work” in Zambia, reversing many of the country’s democratic gains.
In particular, Mulusa cites the return of the one-party state, the reemergence of UNIP-style politics of insulting and assaulting elderly people, and inter-party indiscipline, with young party members speaking out against policy proposals of senior members in the sister parties in a way that prevents progress from being made.
“We need to re-engage the spirit of hope and resilience that saw the opposition soldiering on from one by-election defeat to another by-election defeat until we scored a spectacular success in the recent by-elections,” says Mulusa, who also sits on the National Executive Board (NEC) of the MMD, the party’s main strategic body.
Mulusa laments the fact that immediately following recent by-election victories, the opposition parties rushed back to attack each other, creating confusion within and between the opposition community.
“Let us not seek early comfort from the recent successes in the parliamentary by-elections for that is just one successful mile in a journey of a thousand miles,” Mulusa said. ”We still have to cover 999 miles before we can comfortably reach our destination.”
“We also need to stop the bickering within opposition political parties and practice productive politics that will make the field of politics be a tool for enhancing the welfare of society rather than create confusion, misery and underdevelopment for our people.”
Citing the opposition’s common commitment to God in service of Zambia as a Christian nation, Mulusa says “we owe it to the public to uphold the tenets of good governance and political practice which underwrite the morality in politics rather than confirm the claim by Mr Winter Kabimba that there is no morality in politics.
“The belief that there is no morality in politics is a fallacy that is coming from a misplaced understanding of politics especially in a Christian nation in which the current President, Mr Sata, has promised to rule by the Ten Commandments.
“The fact that the President can promise to rule by the Ten Commandments while his number two claims immorality in PF’s politics is indicative of where the source of the PF’s governance failures lie.”
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