A specter is haunting Zambia

By Dr. Munyonzwe Hamalengwa

Chimwemwe residents stone UPND Members

A specter is haunting Zambia, the specter of politically-motivated election violence that has the foreboding potential to destroy what Zambians have built since the demobilization of the One-Party Dictatorship in 1991. This specter is unhealthy for democracy and indeed connote the utter immaturity of the much vaunted Zambia’s peaceful democracy. The people of Zambia must take a stand.

Zambians have enjoyed relative peace in comparison to other countries since 1964. Zambians survived and forced out a very strong One-Party Dictator in the name of Dr. Kenneth Kaunda. President Kaunda gave up power peacefully despite the news that it was a touch and go decision. He did not want to shed blood of innocent Zambians by clinging onto power after losing the election, like what happened in Kenya years later in 2007. Despite what might be said about President Kaunda, in comparison to spear- wielding, panga- slashing, rock- throwing, police-complicity- in- violence and miscellaneous lunatics of modern Zambia, Dr. Kaunda was a decent man. Again everything is comparative.

If Zambians survived a strong one-man and no-other-party Dictator like Kaunda, how can Zambians in a claimed multiparty democratic dispensation with a supposedly functioning judicial system, allow an individual or a bunch of individuals, destabilize a very peaceful people and country? Just for the sake of acquiring power by individuals or a bunch or group of individuals, most Zambians must suffer after all what we have paid for to bring about that democracy! In this day and age!

What happened in Kenya and Ivory Coast to those who perpetrated politically-motivated election violence? They ended up at the International Criminal Court. There should be no leader who is above the law. Zambia already has clear-cut examples of what happens to leaders who are corrupt while in office—the stripping of their immunities and their prosecutions.

This happened to President Chiluba and it happended to President Banda. If a leader is accused of violence and doesn’t end up at the ICC, he or she will end up in court or indeed a Zambian jail. It may not be in 2016, it could be down the road. The memory of law is long. It does not know the statute of limitations. Greedy leaders cannot and will not escape accountability when they lose power in future. Kaunda lost power, the MMD lost power. No one lasts forever. Empires fall.

President Chiluba despite his attempt to cling onto power, left power peacefully, President Banda, despite a very strong instinct to hang on after losing power, was prevailed upon to give up peacefully. No one lasts in power forever. Accountability will take its course no matter what.

President Kaunda found something to do after losing power, Banda found something to do after losing power. They are alive. So what is the matter with those who engineer violence to stay in power at the expense of peaceful Zambians? There is always something to do after losing power including enjoying some of the corruptly obtained properties and money and wealth, if some of it is not taken away when accounting eventually takes place.

There is life after politics, folks. Zambia is beautiful. Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria is happy and so is Jerry Rawlings of Ghana. Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria is all smiles when I see his pictures in the news. Kenneth Kaunda and Rupiah Banda to me seem to be happy. Of course the trappings of power are harder to relinguish than just about anything else. In a democracy that is the imperative. You can’t hijack the whole democracy by perpetrating violence so you can cling to power because of the trappings of power? Zambians should not countenance this aggrandizement. Not in the 21st Century, starting now. In fact, starting from yesterday.

The perpetrators of violence will be prosecuted. The evidence is abundant. Many organizations and individuals are collecting this evidence, so that the Kenyan example is not repeated whereby the ICC begged the Kenyan state for evidence to use against its very leaders! The leaders of course and inevitably refused to hand over the incriminating evidence. It won’t be so in Zambia.

The evidence is on tape-recorded radio interviews, on videos, including cell-phone videos and audio sounds, on blogs, in newspapers, on online publications, in recorded interviews and so on. The police behavior is clearly also politically-influenced and their actions will be judged when judgment day comes. The defence of following orders no longer holds water anywhere in the world. Enforcing the Public Order act when it is enforced in a politically discriminatory way, will not be a defense.

There is a less painful way to avoid future imprisonment, accountability and employment lustrations. Stop engaging in violence. Allow the fragile Zambian democracy to reach its full potential. Abide by the Rule of Law. Apply the law equally to all Zambians without regard to political parties. These same principles also apply to the opposition. The law does not, nor should it distinguish between leaders in government and the police and intelligence forces on the one hand, and the opposition o the other hand. All should be under one Rule of Law under the banner of One Zambia One Nation.