Civility after contested elections

One of the most endearing and enduring qualities of Western-Style democracies is the civility exhibited towards each other after a bitterly contested Intra-party or inter-party elections. Can this be reproduced in Zambia because as every one knows, this election and its aftermath was bitter. Zambia is bigger than any one party or individual? Robert Dole wrote that losing an election is a very bitter experience. It is like losing a heavy weight boxing crown which had sent George Foreman into a ten-year spin of depression but he came back and reclaimed the crown at age 45, the oldest heavy weight champion in history to ever do so.

But let me get back to civility which is the medicine that cures bitterness and divisions post-elections. The onus to demonstrate civility rests on the victors, no matter how they achieved that victory. The first prong of civility is for the victors not to gloat, boast and embarrass those who did not win. This is obviously counter-intuitive. Humans have a tendency to sneer and gloat and boast and mock those who did not make it. Zambia is a particularly sad example of this. It is shocking for someone like me who had been far away for a long time to find this unfortunate behaviour.

The second prong of civility is not to retaliate in any way against those who did not make it. Provable criminality on all persons regardless of their political affiliation is an exception and that must be left in the hands of professional police without any political tint or taint. The third prong of civility is to control and prevent political and party operatives from committing  prong one (gloating and boasting and insulting the opposition) and prong two (retaliation).

I witnessed political civility in my 40-year residence in both Canada and the US. I was right there in the Nation’s capital Ottawa when young Joe Clark toppled the mighty Pierre Elliot Trudeau in 1979. It was mighty embarrassing for Trudeau to lose to a neophyte like Clark. But he exited the stage strong and proud, knowing that there will be another day. Young Joe Clark never gloated or boasted and only praised his predecessor. Nine months later, young Joe Clark lost a vote of no confidence in the a House if Commons to the Mighty Trudeau. He was back. I was still in Ottawa doing my studies at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. Trudeau never gloated. He never boasted. He never embarrassed young Joe Clark.

I was living in Toronto  in 1988 when the Liberals under David Peterson defeated the 40-year rule of what was then called “the big blue machine” of the Conservative Party of Bill Davis. There was no gloating by the Peterson liberals, no harassment and embarrassing name-calling from party cadres and operatives. Two years later, Peterson lost the elections to the New Democratic Party (NDP) under young Bob Rae. The NDP had never won in Ontario since Canada was founded in 1867. There was no gloating or mockery evidenced by young Bob Rae and the New Democrats.

It is the same in the United States whether it is intra-party contests like Hillary Clinton losing to young Obama after a bitterly contested primary or it is inter-party like  John MacCain losing to Obama or more poignantly because the Supreme Court intervened in the decision or indecision that ratified the presidency of George W. Bush against Al Gore, there was no gloating or resentment respectively.  Will this be the case in Zambia?

I don’t remember which Kenyan author, maybe Jomo Kenyatta who put it more dialectically when he referred to his experience of imprisonment as “suffering without bitterness”, indicating diplomatically that life goes on after these loses. The victor must be gracious in victory and the one who didn’t make it must be gracious in defeat no matter what the beef may be.

I know it is easier said than done from the distance. But I also know that when I lived in the West for forty years, leaders lost power or elections and these leaders showed each other great civility for the greater good of the country. They do make up usually the same night the election results are announced. So I know it is done even here in Zambia, albeit not quite so civilly. These elections were bitter, the resulting conclusion has never been experienced anywhere in the world and it has left a bad stench in Zambia which can only be cured by greater doses of civility towards each other,  on the part of the leaders, cadres and all Zambians. We are still all within the geographic boundaries of Zambia.

Dr. Munyonzwe Hamalengwa is the Compiler of the book, The Case Against Tribalism in Zambia which is available at Bookworld bookshop. He teaches law at Zambian Open University.