Wrangling in opposition, ever alert devil at work

By Lucky Mulusa – Solwezi Central Member of Parliament

The wrangling that is going on in the opposition party fraternity is an indication that Zambia is about to make a turn for the better but the ever alert devil is at work not to make it happen.

This fact can be noted from the events in which we are beginning to see reversals in the gains Zambia has achieved on many fronts especially in terms of our democracy and political maturity.

We have observed lately that the old order is refusing to give way to the new order:
1. This is happening in the PF where the party’s pre-occupation is to take Zambia back to the old days of one party state;
2. It is also happening where there seems to be the re-emergency of UNIP style of politics of insulting and assaulting elderly people; and
3. In cases of clear inter-party indiscipline in which junior members of one political party disrespectfully answer back to policy statements of senior leaders of sister parties disregarding the route of productive engagement.
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.

The spirit of confusion has manifested itself in incidences where:
1. The opposition emerges victorious but immediately rushes at each others’ throats;
2. High incidences of intra-party and inter-party indiscipline across the political land scape;
3. The confusion within the opposition party fraternity at a time when we are faced with four parliamentary by-elections is baffling.

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. 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.

As for me, I have been given the privilege of representing the people of Solwezi as an MMD Member of Parliament.  Within that important role I play, I have not forgotten that it was the MMD that made a Covenant with God and declared Zambia a Christian nation.

I stand by that very Covenant with God when I speak of my own commitment to my country to do what is right to serve Gods people in Zambia. It is not the people who owe us, it is us who have been given the mandate to lead that owe our people the best representation, be it in opposition or not.

It is in this vein, that I reiterate my call for members within the Party to choose to unite and serve as we have been called to do. There is a political fight in the country that we should not fear to address.  God has provided us with the best Advocate, so we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Furthermore, 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.