By Mupish Jones.
A BAD SYSTEM DOES’NT APPEAR WRONG TO THOSE BENEFITING FROM IT.
Especally a bad political system adopted and applied to govern the country.
A case in point is the Patriotic Front political party in government.The PF members in general todate are still not conviced that they had adopted an extremely bad political system of governing the country.
It was a political system of the party and its government.The PF was government and government was expected to be the PF.It was either you were with the PF or with the UPND.There was no middle ground! Even today the PF does’nt see anything wrong with this political ideology.
During the 10 years reign of the PF,everything in this country was starting and ending with the PF.Anything outside the PF was declared illegal.Dare to differ with PF,you were declared an outlaw.
No one was allowed to pass through any public place wearing a different political party ligalia other than that of the PF.The political environment which we’re taking for granted today,many citizens were maimed during the PF’s reign.Today it appears normal when you walk into City Market in Lusaka,commonly find marketeers covering their trading stands with PF and UPND chitenge branded material side by side unconcerned,a practice which was taboo during the PF’s reign.
Today anyone can walk into InterCity bus terminus or any other public station in Zambia wearing either PF or UPND T-shirt or cap and no one can bother him,that was suicide during the reign of the PF! During the PF’s reign,UPND was not allowed to conduct burial procession side by side with the PF,it was a declaration of war!
To get a job in government during the PF’s reign one had to be connected to the PF.To get any government contract,PF secretariat had to clear you.Bars,restaurants that were seen to be hosting suspected opposition party members were brutally ransact and razed down.How many times was that UPND lady trading along the roadside in Bauleni had her makeshift trading stand ransact and brutally beaten? During the PF’s reign,it was a common and regular site of PF cadres….in a show of political supremacy….to conduct roadshows with other sitting on moving car windows with impunity,with fists raised in the air in cairo road during peak working days and hours paralysing flow of traffic of other road users.You should have witnessed the behavior of PF cadres in town centre especially around stanley bar area when one of their so-called “Commanders” was driving through.
The whole area gets cleared for his passage.
This is a political party that assumes Zambians have forgotten all such nosense and thinks it can be voted back again? UPND may have its own flaws but on a scale of 1 to 10,UPND is rated 8 by none partisan Zambians.The PF seem to be fooled by the quietness of Zambians by allowing them to dominate media outlets both on social media and mainstream media.This was a thing which under the PF was dangerous for a private media house to host an opposition member.
This is a political system which the PF members does’nt see anything wrong.A brutal political system.A corrupt political system.An ethnic cleansing system.
The only people who can miss and yern to bring back such a political system are those who were benefiting from that filthy system.
I submit,
Mupishi Jones
Political Analyst