DANGEROUS TIMES: ARISE AND DEFEND DEMOCRACY
There has never been a time in our country’s history that natural life has been so unstable, irritating, and tense for the citizens.
Never have citizens been so desperate and abandoned in the face of hardship. Never have citizens encountered a government and leadership that is so deceitful, self-serving, and absolutely disconnected to the reality facing the masses.
Indeed, never have citizens seen our country driven to the cliff-hanger, with people distracted expediently by brazen political, economic, and ethnic bias. There is no leader or administration that has desecrated our patriotism and existence as a nation like Mr Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND have done today.
We have never faced a shameless regime that is resolved to govern through intimidation, persecution, vindictiveness, and fear. A regime that uses the police and law enforcement to abuse, pursue, and mistreat political competitors and private citizens under the guise of safeguarding peace, national security, and order.
As we have said before, under Mr Hichilema and the UPND, authoritarianism has returned to Zambia with vengeance.
Certainly, we have a regime that has calculated to suppress free political expression to prevent opponents and private citizens from holding them to account. And they’re increasingly getting desperate because they have seen that multitudes of citizens are frustrated and disgruntled and have no faith, trust, and confidence in our country’s processes and systems.
Mr Hichilema and the UPND’s many failures have exposed them as incompetent and incapable of fulfilling the vast campaign promises they made to the Zambian people. And now that they can no longer manipulate and deceive the people, they want to dodge responsibility by silencing political rivals and citizens through repression, victimization, and draconian laws. Even Mr Hichilema’s once upon a time, well-manicured speeches and commitments about democracy and governance have all ended up in the political graveyard of forgotten and never to be spoken about dreams.
This government poses the greatest danger to our rights, freedoms, and existence.
Indeed, these are dangerous times!
As Mr Hichilema and his league’s grip on power keep getting tighter and tighter. They’re mercilessly choking everybody and everything that dares to stand in their way. They’ve even stopped pretending about their brutal style of governance. They now wear tyranny as a badge of pride and honour.
To them, it’s either their way or no way. They’re determined to entrench themselves without hesitation through manipulation of the law, legislative mischief, malicious abuse of governance systems, and exercise of physical violence and force. They’re resolved to leave the young and tender bodies of the future of this country – the young people – with mental and physical wounds and scars. If this is what it will take for Mr Hichilema and his league to keep power momentarily.
But this new way of life – democracy and style of governance – which Mr Hichilema and his friends in the European Union and the United States are trying to shove down our throats must be defied. It must be fearlessly challenged and fought against. If the US and the EU are proud and therefore approve Mr Hichilema’s numerous human rights violations, constitutional breaches, and undemocratic tendencies, Zambians must show them that they abhor these abuses by rising and defending democracy. We must all be psychologically charged and cocked to sacrifice for our country, which is our intrinsic duty as citizens.
The truth is, Mr Hichilema and his government are not with the people. Logically, the people are also not with them. And we are the people who wield the real power and form the majority. So, we have a whole lot of what it takes to command the direction of our country.
We must not allow Mr Hichilema and his league to alter our lives in any form. Let us be peaceful in resistance, but at the same time, we should not allow ourselves to be domesticated by a leadership that has failed by all standards.
The country is definitely ripe for regime change. And so be that change by resisting the illegal and improper measures Mr Hichilema and the UPND want to impose on us.
This is the bigger and ultimate sacrifice that we should all make in order for our country to continue being the way we have always known it to be.
2026 Aleya!
Fred M’membe
President of the Socialist Party