FRED M’MEMBE’S TAKE ON HHs OUTBURSTS ON THE COPPERBELT
There is no doubt that Mr Hakainde Hichilema and many in the UPND have very good reasons to detest or even hate Mr Edgar Lungu. They were badly treated and brutalised by him and his regime.
Mr Lungu was cruel to his opponents, to those who were not with him. I was a victim of his cruelty and that of his league.
It’s not easy to forget such things and forgive.
But whenever anger and vengeance try to consume me I turn to Christ’s teachings to recover my sense of humanity: “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5: 43-45).
Christ doesn’t say we shouldn’t have enemies but that we should love them. To love our enemies we must have them in the first place.
It’s very easy to love your friends and it doesn’t need much effort. What’s difficult is to love your enemies and that requires much effort, much humanity.
Mr Hichilema may harbour a lot of hatred and anger towards Mr Lungu and he is entitled to. But Mr Lungu is still a human being with human, constitutional, and legal rights.
The statements Mr Hichilema is making against Mr Lungu as a result of what he sees as a desire or intention on his part to come back to active and elective politics border on inhumanity, unconstitutional conduct, lawlessness, and undemocratic behaviour. And it is contrary to Christian teachings, liberal democratic values, and the rule of law.
The words used by Mr Hichilema were uncouth and seriously lacked civility for a President. That’s language for bakaponya.
Mr Hichilema doesn’t need to like or be happy with Mr Lungu for him to enjoy his rights as a human being and as a citizen of the Republic of Zambia.
What type of Christians and liberal democrats are these people?
Let Mr Lungu enjoy his rights to the full as long as he acts within the law. If the law allows him to stand in 2026 let him do so, and defeat him at the polls.
Fred M’membe
President of the Socialist Party