IT IS M’MEMBE WHO IS A PARROT AND HH – SENSELE
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
FRED M’membe is a bitter man but he should direct his bitterness to Edgar Lungu and not HH, says NDC member of the central committee Paul Sensele.
Sensele, a former Livingstone district commissioner under the Michael Sata administration, said on May 6 the Socialist Party president was quoted in The Mast attacking the UPND as being a reactionary puppet regime.
“M’membe even suggested the UPND will be more corrupt than the regime of Edgar Lungu. Today (Saturday May 14), he says the UPND should not turn into parrots, parroting things they do not understand just to win acceptability by the Americans. My elder brother, in my own view, is suffering from bitterness, a disease that may not be curable,” he charged. “He is championing the views of socialist countries who have an issue with America. He should not draw Zambia into this bitterness between socialist countries and the US. My appeal to him is to turn his bitterness against Lungu and the PF, not HH. M’membe is becoming a parrot himself and not HH.”
Sensele said Dr M’membe being a lawyer should know that each administration has a choice of which country to closely work with just like the PF did with China.
He said Dr M’membe risked making himself irrelevant in 2026.
“We know that he wants to keep the heat burning for the SP. But I fear that he is driving himself into being irrelevant by the time we get to 2026. He, during the days of The Post, fought for media freedom, human, social and economic freedoms. He was a pro-poor journalist guru. The socialists have made him pretend he is a poor man,” Sensele said. “Abapina (the poor) don’t drive expensive vehicles like a Hummer. I challenge him to sell his Hummer and build a clinic in Mongu.”
Sensele said Dr M’membe should thank President Hichilema for the freedoms he has brought back to Zambians.
“M’membe is himself a beneficiary of President Hichilema’s leadership of not abusing power to shut down the media. He should thank the UPND because I remember that in 2016 HH did promise to re-open The Post but PF rigged its way into power and [Post provisional liquidator Lewis] Mosho was a free soul over the fate of the paper. At that time all assets were still intact but alas it is now a shell and ex-workers continue to die while M’membe dines and wines with rich socialist leaders who have no regard for human rights,” said Sensele. “My brother, use your legal knowledge and energies to ensure that your former workers at The Post get their dues. I for one would be happy if you can secure their salaries backdated to 2016 when Lungu closed the paper paid to them. Money is there and the thieves in PF have it, you know it. So, help HH get that money and ask him to use part of it to pay Post workers.”
Speaking when he met visiting US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and Environment Jose W Fernandez at State House on Thursday, President Hakainde Hichilema said the new dawn government is not trying to change the country’s values by aligning them with American values.
“Zambia is a democratic country. It is a country anchored on the rule of law. It is a country that respects human rights, liberties and freedoms. This new government will do its best to ensure that the country continues to advance democratic values. Values that we share with yourselves. Sometimes the media have somehow misinterpreted this statement to mean that the new dawn government is going to change, alter Zambian values so as to align with the American values,” said President Hichilema. “That is not the point. We are not altering our values. These are our values. And by choice as a country, we chose to run ourselves on a platform of democracy. Also it is our African values to respect each other, to respect other people of course in return to get respect. To also get respect in an orderly manner. So we are not altering our values to align with the American values. These are our values. They happen to be shared with the Americans as well. So I’m very happy that we share these values and I think that these values will largely help us keep ourselves in order, as the world is confronted with a lot of challenges.”
But Dr M’membe said American values “are not our values” adding that political ideas are worthless if they are not inspired by noble and selfless sentiments.
“It is important to understand the core or real values and assumptions of the people we are dealing with. Values are ideas about what is right and wrong, desirable and undesirable, normal and abnormal, proper and improper. Assumptions are the unquestioned standards about people, life, and ‘the way things are’. People who grow up in a particular culture share certain values and assumptions. This means that most of them, most of the time, agree with each others’ ideas about what is right and wrong, desirable and undesirable. They also agree, mostly, with each other’s assumptions about human nature, social relationships. The values and assumptions of a culture shape the way people act. Understanding these values and assumptions help us understand why people from a certain society behave the way they do. In life it is always very important to be clear about things,” he said. “The most important thing to understand about Americans is probably their devotion to ‘individualism’. This is their main value, the value on which all their other values – greed, unbridled competition and consumerism – are anchored. They have been trained from early in their lives to consider themselves separate individuals who are responsible for their own situations in life and their own destinies. They have not been trained to see themselves as members of a close-knit, tightly interdependent family, religious group, tribe, nation, or other group. And all their values are subsets of individualism or are there to serve and reinforce it.”
Dr M’membe said the most important value for the Socialist Party is equity, and not individualism as it is for the Americans and “their puppets”.
He said Zambians would thrive best in a decent community of people with principles, standards, common aims and values.
“All our other values are subsets of ‘equity’ to serve or reinforce it. Individualism is certainly not our core value. Our traditional society, culture and religious beliefs are not anchored on individualism but on Ubuntu, equity,” noted Dr M’membe. “In this respect, the American values are not our values. Our leaders shouldn’t turn themselves into parrots parroting things they don’t even understand just to win acceptability by the Americans. Political ideas are worthless if they are not inspired by noble, selfless sentiments. Likewise, noble sentiments are worthless if they are not based on correct and fair ideas. For us, we have chosen to defend certain principles that are of tremendous value at a time of confusion and opportunism in our country and in the world. A time when many politicians are feathering their own nests, are struggling for recognition by the imperialists. We will never be hired or hire ourselves out to be lackeys or puppets of imperialism. We are striving to build a new society anchored on the values of equity, honesty, humility and solidarity. You do not suffer just because you are getting fewer calories than required. There is another sort of suffering; social inequality, which makes you feel constantly debased and humiliated as a second-class citizen in your own country.”