NEED FOR PF TO TAKE A RETREAT; GO OFF THE MEDIA, DEAL WITH IN-HOUSE ISSUES AND REORGANIZE
By Patrick Samwimbila, Electoral Conflict Management Expert
The former ruling party where possible needs to take a break from all public engagements, social media and all other media platforms to concentrate on in-house issues, unless otherwise it is completely necessary.
I am afraid if we are not careful, the whole rebranding dream will be overtaken by events, diverted or simply lost all together into the confusion of the continuous appearances of senior party leaders at ACC, DEC, Police or the Courts. Now that Kabwata by election is behind us, what next? Let’s retreat, focus and kick-start the rebranding in real terms uninterrupted.
In my view, we need to make use of the period February – March 2022 to conduct planning meetings and consultations within the party leadership; agree on the roadmap and date of the conference, mobilize resources and take a quick membership audit targeting the eligible delegates to the conference.
April 2022, we hold a cost effective general conference and elect the party president. The president will then be given up to May to thoroughly consult and put in place a new powerful working team (MCC). In June 2022 we come back from the retreat with a bang to launch the rebranded Patriotic Front.
The survival of the former ruling party right now is entirely dependant on how we manage the process of selecting our new leader. The critical question we should ask ourselves is, what should we do in order to emerge more united after the conference? The best strategy/solution under the circumstances would be to plead with all well meaning PF leaders to respect the voices of the majority members of the party who have spoken loudly for the past 5 months by giving them the leader who is trending.
In the quest to contribute to this solution in practical terms, I will also during the period of retreat offer my expertise to foster dialogue/negotiation among the party presidential hopefuls in an effort to narrow down the number of candidates to 3, 2 or even 1 so that we reduce on possible divisions that come with too many contestants.
May I also take this opportunity to address the issue of new blood verses old blood; I strongly recommend a mix. The demand from some sections of the media, blogs and some unsolicited ‘praise singers’ suggesting that all old faces in PF should be retired, are misplaced. The party needs a mix at all levels for the sake of institutional memory, experience, new ideals, new brand/image and indeed new energy. I submit.