“No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.” – Plato.
Lusaka – 2nd May, 2021.
Edith Nawakwi recently said, “It takes courage to speak up when something is unfair, unjust, or wrong. Most of us fear criticism. However, it’s important that we speak up for ourselves, but even more important is that we speak out for those who cannot. James 4:17 reminds us that to, ‘Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it’.”
Those who follow my writeups now understand that I am a staunch advocate for education reforms and a new governance system that must prioritize development over political hegemony. Why education reforms? It’s because an average Zambian is receiving training instead of education.
The colonial education system on which the current system is based had an in-built slant that helped create a mindset of blind loyalty rather than open minds to new ways of independent and critical thinking. Its purpose was not to educate a person to understand the objective limits to the advancement of individual and collective welfare, but to train a person to accept and even administer the limits in an ‘efficient’ manner.
A lot of people, despite having their own brain cells, would rather keep them frozen for future use. They are content to memorise facts of life as said or written by their earthly gods. They can’t question anything. In the case of Edith Nawakwi’s accusations, since she is speaking about something that is against their little god, they have locked their minds to any sense of rational thought process. How is Nawakwi talking nonsense when she asks the nation about how a dead person can sign a mortgage, a clear case of fraud?
Strictly speaking, political parties are being part of our social economic problems rather than being part of the much needed solutions. Power is the main objective of political parties, not as an instrument to achieve goals of general interest, but as an end in itself for the political élite. Political parties are managed as ‘cartels’, more about their leadership than being parts of the society, more concerned about their survival and reproduction than about the production of socially relevant achievements.
It is not a surprise, therefore, that we have started looking at them as part of the problem rather than being part of the solution. For instance, in whose interest would halting political violence be? If it’s in the interest of society, then don’t expect party leadership to intervene. This is the real account of the much publicised populist Western political system. Political parties are no longer capable of intercepting and representing needs and demands. It’s all about political hegemony.
This is why we are wasting our meagre resources on elections selling dreams or emotions with no real connection with the harsh reality of the scarce economic resources and viable political options. For Zambia to develop, we need to exit from this political system as it is conceived and structured by the West and implement a partyless development oriented governance system. Our narrative ought be development and not hero worshipping.
In 2019, I shared an article in which I reminded the nation that those calling Paul Kagame’s Rwanda authoritarian have no discipline to live and appreciate Rwanda’s house rules, just like an indisciplined child sees a right parent authoritarian. Even Lucipher rose against what he termed an authoritarian God. He wanted his own roof not that God was bad.
Similarly, the opposition leaders in Zambia today are not in politics to fight Edgar Lungu because he is not able to provide for an ordinary child in rural Zambia but because, like in the case of satan, they want Edgar Lungu’s seat. Regime change for the sake of it is their priority. I wondered then and I still do whether one can seriously believe Hon. Harry Kalaba resigned because of corruption in the Patriotic Front when he could single handedly allow mining in the Lower Zambezi National Park against the professional advice of ZEMA and several other competent institutions or that Mr. Hichilema believed himself when he was calling the then Defense Minister GBM a corrupt man only to appoint him VP as soon as he left the Patriotic Front government.
Let’s open our minds and see the world as it really is, not what we are being made to believe by those who need our votes. Aren’t we all looking up to China and for the right reasons? No one is discussing the authoritarian China it ought to be but the future we can all relate to, where technology breeds solutions. But I keep posing this question, why are we borrowing money from this country that makes money out of our raw materials such as mukula and copper? Well, China put its house in order first just like a responsible husband and father will not give chance to his wife and children to recognize another man outside of his home as their source of livelihood. Allow me to quote Paul Kagame…
“We need to mobilise the right mindsets, rather than more funding. After all, in Africa, we have everything we need, in real terms. Whatever is lacking, we have the means to acquire. And yet we remain mentally married to the idea that nothing can get moving, without external finance. We are even begging for things we already have. That is absolutely a failure of mindset.”
Decisions have to be made, some of them too bitter to our liking but we must accept that the current political system was designed by a thinking mind to yoke Africa with perpetual poverty. Let’s put our house in order as well by seriously considering our own governance system that must prioritize development over political power. Why should we spend more time and resources on elections than on issues that literally bring food to the table? As we campaign, how many people are conscious of the plight of those in our health facilities that have no medical supplies or children in rural Zambia that will never see the inside of a classroom?
It’s just that we have been brainwashed into thinking we know what we are doing but we are not any different from a happy mad man sitting on a rubbish dump. We have reduced ourselves to fighting each other for seats on a destinationless train and everyone is OK with it. The current regional multiparty political system cannot bring development to Zambia. We need a well thought out NO party participatory democracy which can prioritize education, agriculture, technology, and all that matters to attain first world status. We need to rethink our political system if it’s development we need.
Minerals, agricultural products, oil, you name it, is all present in Africa. The world, literally, runs on the produce of Africa, yet on the ground people starve, live on assistance from rich nations, endure war and corruption and, worse off, Africans hardly even use any of the things they produce. Take, for instance, the cocoa and chocolate industries. Even though Africa produces 75 percent of all the cocoa in the world, the continent gets only 2 percent of the $100 billion revenue from the chocolate industry. How much does our debt ridden Zambia get from the tens of billions of dollars of its copper exports annually?
Paul Kagame remains my hero not because I support suppression of dissenting views as he is portrayed but because I care more about wealth creation for Africa’s future generations and that is what is doing in Rwanda while we promote anarchy in Zambia, even opposing the Cybersecurity Bill because we understand our political campaigns are based on deception. Call it brutality but out of the same condemned brutality, came the cash Africa is borrowing from China after being made broke by western democracies. We are a special kind of intelligent people. Let’s respect our diverse political views but place the needs of Zambia before those of our political leaders.
Mpandashalo Evans Mwewa
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