To our politicians, morality, religion, law, the constitution are all empty words behind which they hide their true colours: personal greed for wealth and power!
By Azwell Banda(The Mast)
Millions of Zambians are wasting their precious mental energies trying to make sense of the goings on in our thoroughly rotten political life and dreadfully discredited justice system.
When in government, Edgar Chagwa Lungu immorally and unconstitutionally caused himself to stand for election for the third time, in the August 2021 elections. Hakainde Hichilema, using exactly the same immoral and unconstitutional means, has stripped Edgar Chagwa Lungu of his right to ever stand as a presidential candidate. These two are political twins, both are political rascals of note. Both are political scum bugs.
I asked a good “retired” Zambian Marxist and friend of mine to summarise for me what is going on, in our rotten politics and thoroughly discredited courts. “The previous cases as well as the present case are more of power play than anything else. During Lungu’s tenure the outcome of the judgement was expected. Equally under HH the resulting judgement was not surprising. In both cases the court has proved to be a convenient tool of the executive power. Courts always find decorative language to camouflage their true intents as servants of the executive. This ConCourt has sufficiently disgraced itself. Now that it has completed its historic mission to bar Mr Lungu, its time it was abolished,” said he whose Marxist knowledge and wisdom has not deserted him. And I fully agree, with him.
Now, on this column, from the very first article, I have consistently maintained, like my other dear good old dead comrade and friend, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, that “People always have been the foolish victims of deception and self- deception in politics, and they always will be until they have learnt to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises. Champions of reforms and improvements will always be fooled by the defenders of the old order until they realise that every old institution, however barbarous and rotten it may appear to be, is kept going by the forces of certain ruling classes. And there is only one way of smashing the resistance of those classes, and that is to find, in the very society which surrounds us, the forces which can — and, owing to their social position, must — constitute the power capable of sweeping away the old and creating the new, and to enlighten and organise those forces for the struggle.”
For 60 years this year, “we the people” have been the foolish victims of deception and self-deception in politics and we shall forever be precisely because we stubbornly refuse to learn how to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises. Just before the judgement was read, Hakainde Hichilema was preaching to our preachers, without any trace of shame, to teach love among us, even as he knew very well, he had fixed Lungu by barring him from ever contesting presidential elections. Lungu meanwhile, totally unaware of the irony of the situation, was calling upon the Church to do unto Hichilema what it did to him when he abused us. If indeed there is a hell, I am confident at least of two individuals who cannot avoid that sweltering place. I will almost certainly meet them there, for I too, am a sinner.
It is the extreme contempt exhibited by such political rascals as Lungu and Hichilema in the ability of the majority of Zambians to see and understand what exactly is going on, which sickens me to the pit of my stomach. To watch Lungu pontificate about “democracy”, “rule of law”, “constitutionalism” and such political rubbish when he is the architect of most of the current mess hurts the soul. Meanwhile, Hichilema wants us to love one another as he loots our national assets, rapes our laws and vandalises both the courts and our Constitution. Both are so confident in their political infidelity because they believe they know and understand Zambians: we vote our villains out of power and replace them with equally bad villains, or with worse, and rarely, if ever, punish presidents who abuse us.
Why, just why, do we, the majority of Zambians who sweat out a living by scratching the earth or pawning commodities produced elsewhere (and usually illicitly imported into Zambia) and other equally low paying activities tolerate our rotten politicians? When are we going to say enough is enough? When are we going to break the cycle of abuse we allow our politicians to subject us to? They have become so accustomed to lying to us, stealing from us, loading it over us, and to cheaply auction our natural wealth to foreign interests that in the conversations among themselves over the Constitutional Court judgment “the people” do not feature at all, serve only when reminding “the people” to “remain calm, accept the judgement and respect our courts”!
Now the race is on, among the rest of the presidential hopefuls in all the opposition parties, including in the Patriotic Front. Not a single one of them, not even the president of the Socialist Party, is telling us why we should believe what he says, now that we know what we know about all our politicians, and how we would hold him to account should he behave like Edgar Chagwa Lungu or hopelessly greedy Hakainde Hichilema. They are all salivating at the prospects of enjoying state power and abuse of the state apparatus beyond the precedents Hakainde Hichilema has set. None of our leading contenders for president are creating new, alternative mechanisms on the ground to prevent how all our presidents in the past 60 years have abused us.
There is absolutely no reason to believe any of the moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises spewing forth from all the mouths of all our politicians in the opposition as long as they do not build now, when they are in the opposition, alternative mechanisms to the vote among the people of Zambia for how they would be held to account for their behaviour, when in government. None of them are doing this, because to do so would be to abdicate power, economic and political power, into the hands of the Zambian masses! And so, none of them are building alternative popular sites of power, among the Zambian masses.
Now we know that the courts, just like parliament, are convenient tools of the executive power no matter how decorative the language used to camouflage their true intents as servants of the executive. When Lungu or political groups favourable to Lungu will remove Hichilema and his coterie of fellow political rascals from government, the courts will restore Lungu’s “right” to stand again. This is the Plan B Lungu is talking about. Lungu and Hichilema are treating Zambia like their private pocket property: only they and their interests’ matter, the rest of Zambians might as well drown in their hunger and poverty.
All over the world, there is a setting fatigue in this kind of politics. Billions of human beings are fast coming to the realisation that it is time to learn to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises. And more importantly, people all over the world are learning that champions of reforms and improvements will always be fooled by the defenders of the old order until they realise that every old institution, however barbarous and rotten it may appear to be, is kept going by the forces of certain ruling classes.
Ours are not the only rotten politics and courts: in January next year a convicted criminal, liar, xenophobe, misogynist, homophobe, White racist supremacist – Donald Trump – will become President of the world’s leading nuclear power – the United States of America! That is just how rotten this kind of politics, globally, has become. All over the world, people are waking up to the realisation that there is only one way of smashing the resistance of these classes, these political rascals such as Lungu and Hichilema and their friends, and that is to find, in the very society which surrounds us, the forces which can — and, owing to their social position, must — constitute the power capable of sweeping away the old and creating the new, and to enlighten and organise those forces for the struggle! Believe me when I say there is absolutely no reason to trust any of the lies coming out of the mouths of any of our leading politicians in Zambia today.
The power to change our country for the better is in every Zambian’s hand whose social position in society can only improve by destroying the current rotten status quo and its fake democracy and rotten political institutions. At 60, we surely know which social class has abused us, and looted our natural wealth. Our current crop of leading politicians is all basically the same; to them morality, religion, law, democracy and the constitution are all hollow words behind which they hide their true colours: personal greed for wealth and power!
Send comments to: kalindawalo2010@gmail.com
If he can not return the dirty money he has hidden in Panama, he should not be allowed to contest in 2026. That money belongs to poor Zambians.
Why is this villager obsessed with dirty money?
Has he ever done honest work before?
Everything about his wealth is dirty. How many lives have been sacrificed for this dirty money?
We should never allow satanists anywhere near our coffers.
Vote wisely in 2026.
2026 kasongo yeye kupunama pfidiots!!
This clown who writes from the dark affraid of Mwanawasa coming back to arrest him for the foolishness he was misleading others at UNZA now after failing he wants to be relevant.
After how many decades you still want to make noise. Just keep quiet