TRIBALISM OF THE NAKED EMPEROR- Fred M’membe

TRIBALISM OF THE NAKED EMPEROR

I listened attentively to historian Dr Sishuwa Sishuwa’s interview on Hot FM. Some of the things he said I had pointed them out before – especially the issue of tribally inclined appointments under Mr Hakainde Hichilema’s government.

Following Dr Sishuwa’s interview there was a phone call to Hot FM from Mr Hichilema’s media aide complaining about the programme. This was followed by a letter from the so called Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) that has never been independent from its inception.

Like in the story of the naked emperor, it seems the nakedness, iniquities of what Mr Hichilema says or does should never be exposed, pointed out and criticised.

We have no doubt that an independent audit of Mr Hichilema’s appointments will certainly confirm tribalism in his imperial majesty’s appointments.

It seems the tribalism that could be pointed out, criticised and was unacceptable in the previous regime shouldn’t be exposed, pointed out and criticised under this imperial majesty’s reign.

Tribal inclined appointments have certainly incomparably increased under Mr Hichilema and he will have serious difficulties dismissing changes of tribalism. Everywhere one turns and looks tribalism is glaring. But no one should call it out, point it out because it will offend his imperial majesty.

What type of hypocrisy, double standards is this?

It reminds us of Lord Acton”s letter to Bishop Creighton arguing that the same moral standards should be applied to all men, political and religious leaders included, especially since “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (1887).

Lord Acton wrote to Bishop Creighton in a series of letters concerning the moral problem of writing history about the Inquisition. Acton believed that the same moral standards should be applied to all men, political and religious leaders included, especially since, in his famous phrase, “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”:

“I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. That is the point at which the negation of Catholicism and the negation of Liberalism meet and keep high festival, and the end learns to justify the means. You would hang a man of no position, like Ravaillac; but if what one hears is true, then Elizabeth asked the gaoler to murder Mary, and William III ordered his Scots minister to extirpate a clan. Here are the greater names coupled with the greater crimes. You would spare these criminals, for some mysterious reason. I would hang them, higher than Haman, for reasons of quite obvious justice; still more, still higher, for the sake of historical science.”

There is much more to these letters than just the occurrence of Acton’s most famous phrase that “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The context is the question of how religious historians should handle the corrupt and even criminal behaviour of many Popes, and the appalling treatment of dissidents and heretics during the Inquisition. This leads Acton to talk about the universal nature of moral principles, the requirement for historians to use such principles in the assessment of historical figures, the tendency of these powerful historical figures to be “bad men”, and that it was the function of historians to “hang them” (whether he meant this literally of metaphorically is not clear). In the third letter to Creighton, Acton quotes with some approval a conversation he had with John Bright, one of the leaders of the Anti-Corn Law League, who stated to him that “If the people knew what sort of men statesmen were, they would rise and hang the whole lot of them.”

It’s very clear to us that the exercise of power must be a constant practice of self limitation and modesty.

Fred M’membe
President of the Socialist Party