UNLIKE YOUR BESTIE HH, I CARE: A RESPONSE TO LAURA MITI- Fred M’membe

UNLIKE YOUR BESTIE, I CARE: A RESPONSE TO LAURA MITI

By Fred M’membe

In a desperate bid to shift public attention from the many failures of the man she has declared as “the best president of Zambia”, Miss Laura Miti, a self-declared supporter of Mr Hakainde Hichilema, has resorted to scaremongering tactics by telling voters that they should be afraid of my possible presidency of Zambia.

Normally, I would have ignored Laura’s comments given that she is clearly conflicted. As a self-declared cadre of my political competitor, it is unfair to expect Laura to see anything appealing in the political opponents of the man she supports fanatically. Like most praise singers, Laura remains wilfully blind to the hardships and untold miseries that Mr Hichilema has unleashed on our people. These include unprecedented consecutive 48-hours of load shedding, mass hunger, the highest cost of living in the history of our country, high-level corruption in government, rampant tribalism and regionalism in public appointments, attacks on democracy and human rights violations condemned by local civic institutions and major world bodies such as Human Rights Watch and the United Nations, and the worst economic crisis in years.

Mr Hichilema, a proven liar and revenge-driven politician with an eggshell ego in need of constant pampering, has also shown the highest level of inferiority complex and lack of patriotism by inviting foreigners to audit our defence forces, to audit our mineral wealth underground, and even to run the crucial Ministry of Finance, the heartbeat of our Republic This is a ministry that his administration has now turned into a laboratory for all sorts of shady experiments presided over by – to use Dr Grieve Chelwa’s phrase – white “Boys and Girls”. Such is the inferiority complex of Mr Hichilema that foreigners such as the Tony Blair Foundation and the London School of Economics are now the recruiting agencies for work in the Zambian civil service. No self -respecting country that has been independent for 60 years will turn to foreigners to hire workers for its civil service!

I say all this not to distract attention from what Laura has said – the need to discuss the importance of character in leadership, including my own – but to provide context to why she is resorting to these scare tactics about me. Laura is afraid that the man she supports to a point of zealotry is on his way out because Zambians have seen through him. Our people now know that Mr Hichilema does not care about them. In fact, if there is any one thing that can be said about Mr Hichilema, it is that HE DOES NOT CARE about the suffering of the masses of our people. HE DOES NOT CARE about putting Zambia first. HE DOES NOT CARE about our democracy. HE DOES NOT CARE that people ate being fed toxic mealie meal because his visionless regime sold all our maize reserves before importing possible GMOs. HE DOES NOT CARE about human rights. HE DOES NOT CARE about corruption in government. HE DOES NOT CARE about fanning tribal and regional divisions through appointments to public service. HE DOES NOT CARE about many, many things of public interest that should trouble any patriot who has vestige of love for their country.

These are all issues I CARE about because they have been at the heart of my public life: the plight of our people, the defence of democracy and human rights in Zambia, the protection of our resources and homeland from foreign commercial and imperial influences, the importance of promoting national unity and fighting corruption, and of bringing collective leadership to our shared struggles. I have been arrested in defence of these issues over the last 35 years. I am not saying this to boast like Laura’s bestie lies to do. I am merely stating a matter of public record. Mr Hichilema, Laura’s visionless bestie, he has no history of defending public interest or associating himself with public causes, so it is not surprising that he has remained loyal to private commercial interests. Before he joined politics, his entire life was spent in the private sector where accumulation rather than public interest and the humanity of people is the driving energy. It is therefore not surprising that all he cares about is nursing his fragile ego, his businesses, his white friends, and his regionalism. After obtaining power by false pretences, Zambians have seen through Mr Hichilema, and have resolved to vote him out at the next election. This reality is dawning on him, and it is scaring his supporters like Laura. This reality explains why they are panicking and resorting to scaremongering tactics that are even false.

Yes, character is important in a public leader, and I welcome any discussion about my own character, but such a discussion must be based on facts and the understanding of the relevant facts. In the end, Zambians are intelligent enough to see through Laura’s lies and desperate attempt to shield the mounting failures of her bestie. They will vote for whoever they want, for whoever they think best represents their interests, even if this might be someone that Laura does not like. Laura has the right to support her bestie and to recruit others towards her partisan cause, but she has no right to falsify historical records.

In the service of the UPND and her bestie, who have made similar claims before, Laura claims that The Post newspaper operated like “the current Watchdog and other faceless online publications”. This is not true. Like Laura herself acknowledges, I was the face of The Post, a company with legal standing, known address and known people whom anyone aggrieved could sue if they felt aggrieved by its actions. And many people indeed sued The Post for one reason or another. The company won some cases and lost others. Who runs Watchdog and Koswe? Who do I sue if i feel aggrieved? Laura’s bestie?

Laura also takes issue with The Post based on the following:

1. How cruelly former Vice President George Kunda’s illness was reported. I will leave it there.
COMMENT: no issue is raised here for discussion. Laura has the right to feel different from other people.

2. UPND founder, Anderson Mazoka’s illness received similar unfeeling attention.

COMMENT: The Post only reported what other people said. It provided a platform to everyone including Mr Mazoka himself and what others thought about his illness. Laura herself had a weekly column in The Post. In one of them, she asked Mr Mazoka to step down on health grounds. Were we wrong to carry her views?

3. President Mwanawasa was a “cabbage” because of the unfortunate car accident he had had.

COMMENT: The records are there. The first person who referred to Mr Mwanawasa as a cabbage was Dipak Patel, then MP for Lusaka central constituency, in January 2002. Again, The Post simply published his views, and I was consequently arrested by police for alleged defamation alongside Dipak over this story. In February 2002, Dipak apologised to Levy, and the case was dropped. In later years, Michael Sata took the cabbage name and used it in his politics.

4. The country was treated to details (true or not) of former President Lungu’s health.
COMMENT: no issue is raised here for discussion. Laura has the right to feel different from other people.

5. As for Rupiah Banda! Goodness! The butchering he got that had nothing to do with anything that could be called fair comment, after President Mwanawasa died, was alarming.

COMMENT: no issue is raised here for discussion. Laura has the right to feel different from other people.

Then we move on to the more troubling stuff:

6. The Post carried out a vicious and nationally harmful tribal campaign against the Tonga that was the beginning of the dark period we suffered in the decade between 2011 and 2021. (This, for me, was Fred’s greatest and unforgivable sin against Zambia.)

COMMENT: Again, The Post provided coverage on the succession politics that followed the UPND in the wake of the death of its founding president Mr Mazoka. The UPND was the biggest opposition party at the time (2001-2006) and some of its leaders such as Mr Rex Natala, Syacheye Madyenkunku and Ackson Sejani insisted that “only a Tonga must succeed Mazoka”. Laura disagreed with these views, as did many other people, and The Post published her views. In fact, at one time, Laura had an exchange with Sejani over this issue of tribalism in the UPND, and The Post published their views. Was the newspaper wrong provide a platform for people to express their different views? Again, these issues must be understood within their context. Historian Sishuwa Sishuwa has written a scholarly and fair account of these political developments that draws on interviews with different actors and the roles of many different people including Laura and her bestie, Mr Hichilema:

7. He has shown a frightening inconsistency in his positions that seem to be decided only by self-interest. Having maligned Former President, Michael Sata, for years, Fred seemed to have decided that the PF Leader was the only one who could help him punish Rupiah Banda for contesting elections, and thus preventing Fred’s preferred candidate – Peter Mangande. (I always agreed, by the way, that Mr Mangande would have been way better for Zambia than RB, but to attack him for wanting an office within his grasp was inexplicable.) Anyhow, the issue is the dizzying 180-degree turnabout Fred then made on his public view of Michael Sata. He went on a sanitisation campaign that would put bleach plus the strongest disinfectant known to man to shame. He successfully became kingmaker of a man he had suggested was the political pits.

COMMENT: Again, The Post simply provided coverage to all politicians including Laura’s bestie and his party. I am glad Laura mentions my support for Peter Magande, a man who was a patriot and would never have allowed the auctioning of our minerals in the manner that Laura’s bestie is doing. Laura has previously said I detest Tongas. How does someone who detests Tongas support Peter Magande for presidency? How does someone who detest Tongas marry a Tonga?

8. Related to 7, is the simple question of how a politician, who has lived an unapologetic capitalist life, with attendant accumulation of wealth and expansionist business strategies, now says he is a lifelong socialist.

COMMENT: Laura does not understand Socialism. I invite her to come for a class on the managing of socialism. I promise to make some time and teach her. If socialism is about being poor, then the whole Zambia is a nation of socialists, for majority of our people are people.

I can go on but there is no need to bore people with epic narratives. I believe I have shown why Laura should be ignored. So, if I do not respond to what she says next time, please understand. She is worried about the declining political fortunes of her bestie and is panicking. I believe I have demonstrated that Laura is suffering from cognitive dissonance. Seeing the epic failures of her bestie, and unable to criticise him because of her zealotry towards him, she can only attack those publicising his failures such as the UN and those she sees as potential heirs to the throne. I ask everyone to bear with Laura. She is going through a lot. Please let us give Laura sufficient time to mourn, to mourn the impending defeat of her bestie in 2026. For Zambians have decided that come 2026, the Hungry Hyena that is eating their lives is going! ALEYA!