ON VISIONS and MIRAGES
[The Illustrative Case of Profit Before People]
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To expect or bank on the private sector alone to develop a country is akin to outsourcing the raising of your child and at the same time expecting the child to take after you in interests and character.
The private sector, though important and indispensable in any economy, by itself, has never developed any country.
That is not its job.
Anyone who contends that the government has no business in business is either a con-artist or a nitwit that might only require cognitive enhancement.
Nonetheless, imperialists love this line.
It is the convenient wool they put on the eyes of many leaders of the South.
Premised on policies such as merit-based recruitment and reward, high public service wages to nip corruption in the bud, and housing-for-all, Singapore’s development was State-driven.
And to this day, Japan subsidises fuel for its citizens.
Private sector investments always follow market analyses and are primarily motivated by profit and not national development plans.
This explains why, today in Zambia, some important projects that constitute a public good including roads will remain undone.
They may be in the nation’s interest but they just aren’t profitable.
Learn from Franklin D. Roosevelt how he built America by bullying or kraaling corporate entities to tow the government line.
America’s government built America.
America is in decline today and facing death, with its poor technology and health outcomes, coupled with its decrepit and crumbling infrastructure because, along the way, the American government got privatised.
The government got captured.
Should anyone need an example on how to run a country that focuses on improving the livelihoods of citizens, look to Norway, Sweden and other Scandinavian countries whose people-management models understand why government should lead in national economic management.
In these countries, there is government in business.
Though under the radar of the common global citizen, curiously, nearly all private enterprises in China, arguably the biggest and most vibrant economy today, are state-owned enterprises [SOEs] through State shareholding, stock-based smart partnerships and/or strategic taxation.
China runs/employs State capitalism.
China is a classical example that indeed there are many ways of skinning a cat.
That Zambia is now toying with an inordinate or disproportionate emphasis on private-sector redemption is exactly why, in the short term, it will fail.
Orphaned by their own government, citizens will squirm with excruciating pain and suffering.
Further and sadly, in Zambia, private sector means foreign.
This is anomalous.
The indigenisation of private capital is a required economic path that the government must deliberately prioritise.
For the per capita income to rise and become optimal, for poverty to end, citizens, in any country, should own the larger fraction of the economy, of domiciled capital and means of production.
In many parts of the world, economic liberalisation pursued by the Bretton Woods institutions, privatisation, devaluation and all, deliberately took the form of recolonisation.
Though they put him in power, the West fervently fought and eventually defeated Zambia’s best President Dr Kenneth Kaunda.
For example, in 1979 and preceding years, they plotted and funded a putsch which failed the following year.
And at the behest of and complicit with Anglo-Saxons in tandem with America [read the West], the Movement for Multiparty Democracy [MMD] destroyed Zambia’s robust industrial base and its economy.
Under the guise of economic liberalisation, a takeover of Zambia’s economy by Anglo-America, the West, occurred.
That is how Zambia lost its independence.
To this day, Zambia is without its sovereignty.
Zambia at the moment, this beautiful and attractive country, a backwater bitch that keeps giving, is again ready for rape.
It is in the West’s crosshairs for pillaging.
In Zambia today, the private sector is leading the government when what is desirable and ought to obtain is the converse.
Zambia’s government is captured.
Partly explains why we are where we are today as a country.
But then to dwell on the quagmire and split hairs about exactly where we are today as a country is a moot point for another day.
There is a reason why governments exist.
One of them is to protect citizens from private sector exploitation/excess.
An unfettered private sector produces calamities.
For now, let’s just agree to keep this Pandora’s box unopened.
When the private sector runs roughshod, it can usurp democratic power from the public for its own ends.
It is a wild animal that always needs leashing.
Private sector greed explains why Elon Musk, a venture capitalist, is supporting a pre-senile, past its sell-by-date product, a product whose suitability and relevance to today’s governance of America remain questionable against more youthful and vibrant ‘progressives’ Harris and Waltz.
It is all about putting profit before people.
And as an outpost for foreign domination, the scramble underway in our country for the accumulation of foreign private capital will leave Zambia haggard, hapless and disorientated, quite like a victim of multiple rapes who, once done with, can’t stand, can’t walk, can’t think, is a psychosomatic wreck, impoverished and at sea, an utter neurotic.
See?
To expect the private sector by itself to develop a nation in accordance with the people’s expectations is an illusion.
It is a mirage.
An unregulated private sector can disturb a nation’s development plans.
Developing nations isn’t the mandate nor responsibility of the private sector.
Whereas scarcity, often contrived, is vital and welcome for the private sector and is commonly celebrated because it swells its bank balance, it isn’t a swell thing for presidents of countries.
Someday, remind me, we should deconstruct the folly of economics, and explain why current economic theory is hurting the world and needs reform.
Isn’t it strange that 65 years after the construction of the Kariba Dam, poor citizens that live nearby still without electricity, can only stare at lines over their bewildered heads that take their power away from them to far away places, as if they themselves did not exist?
However, noteworthy is that, intrinsic to unbridled private sector freedom or proliferation, is exploitation of labour and the environment, gross income inequality, failure of democracy, social conflict and eventually war.
Societal collapse then ensues.
Dr Canisius BANDA
Development Activist
10 September 2024
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CANISIUS COMES AGAIN WITH SOUR GRAPES. A SMALL ECONOMY LIKE ZAMBIA’S HE THINKS WE SHOULD BE SUBSIDIZING FOR CONSUMPTION, GOVERNMENT OWNING KEY BUSINESSES. WHAT A WASTED BRAIN MATTER! TELL HIM THATTHE CONSTRANT IS CAPITALIZATION. KAUNDA’S GOVERNMENT OWNED INDUTRIES BUT FALED ON CAPITALIZATION. LUNGU OWNED KCM, FAILED ON CAPITZA\LIZATION. IN BOTH CASES, CORRUPTION WAS SKY HIGH. WHY CONTINUE ON THE SAME TRAJECTORY? A CAQPITALIST TAKES OVER GOVERNMENT, SAVES JOBS FOR THE MINERS ALL OVER THE COPPERBELT TOWNS, SOURSES FOR INVESTORS WHO RAIN FOREX AS CAPITAL, PRODUCTION ROMPS HIGH TOWARDS SET TARGETS. WHAT IS BETTER FOR THIS MONOTONOUS MAN? DO NOT LISTEN TO RUGS LIKE THIS CANISIUS BANDA.
The poor man needs to develop himself first. What does he do for a living?!
Ba Chindababeleka, exactly my thoughts. What is Dr. Banda doing to contribute to the economic emancipation of our country other than criticising those who are trying to mend the broken economy?
How are the government companies Zesco, Zamtel and Ndola Lime performing? What prevents Dr. Banda from setting up a mining company? Which Zambians will develop our country if all he does is whine about foreigners running our economy?
It is a fact that we Zambians donot want to do the hard, dirty work. Just look at the work ethic of the Chinese. They are prepared to live in the middle of nowhere in pursuit of their dream. For us, we would rather rent out a shop to a gentleman from Burundi than run the shop ourself.
The write up is an eye opener to those who have Zambia at heart; those who would love to see our mineral endowed nation prosper by homegrown solutions and local experts. But to the hard core and blind loyalists this may be unpalatable because they are blinded by their own stomachs and egoistic tendencies. It is a fallacy for anyone to think that Zambia can be developed by non Zambians. Expecting foreigners to build our economy is as good someone expecting a neighbor to raise a family for him. It is not only immoral but also a lack of vision. Hence, such a one may be a liability to the good of the family. Somebody come out of slumber- Proverbs 20:13. With love !
This is not the 1960s when Zambia was lacking an educated class which would organise to exploit economic opportunities available in the country. But how’s this educated class of citizens behaving? Zambia does not even lack capital because the skills of its educated citizens are in fact part of capital. They can generate business ideas which can attract financial capital if only the educated class can engage in the right kind of dialogue.
This Doctor’s medical/mental status is extremely worrying. His political reasoning doesn’t match his supposed intellectual standing. Or is it a typical sebana wikute case? PF really damaged good brains!
Pilgrim what happened they are not giving you any position on ukwa? So sorry they have abandoned you even after you abandoned upnd to join them when they were in power.
Pliz. Leave the man alone , he is crying over his lost opportunity!
Lamentations!