Interparty conflict

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:24:06 +0000

It is very frustrating, annoying and a cause of despair that our main opposition parties the UPND and MMD are engaged in sterile interparty diatribe.

The demeaning interparty and intraparty polemics seems destined to drive them into irrelevancies that have no bearing on the concerns of the Zambians people.

Zambians expect more.  They expected a cohesive united front that would champion the various progressive causes that the Patriotic Front has reneged on. The fight against corruption being one of them.

The Patriotic Front can not fight corruption, because they are in bed with overlords of corruption who have stolen more than K14billion from the people of Zambia, in fact the figure could be even more as more evidence of looting and plunder is emerging.

Zambians expected the opposition to take on these heartless and cruel hypocrites and champion the fight against corruption by taking matters to their logical conclusion, namely the courts of law, with Judicial review challenges.

We expected them to mould a formidable team of lawyers to spearhead the campaign for democracy by using every opportunity to challenge government excesses that are so arrogantly displayed.

Hellen Zille of the South African Democratic Alliance has not been shy in this regard. She recently successfully challenged the appointment of a corrupt Director of Public Prosecution. The Constitutional Court cancelled the appointment made by President Zuma because the candidate was unsuitable.

No such courage and determination is seen in our opposition. They lack proactive initiative, waiting instead to react to the hostile propagandist system to define the agenda.

We are still expecting the opposition not only to challenge the appointment of Mutembo Nchito as Director of Public Prosecution but to challenge the nolle Prosequi he has exercised in a transaction that is highly questionable, we also expect the opposition to join the Voice of Zambia in the DBZ scandal.

The fight against corruption by the PF is a complete non-starter. If anything the country is now witnessing more rapacious corruption where the overlords of plunder, looting and corruption are presiding over a totally emasculated, compromised and useless corruption fight.

The so called Government joint investigation team is petrified and dare not investigate ongoing plunder in the form of Billions of Kwacha that have been and continue to be siphoned to a Tedworth account in New York. They have the Bank and account number to which huge amounts of money, a zillion times greater than what Chanda Chimba would have obtained.

The Government would like to portray a bogus and totally misleading picture of fighting corruption when billions siphoned from Bank of Zambia accounts remain un-accounted for.

That is why it is very sad that instead of joining forces to pressurize Government into launching a genuine anti corruption campaign, instead of pressuring Government to launch the Freedom of information Bill, instead of insisting on a transparent constitution making process, instead of fighting the abuse of the Public Order Act indeed instead of presenting a formidable force of probity and integrity, the opposition seems to be fragmenting.

The opposition should take advantage of the fact that apart from the highly technical economic attainments by the PF, there is absolutely no ideological focus guiding the party. Its focus was to win the elections and ascend to State House.

The opposition must show the people of Zambia a vision encapsulated in an ideological underpinning that will chart a way forward towards development.

The constant amateur socialist excursions by the PF ideologues are nothing more than outdated irrelevancies that will not advance the cause of development.

What Zambia needs is well informed and researched inspiration. We have the resources, human capital and zeal to rise above our current morass.