Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:59:07 +0000
The attempt by Patriotic Front Secretary-General Wynter Kabimba to make a myth and legend of his party in government is premature and a definite exercise in futility because it cannot be grounded in fact.
The PF has been in government for just about one year and realistically could not be expected to achieve any significant milestone which should be the result of years of hard work and toil.
The epoch making changes that Zambia experienced in the 1990’s which required a shift from one-party centralized government to market driven liberal multi-party system. This demanded tremendous sacrifice, courageous leadership and a determined leadership to survive.
The nation witnessed dramatic shifts from triple digit inflation to single digit figures. A restoration of donor confidence resulting in the resumption of budgetary support, greater self reliance and a new sense of purpose and direction among the Zambian people contrary to the dependency syndrome inculcated by the socialist system.
The momentous changes built a solid foundation to shift such major industries as nationalized mining industries to private hands introduction of green fields allowing for the entry of new players in mining and expansion of the entire commercial industrial and political character of the nation.
The benefits being enjoyed today, the creditworthiness that this country is enjoying amid the strong economic fundamentals prevailing are the result of hard work and sacrifice made by Zambian people in the last 20 years. If anything many so called luminaries in the Patriotic Front are products of the MMD, the President included,
The suggestion by Wynter rubbishing a decade of sacrifice is misplaced and lacks intellectual skill and enterprise.
Wynter must admit that as of now the Patriotic Front lacks clarity of vision. It lacks a coherent narrative on which it is premised. The outdated and most certainly dysfunctional PF manifesto is totally incongruous and a sad hangover of primordial UNIP.
It has its relevance in a commandist and centrally organized structure based on a mythical all knowing omniscient and perhaps omnipotent central committee, which does not exist.
Any centralized system depends on homogeneity of character and influence and cannot exist in a society where internal dynamics embrace diversity and freedom of choice as enshrined in the protected clauses of the constitution. Gone are the days when a central committee of a party will prevail over a constitution formally or informally.
Today the constitution reigns supreme.
Nobody, not even the President is above the constitution.
That is why there are growing tensions in the exercise of power between this government and generally the opposition, civil society including the church, who feel that power must be tempered with rationality and common sense.
To suggest therefore that the government can exercise power wily nilly for as long as it is in power is not only mistaken but creating a climate of conflict which may ultimately lead to fracture.
Our appeal to Wynter is to consider the PF as a work in progress, bereft of any pretensions to a legacy because none has been created as yet.
The people of Zambia will determine in another four years whether the government has performed and deserves to be re-elected.
It follows therefore that disparaging the former government and relegating it to oblivion is most disingenuous as it fails to recognize the reality of evolution and gradualism.
