Shock and Awe – Bad politics.

A three hour wait at O.R. Tambo International Airport, for a connection flight, has given me time to update my blog.

First thought that come to mind every-time one is at a foreign airport is comparing infrastructure to what we have back home at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport (KKIA) in Lusaka.  We should have an airport with infrastructure at the level of O.R.Tambo. This would only be possible if my nation didn’t put resources on bye-elections. Politics – bad politics. 

An African country with average 8% GDP the last ten years must surely have such infrastructure or even better. This infrastructure at this airport! It doesn’t look anything like my home. They are doing something right. They may have problems in Parliament regarding the conduct of EFF MP’s but they are generally doing good politics and results do show.

Politics in general is ludicrous most of the time. But, as politics is about the activities associated with the governance of a country or area, it must be for the good of the people , thus must not be nonsensical in any way. It must be serious business. Zambian politics on the other hand doesn’t seem to be any business that is serious.

Take for instance the rise to stardom and fame of Alex Muliokela. He is not the only one. There is Cosmo Mumba too. I can fill a blog post just naming politicians I’d classify as those lacking seriousness. In my country this species of politicians is on the rise and they are thrust onto the limelight at the expense of serious political discourse. For more than 50 years Daniel Munkombwe had occupied one political position or another and when he was recently interviewed, he told the nation that he was in politics ‘to eat’. According to old Munkombwe, his political ideology was ‘politics of benefits’ and ‘the belly’.

Political actors in Zambia are definitely in a world of their own. You are better off observing Zambian politics from a distance as a means of comic relief. But this status quo shouldn’t be allowed to continue in perpetuity. Some things must change.

A UPND official in Lusaka’s Mtendere compound, Grayzer Matapa was attacked and killed in what was immediately believed to be a political attack. In the days prior to his death Grayzer had apparently expressed great fear for his life and property due to the hostile political environment he was living in since the UPND lost elections of the polls held on 20 January 2015.

If his death had truly been politically motivated, and executed by rival political officials, then this is the most barbaric kind of politics we will ever see. In a country that preaches and boasts to have a multi-party democracy, how can one be killed for espousing a different political ideology from another?  This is Boko Haram style of politics.

The killing of poor Grayzer came hardly a week after the beating of a Lusaka woman and her two children at Lusaka’s Soweto market for allegedly belonging to UPND. The woman whose husband was injured in a road accident and immediately catapulted to bread winner had apparently named one of her attackers as a PF Soweto branch member but immediately the PF party media spin doctors came to his defense and in turn accused UPND members of masquerading as PF and causing terror.

This is the part that irritates me the most. The part where these Zambian political players take us for fools. If someone who is beaten names a certain official as the person that beat them up, I believe it is up to that person to defend themselves at the police and not these counter accusations done by a third party. This is absurd. These politicians really must take us for fools. This is bad politics. If the Soweto market issue had been precisely dealt with, the Mtendere death would have certainly been avoided.

Sadly, Zambian politicians are not moved even by the death of a poor soul. On the burial day for poor Grayzer Matapa, the UPND cadres in their full wisdom chose to march around town with the casket of the deceased which action instantaneously attracted police attention. The police immediately tear-gassed the cadres/mourners who scampered in all directions and dropped the coffin which broke into pieces. A new coffin had to be bought and in the end the entire burial programme was a parody of a sending off of a beloved departed comrade. I don’t know what he really meant to them if all they could give him was a travesty of a sending off. Bad politic.

Dropping caskets at burials is slowly becoming the way of things though as recently the same had happened at the funeral of talented young Zambian musician, P-Jay. The only difference was that P-Jay’s body was not dropped after police fired tear gas canisters but as a result of over excited fans. As for the fracas that characterized the burial day of Grayzer Matapa, my opinion is that the biggest blame should go to the Police. Why tear gas mourners? In societies where people are serious about their politics, the officer who was in charge of that operation would have faced an inquiry.

To the best of my knowledge, no officer has been questioned for the actions of the police on that burial day. At least nothing has been announced to that effect. But it seems our politicians don’t care about the lives of the people they aspire to serve. What are they in politics for then, if not for the welfare of the people and society? In 2011, the PF stood on political platforms and condemned the MMD government under Rhupiah Banda for police action in Mongu where a group of youths were shot at and in the process losing two lives. The youths were short at by police following an aborted peaceful assembly to explain to mainly the youth, contents of the Barotse 1964 agreement.

During the reign of late President Michael Sata he was captured on state TV telling the army to go to western province to shoot at people allegedly forming a parallel army. I don’t know what intelligence the president got then, but he could have asked the army to quell such an uprising (if it existed) differently. But the instruction he gave were; “go to western province and deal with them. If they say eni sha… shoot, if they say fale… shoot”. This is a sheer lack of regard for human life by the ruling elite. Bad politics.

If you do this, you should be cast to one side as a clown, never to take any political center stage. Regrettably, then PF secretary general Wynter Kabimba appeared on ZNBC TV’s Sunday interview to defend those words. More bad politics. Today Mr Kabimba who is leader of the newest party in town, the rainbow Party, is being touted as the only party leader with a clear political ideology for his socialist policy. No way. This man must see the end of his political life unless he can apologise to the people for the arrogance and ineptness which he exhibited when he had political power.

Alas, today Wynter enjoys headlines everyday as propaganda for his political comeback concealed in socialist policy verbiage. Socialist, democrat, capitalist, or any other ideological inclinations, protection of life must come first. That is good politics. Politicians must prove to us that they will protect lives first before we think of giving them votes.

The current PF secretary general has also taken the position of defending everything even the wrong things. I don’t believe that this is the job of a secretary general as CEO of a political party. The best the current SG can do is disassociate the party from the violence and call upon the police to do an impartial job and deal with offenders regardless of their party affiliations. Defending wrong things never got anyone anywhere. Soon one will have to answer for those wrong things.

It is bad politics to come out and defend wrong things even when eye witnesses have named some or one of your members as having beaten a defenseless woman at Soweto market or wherever else. The nation knows that some bad seeds do exist in the PF, UPND, MMD and many other political parties so there is no ducking but when some outrageous crime is committed by the bad seeds, let them face the law. Justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done too.

We know that half the time our politicians do experience some sort of ‘tongue-stroke’ condition and engage in loose talk but they should know that they will be held accountable not only for their actions but words too. Whatever it is that these political party CEOs are told to say and do on behalf of their ‘clubs’, whatever it is they call the jumble of ‘mouthfarts’ that come out as policy, they must learn to tame their tongues. We are not fools.

If they are going to govern oblivious of the people’s needs for improved social welfare and protection then they are just the same as Boko Haram. The same way Boko haram leaders have shown a total lack of regard for human life is the same way our politicians are allowing innocent lives to be lost – in the name of politics. Bad politics.

But they probably don’t know even just how to pronounce Boko Haram despite daily international news updates. At least that is what I make of one politician who struggles to say Boko Haram. She is on record as saying; “In the name of Islam – the Barako… Barako… Barako Oba… ah whatever, they will not abduct our children.”

Learn to do good politics and move the nation forward, or you may be taken to be the same as Barako Oba… Whatever! No. Not whatever, Ya’ll be just like BOKO HARAM.