.Hichilema

By PAUL MOONGA –

IT is sad to note that some opposition politicians in the United Party for National Development (UPND) have continued using the tribal card to destroy what founding fathers like Dr Kenneth Kaunda toiled for.
Unity to the founding fathers was so critical that they went to the extent of even coming up with the unitary political slogan of ‘One Zambia, One Nation’.
To this misguided ilk, I would like to remind them that over a period, Zambia has become ethnically integrated that any politician who tries to pull a tribal card in pursuit of public office misses the point and should be treated as public enemy number one.
I say this considering that opposition leaders using the tribal card have not been challenged since they are sowing seeds of tribal discord, ignoring the positive fact that many Zambians have inter-married and have children with mixed tribal parentage.
In Zambia, unlike other regional countries, we have so many children whose surnames are Chanda Lubasi, Dalitso Mweene or Mutinta Kabwe, a sign of inter-tribal mingling.
I would like to warn all politicians that a true Zambian should not embrace tribalism as his or her trump card to win elections because this will only lead to conflicts whose consequences would be felt many years to come.
The re-introduction of the ‘One Zambia, One Nation’ slogan by President Edgar Chagwa Lungu, who did not create tribalism, though he is addressing it, should not be frustrated by a few power hungry leaders using tribalism to mask their political failure.
Comparatively, Zambia is far much better than other African countries in being an ethnically integrated society since all tribes co-exist under the umbrella of being Zambians.
We should, therefore, guard this identity jealously by condemning anyone who wants to use tribal labels for cheap political mileage.
Other indicators of positive tribal integration include the wide acceptance of two popular languages Ci-Nyanja and ci-Bemba which are used as mere communication tools and do not denote tribalism.
Even some tabloids and online media which are inventing non-existent terms like “tribal clique” in the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) should be condemned in the strongest sense.
I would challenge people who are fomenting tribalism to visit countries like Rwanda, where nearly a million people died in tribal conflicts between Tutsis and Hutus.
The other example is Kenya where tribal killings are a method to stay in power, not to talk of Zimbabwe where Robert Mugabe’s Shona-backed party had to butcher nearly 3,000 Ndebeles in the infamous kugurahundi massacres.
In Ethiopia, in order to maintain power, a single tribe – the Tigrinyans – ethnically cleansed others through genocide.
If PF is a tribal party as some people like to believe, how did the party’s founder, the late Michael Sata who hailed from the Bemba stock agree to work with the UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema (HH), a Tonga, though the latter squandered his chances of being vice-president under Mr Sata?
Hakainde should be educated by older members in his party that Zambians hailing from all other tribes embraced the founder of UPND, the late Anderson Mazoka as president because he never played the tribal card.
Who then introduced tribal politics in UPND?
I would like to remind Zambians for the umpteenth time that anyone is entitled to become president so long as they can convince Zambians on merit of being the best leaders for the country.
Thus being Tonga, Bemba, or Lozi is not a label or licence to Plot One since one needs to be humble, engaging and less pompous, qualities that have endeared President Lungu to Zambians.
Being tribal is a manifestation of being parochial, selfish and limiting Zambia to one region with the exclusion of other Zambians.
Even voting should never be determined by ethnic and tribal loyalties rather than the intellectual and political integrity of the presidential aspirants.
Parties like UPND whose strength depends upon the degree of ethnic and tribal loyalties they can command are doomed to remaining in opposition since Zambia includes many other regions outside their strongholds.
Zambians especially politicians playing the tribal card should be reminded that the inauguration of a one-party (UNIP) State by Dr Kaunda in 1973 through the Choma Declaration was made in order to arrest the trends perceived towards ethnic and provincial parochialism.
We should, therefore, not go back to our vomit like the proverbial dog but soldier on to be united under the slogan of ‘One Zambia, One Nation’.
The author is a Member of the Patriotic Front Central Committee.