By AUSTIN KALUBA –
THE late Albanian Roman Catholic nun and missionary once said “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
The events happening in the country are seriously challenging the image of Zambia as a haven of peace.
It is thus imperative to heed the first Republican president Kenneth Kaunda’s call for Zambians to maintain peace once the election process is over.
Like Dr Kaunda has observed, it is crucial for Zambians to continue loving one another through the Biblical principle of ‘love your neighbour as you love yourself’.
The first Republican president is the right person to call for peace since he recently received the first-ever Noble Peace Award from Pillars of Peace Zambia chapel for being a champion and an ambassador of peace throughout his entire life.
Dr Kaunda has not only negotiated and acted as a mediator for peace locally but regionally and globally.
The nonagenarian has continued to be a global icon because of the many peace efforts that he has promoted as a negotiator and mediator in countries such as Mozambique, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and South Africa.
Zambians should also note that shortly after independence, Dr Kaunda fought another battle of uniting tribes in Zambia since before attainment of independence people lived in tribal units.
The young politician who was only 40 years old coined the famous unitary motto of ‘One Zambia One Nation’ to remind the citizens about their common heritage.
Before and at the time Dr Kaunda ascended to the presidency, Zambia enjoyed a multiparty political system that saw a myriad of parties in the country.
Prominent among them was UNIP, ANC, Dominion Party, the Federal Party (which then merged with the United Federal Party-UFP), the Constitution Party (its successor being the multi-racial Central African Party), the royalist Barotse National Part and the Liberal Party.
While there were always elements of ethnicity in both formation and alliances to these parties, effort was always made to ensure ethnic differences did not lead to violent confrontations.
However, this guard was dropped when post-independence Zambia witnessed inter-party violence between ANC and UNIP leading to the Choma Declaration that saw the criminalisation of plural politics in favour of the one-party system.
After Zambia reverted to the multi-party political system initiated by the Movement for Multi Party Democracy (MMD) in 1991, ethnic differences were somehow kept at bay since MMD was tribally encompassing.
The showdown between the United Party for National Development (UPND) whose strongholds are in the southern part of Zambia and the Patriotic Front (PF) which enjoys support in the remaining regions of the country seems to have unearthed these differences.
The differences have further been fuelled by careless inciting of party members to use violence to have their way.
The violence we are witnessing in some parts of the country should squarely be blamed on some political leaders who risk being summoned to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
However, this will not happen if these leaders heed the calls for peace from the founding father himself Dr Kaunda who has called for a ceasefire for the sake of Mother Zambia.