Kitwe Riots 2008

When All Else Fails

I hate to think of what I was telling people will happen has started happening. We in Zambia are used to use an old and outdated statement of Zambians are peaceful by nature. Disgusting!
Is it that Zambians are the only people with a DNA coding which includes peace? Are they made in such a way that the nature of violence cannot come into them?? Hell no!! The peace value peace and will do anything to prevent violence – fun thing is, every human nature has that. We are not special, just have the time to live and let go.

Let no one think otherwise, the elections were rigged and the MMD has been doing this for a long time now. They are a government interested in getting the benefits for themselves and not the people. They have done all they can to hold on to power. They have made themselves and their families rich while the people they are supposed to take care of are starving. They simply don't care. They have no time for the people. The people have tried and failed many times to get rid of MMD but MMD has done all it can to hold on to power and continue enjoying the fruits of control.

Peace is a fun thing and in most cases, it is taken for granted. Every person has a limit and if you push them against the wall, they will react in desperate and dangerous manner. It doesn't matter who. Zambians easily forget that Kaunda had riots that forced him out of power. The country had the worst possible failure in peace that curfew was imposed in almost every possible place. I remember the times and some have deliberately forgotten because they have been in MMD or benefit from MMD's rule which the majority don't. So it all boils down to, when all else fails, we hit back hard. When a peaceful person reacts and becomes violent, it really is bad.

Kitwe riots are but a beginning of what could take the whole country into a dead zone. I knew and expected this to happen. I even went as far as preparing to cancel my trip next December so that I don't get caught up in the silly violence that MMD is fueling with higher mealie meal prices and high fuel price. Seriously, we grow our own maize, mill it, package it but the economics involved make it impossible for people to buy the stample food. We know for sure how the same economics has been taken to fuel and the price of it has arisen so high it is shocking!

Take one thing for sure. When people went to vote on 30th October, they did that with hope that MMD and its useless policies and economics will be a thing of the past. It never was. Someone in MMD decided to correct their choices of leadership and the outcome was Banda. They had all the trust in the system that will be full of good willing for the people and they can get what they want. Who ever thought they didn't know know what they wanted? Democracy has to take into account the fact that even if the choice people make does not go with yours, they made the choice and not anyone else. Thats why institutions like secret service exist to ensure they protect whoever the people want. Unlike our OP which will do anything to get rid of anyone not agreeing with the president. Thats a bad situation and which we must correct at all costs.

I don't like Sata as an individual, I have come to live with the fact that hes one of the few people no matter how you hate him, he works far better for Zambian political standards. Even Chiluba as president reported him to ACC but they found nothing. So I believe most of his supporters have a point to put across. If they want him, they have disagreed with MMD in many things and consider him better than anyone they put him against. HH has lost to him countless times and if he had a heart of the people, he would have come togethere with Sata to take MMD out, but he was too greedy for power and thought he could beat Sata. Today even chances for him to win in 2011 have been compromised as people take it, he cost them the victory by being greedy. I agree with them and hope he will find a deal better than what people promised him.

HH has been taken as a tonga tribalist. I wish I had a way to disagree with them. But fact is, unlike Mazoka whose victory was stolen from him, HH has surround himself with tribalists. He may not actually be tribal in his activities but the people around him are – FACT! You see the first statements of these bemba tribalist are blah blah from tongas. And you wonder what they are talking about. Sata is bemba but does not disagree or support the people in MMD from the same region. Now when Magande started his campign, every UPND support supported him as the engineer of the economy. I even saw a situation were HH would have not stood had he won. Magande lost and they all went back to UPND. Now thats not a political stand but tribal. These are things we see and know will happen given that chance. Mazoka on the other hand was a true leader with all people on his mind – may his sole rest in peace. He didn't use the tonga vote to reach were he was, he used the people. HH has a lot to do for us to trust him with the country. We don't trust his people. We know were he worked, what he did and how the place is. Unfortunately, no matter how much you say hes tribal, the first people to disagree are tongas. Anyone else it will be shocking unless they don't know him. Ask yourselves if you think he is not tribal, are you tonga or not? If you are, don't get involved in that argument as it will make it true. Let other tribes support him. Thats how not being tribal starts.

I hope MMD and the entire government has seen that when you push people against the wall, they get violent. And all that is your fault not theirs. Lets make sure not any other riot come to our country by making sure, we make an electoral process that will bring out what the people want not what government wants no matter the cost. Government is not a god that should decide for the people as they have that right themselves. We need to respect what we disagree with and learn to move on.

People disagreed with the constitution making process but that was hijacked. Now will people respect the constitution that comes out of NCC. Mwanawasa promoted NCC and hes dead now and left us with what we didn't want. Thats bad legacy. We would have been happier if he gave us what we wanted because the people will always cherish what they wanted.

Lets work on an electoral process that will make us celebrate won wins and ensures we see a smooth transfer of power to a president elect. We shouldn't put a president with verification of votes and court cases going on. They should be a time after a win to do all that. Its shameful, we hold elections and everyone is bitter and only happy to celebrate victory of Obama from USA!!! Let government itself be patriotic to the country.