CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by Ch. Mubambe, APB, South Africa, March 1998
THEME = POLITICS
Zambia's opposition parties seem to be gradually moving closer to
oblivion,
due to their lack of sound and workable alternatives to the country's political and
economic woes
The general public is unlikely to have the patience to listen to their charged rhetoric; it is more likely that the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) will find its national foothold again, following last year's attempted military coup.
On 28 October last year, a previously unknown army captain, Stephen Lungu, alias Solo, went on state radio to announce an early morning military takeover of President Frederick Chiluba's government. The failed military coup has diverted the country's attention from the long-drawn dispute between Zambia's plethora of political parties, and Chiluba's MMD government.
Public interest is currently focused on the on-going trial of the junior army officers arrested in connection with the attempted coup. Added to this, are two prominent personalities, former president Kenneth Kaunda who ruled Zambia for 27 years, and Zambia Democratic Congress (ZDC) leader, Dean Mung'omba. Both have been implicated in the failed putsch.
Until December last year and even after the arrest of Kaunda, there had been much talk about dialogue between the MMD government and Zambia's political parties, on contentious issues such as fresh elections, a new voters' register and an independent electoral commission. But the disputed issues remain unresolved, because the last time political parties congregated only a few parties - most of them with little vote support - turned up.
Political observers in Lusaka are doubtful that the opposition still has the stamina to put pressure on the government to reach agreement on outstanding issues, and that Chiluba is in any mood to give in to opposition demands. Analysts say the opposition has run out of steam and run out of ideas, in its desperate attempt to force the government to strike a deal on the disputed issues. "The opposition don't seem to have fresh ideas on how to deal with the MMD government," says Peter Tembo, a prominent Lusaka businessman and political analyst.
A campaign of civil disobedience, initiated by Zambia's oldest and first post-independence ruling party, the United National Independence Party (UNIP), in collaboration with other parties, fell through less than three months after it was launched. The campaign - launched soon after the disputed general and presidential elections in November last year - was started half- heartedly and seemed doomed to failure.
The campaign called for voters to publicly burn their voters cards printed by an Israeli computer firm. The opposition anticipated mammoth public enthusiasm, but it did not materialise. "The political parties were too ambitious in their belief that the people would rush to their card-burning public shows, instead of looking for food," a lecturer in political science at the University of Zambia said. "What the average Zambian is concerned about, is where his next meal will come from," he added.
Some 55% of Zambia's over eight million people live in poverty, according to the Central Statistic Office. All indications are that the civil disobedience campaign has virtually been abandoned, though some opposition officials spoken to, still consider it a viable vehicle to channel public discontent with the Chiluba government.
Meanwhile, the influence of the National Patriotic Coalition comprising 14 opposition parties led by the Liberal Progressive Front leader, Rodger Chongwe, is dwindling, due to insufficient support and the lack of a credible political agenda. "This whole thing (the coalition), in my view, was based on personality worship for Kaunda, rather than winning the support of the people to fight injustices that we see in our country," says one political observer. "This is what makes the coalition irrelevant." It is clear that the coalition which started showing its first strains of disintegration last September when Dean Mung'omba's Zambia Democratic Congress and the National Party pulled out, was simply another weak bark at Chiluba's government by the fragmented opposition parties.
Following the arrest of Kaunda after last October's coup attempt and Rodger Chongwe's self-imposed exile in Australia, the bark has turned into a mere whimper because the coalition is now without a leader. Kaunda has been restricted to his home in Lusaka and charged with misprision of treason (i.e. Failing to report that a treasonable act is to take place). The state alleges that the former president was aware that renegade soldiers were about to stage a coup and never reported it to the authorities.
A few days before the coup attempt, Kaunda had warned of an imminent explosion and went on a world tour. And when Captain Lungu shook Chiluba's government with threats of facing a firing squad, everybody related the turn of events to Kaunda's threats.
Meanwhile, the feuding tension within Kaunda's UNIP recently came into the open, when the party's youth brigade locked the offices of secretary-general Sebastian Zulu, his deputy and other officials, accusing them of being moles of the MMD. The party's suspended administrative secretary, Basil Kabwe, went even further, accusing Zulu of masterminding a campaign to remove Kaunda as president of the UNIP.
Kaunda intervened and ordered the youth brigade to unlock the offices, but political analysts say the chaos within the UNIP is the beginning of the downfall and death of the once mighty party that ruled Zambia for so long. It is not clear what tactics the weakened opposition will now come up with, but early indications are that the major opposition parties will shun the country's local government elections, the dates of which are yet to be announced.
END
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
PeaceLink 1998 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement