Exposing Chiluba's Weaker Nature

Time comes in any person's life when he is confronted with a problem whose resolution calls for self-examination. When the very welfare of the given individual is at stake, the very best of this individual's mental and physical capacities are called upon in this examination. To get a true picture of the self, the memory of the given individual will play a leading role. Knowledge of what a person was, and how he became what he is will give a better picture of what a person really is in the present. Apart from serving as a guide to self knowledge, memory gives to the person paradigms that he can follow, examples he can apply to the present. This memory of the self will help prevent the individual from repeating mistakes.

Memory, of course, is not the only factor that helps in this examination of the self. Intellect, and many other factors, also play vital roles. Ultimately, the limitations of the given individual's physical and mental capacities, and the situation of these among other, more important, and, unfortunately, not directly accessible external factors in the real world, will determine whether this individual will be able to know the self, and, with this knowledge, be able to resolve the problem he is confronted with in the way that will ensure his continued prosperity, improvement of his state if necessary, or a change to the state he finds himself in. Ultimately, the aim of this self examination is the perfection of a coping strategy. The aim is to know what is better, and what is worse, and hopefully guide one's known self in the direction of the better option, and hope to keep it that way.

If an individual is aware of all the factors that play a role in his search for self knowledge, in his finding of a coping strategy, then he would know that exploring these factors, and improving on some capacities, like his intellect and memory, will enable the same person to fare better at any given moment, under any given set of circumstances. The most successful specimens of man are those who strive continuously to improve their mental and physical capacities, which in turn make them better able to know and adjust to the external factors that play a role in the success, or failure of the coping strategies they devise.

Election is a time in an individual's life when, thanks to the democratic ballot box, he is given a chance to participate in the maintenance, changing or improving of those external factors that influence his life conditions, within whose frame he devises his coping strategy. The better those conditions are, the less the pressure that comes to bear on individual members, the better able to survive they are. The democratic ballot box is this culture's best answer to the need of individual members of any given society to have a hand in their welfare, which is linked to the welfare of the entire country to which they belong.

It is correct to say then that democracy is a system of rule in which all members of a society can participate in choosing those they will entrust with the determination of their own destinies. How qualified individual members are to know which of the candidates are actually qualified enough for the post in contention is another question whose answer has led the world's most advanced countries to include organs in their societies comprising the most educated and enlightened members of the society, which, even if this agenda is not openly stated, effectively screen out candidates in the run-up to the elections, and prevent those who are unqualified from gaining access to positions of power, rather than rub out the democratic system altogether, or, as is the case with some of "Africa's more progressive regimes", the maintenance of incompetent but trusted regimes for longer than is sensible for fear of a state in which the interests of foreign powers will win over the misled choices of such voters; a design that works well for street gangs fearing police infiltration, but can become too paranoid and eventually counterproductive for country like settings.

The independence era found Zambians, and most Africans, saddled with an example of "Africa's more progressive regimes" above, and they, as a country, and as a continent, felt that they were not going anywhere. A western led campaign to democratize gave Zambians new hope. At the time that Zambians went to the ballot box a decade ago, and chose Frederick Chiluba as their president, he was not only a symbol of change, but was seen as the best vehicle to this change. Zambians were convinced then that, considering the persecution the man had endured under the Kenneth David Kaunda regime, he would work relentlessly to make changes that would prevent future leaders from doing to their fellow countrymen and human beings what had been done to him. For Zambians, this was a case of "who feels it knows it", and, in this former union leader, a man who stood up for the interests of common labourers, they felt they would find the humanity they felt was missing in Kenneth Kaunda's system of rule, the realism that would improve the conditions of life in which they lived.

They could not have been more mistaken. Chiluba repaid Zambians for the trust they put in him by surpassing Kenneth Kaunda in all but a few of the very means he used to maintain his rule.

Zambian dictators distinguish themselves from their counterparts in other parts of the African continent by their adherence to surreptitious, colonial-like means of maintaining their rule. Where their counterparts are loudly shooting their opposition, or locking them up indefinitely without accounting for the arrests, with a disregard for human rights and a brutality equal only to that shown by officers in Nazi Germany, and even going to the extent of openly warning those who wish to be subversive that they will look for them in their mother's wombs, Zambian oppressors sabotage potential opposition before it has become a real threat, by sidetracking successful bright men whose careers, though not political, are bound to bring them that way; by sending such men abroad on useless missions that isolate them from their careers and interests, or make their lives impossible if they do not cooperate; by making it impossible for anyone who has been abroad for a short period from contesting in elections; by playing a role in the eventual death of a large number of members of an opposition party to prevent a comeback campaign, by sneaking behind with anthrax and god knows what, using AIDS as a cover for the sudden deaths of their rivals, or, as has been a hallmark of Chiluba's regime, by arranging accidents when other means are ineffective. Like the most effective strategy used by their colonial predecessors, Zambian dictators declare peace and pledge adherence to democratic rules of governance, and, once the citizens have lowered their guard, go behind the scenes ensuring the dominance of their regime, and, as is usually the case with those who believe that they are better than other men, by contradicting their own belief by enforcing this inferiority.

Rather than go into endless recriminations that talk of belittling extramarital affairs, of incompetence, of senseless money and fear motivated political defections, of the ideological poverty of the ruling elite, of lackeys who will dance to any beat Chiluba conjures up, of the accidents in which many suddenly and suspiciously die, of the death of three fifths of the members of UNIP, Zambians, as indeed all Africans, should be asking themselves how their welfare, which is in dire need of care at this moment when diseases are spreading like wildfire, when poverty is increasing, when genocidal violence is becoming more and more prevalent on the continent, can be better taken care of; how they can prevent it from falling into the hands of men like Frederick Chiluba.

The welfare of Africans always seems to land in the hands of its sons who are oblivious of their own interests, of their positioning in this cold, cruel world. A continent that does not lack qualified, intelligent and articulate persons, the individuals who rule in African countries are usually inarticulate, lack worldly knowledge, and succeed only to create the very conditions that cause the draining of one of the continent's most valuable resource. Africa seems to have educational institutions set up for the education of other countries' intellectuals, known commonly as the intellectual drain. Those very same institutions that aided the colonial powers in their discovery and elimination of African intellect are still today, in the era of independence, doing nothing better than using up the continent's scarce funds as the products of these same institutions end up roaming the streets in perpetual, fruitless searches of work, and, if they do not get destroyed this way on the streets, simply leave the country to find greener pastures elsewhere.

Africa is our only home. It is all we have. Official misconduct today may benefit the self, and family members, but will ultimately hurt the progeny of all who are involved. There is no way to protect against such an eventuality. The funds misappropriated by an unscrupulous official today will not protect his family members and their children tomorrow from the ravages that this mismanagement will bring with it. The suffering and vulnerability that comes with this wretched position, this itself laying us open to further decline and spectres of more misery, is not wholly a result of western interferences and manipulation, but, to a large extent (if not the sole reason that the interests of foreign powers have prevailed on our continent), is bequeathed unto us by our own people, whose descendants are experiencing the very same suffering that everybody else is going through, from those whose ancestors profited from the slave trade in the centuries gone by, to those who eagerly become puppets of western powers in our time.

They may well reelect Chiluba this "Christmas", and this time his victory will be more official than it has ever been, thanks to international legitimacy that the group of international observers will help establish. In this aftermath, those of us who will complain will be considered as insane, frustrated, mistaken, or even deluded, because of this very observance. However, we know better.

Keeping up with the pace of events, we should make it a point to launch campaigns, through whichever means we find, using opportunities as they arise, to enlighten Africans about the nature and importance of a position of rule, to try to change the attitude of Africans to positions of rule. We should take examples from similar campaigns which have managed to change mentalities worldwide. We should do all we can to make our future leaders aware of the backlash to one's own welfare of mismanagement in this so important aspect of social living. This message should be directed at our progeny so that they are enlightened enough to know, to think twice before taking such a step, even if they see the possibility.

Without organs in place that manage the electoral process so that it works to the benefit of the concerned communities, and with the means to the creation of such organs unavailable in the hands and minds of men like Chiluba and those who rally behind them, we should remind, not only those who are young and growing and can make the same error in judgement that Chiluba is making, but the likes of the Chilubas as well, that, if one cannot run a million-dollar company, then one cannot, and should not run a multi-trillion-dollar undertaking, which a country is, unless he wishes to bestow extinction upon those who ensure his survival, his own progeny, and, by connection, upon himself.

Though this dumbness is unbelievable, only comparable to the twist in face that the man has perfected over the years, an attempt, in my view, to look as important as the man thinks the position requires, we already know that individuals can become this self-destructive, this obtuse. Ridicule or criticism will not, and cannot change them nor prevent them from destroying their own nests. The men who engage in such acts are, like the expressions they affect, too far from reality to be reached. This is also true of the organizations in which they form a majority, including the OAU which, though founded by bright, ambitious minds for greater purposes, has over the years fallen into the hands of such people, a fact that has been commented upon by many Africans before.

Rather, we should try to educate our inchoate, our susceptible, those who, unlike the Chilubas of this world, are still malleable, in a way that makes them see themselves as participants in a whole that not only has a present, but has a past and a future. We should make them aware of their positioning in this whole, and make them see the connection this has to the reason they have to propagate to survive, the very reason they are here today, and try, by this way, to make them aware of the reason they are suffering today, and make them see that the only way to change this is to observe this simple fact of organization.

In the west today, this mode of thought is the norm. Reaching this state was not easy for them either, neither are they taking it for granted. It is an ongoing process that needs constant attention lest holes develop in its design. In Europe today, a cheap crook never imagines becoming president of one such country, a common thing in Africa. Simple minded, foolish souls stay in the places where they fit. They either lead criminal organizations or start legitimate or illegitimate businesses. They know by instinct where they belong. In the cases where criminal minded, cheap crooks make the high office in the west, they usually bring with them sufficient leadership potentials and qualifications that do not make them stand out among the others in the organization, and usually in the west, the advantages of having such persons in positions of power far outweigh the disadvantages. This state is what Africa has to aspire to achieve.

Mukazo Mukazo Vunda.