BRINGING GOVERNMENT CLOSER TO THE PEOPLE

A few days ago, I had the privilege of escorting a friend of mine to Kanyama compound, not so far away from the City center. The visit was an eye opener. As I navigated through the pot holes, ‘road dams’, I saw the poor infrastructures people call houses and kept on asking myself whether its life that is not fair or there is some element of irresponsibility in this sad state of affairs.

To say the least, Kanyama is not only an unplanned settlement but a breeding ground for poverty, failure and cholera. I couldn’t help but to think of the children at the clinic and schools. I kept on asking ‘where the MP for the area is?’ My colleague was quick to remind me that the MP has no capacity to bring development to a constituency what so ever, only the government has the power to bring about meaningful development.

But wait a minute, what about this word local government? Since that term has some sort of relation to ‘Government’, why can’t they do something about this? So I spend quite some time thinking of the ‘solution’ like my Asian based PR friend whose name must-not-be-mentioned-at-all-costs would put it.

The solution is quite simple actually; it lies in something called systems and policy. You may have come across this awfully long word, ‘Decentralization’. My enormously huge Webters’ lexicon tells me it has something to with delegating management control to specific organs, in this case it will mean allowing individual local councils to run the affairs of their respective territories with little interference from central government.

Government has an unnecessarily huge structure that creates a lot negative bureaucracy and is predisposed to abuse by selfish politicians. There are too many truths to this. For starters, simple common sense will tell you that a developmental paper can take years through the paper trail, approval processes, and committee briefings so much such that by the time it reaches the operational stage, its either there is a recession or there is an election- just like that a plan meets its death.

A centralized local government does not ensure checks and balances, and breeds corruption. Because the system is too big and a simple thing like putting drainage needs the consent of the minister of if not the President, the PS, the town clerk, council of counselors and lord know who else- its hard to have people accountable for their assigned deliverables.

There is no one to point a finger therefore the performance of our counselors and MPs cannot be effectively evaluated instead they will all throw the blame on central government.

The system is also prone to corruption; the Auditor Generals’ report is my witness. Notice how many millions of Kwachas get lost in the ‘paper trail’. Every now and then we hear plot squabbles; counselors or party cadres selling plots and in the long run messing up the good plans made by our civil engineers. Now because the system is so huge, this cannot be investigated, it’s left unchecked and consequently our city is in a mess, no roads, shanty compounds, the list is dreadful.

I propose that we review the system of governance to ensure that the local government is given full administrative authority to direct development and enforce sanity in our various locations. This system should ensure that the council collects revenue in form of taxes and levy’s from community households and businesses, and use it to effectively usher in meaningful change in the way communities are governed. Under this new system the responsibilities of the town clerk and the Mayor should be reviewed for to ensure that both offices are relevant to society as opposed to reducing the Mayor to wearing ‘bling’ and attending fundraising dinner dances.

Lets do what so ever is required to legislate this ‘hands-on’ system of governance which by the way is practiced by affluent countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America, you will find that in the US for instance, individual states even go to the extent of making laws that are specific that particular state. I am of the view that this system is best suited to actualize real and progressive change in our lives and will bring Government closer to the people.

The Youth and Politics in Zambia- Another View

Just as well I was discussing the possibility of having a serious new and youthful candidate relish the prospects of presidency in the 2011 election with some youth leaders the other day. In our discourse, a number of issues came out. Ofcourse by serious youthful candidates I don’t mean the likes of New Revolution whatever it’s called and the other self proclaimed doctor.

At this juncture, it is imperative to note that the role of the youth in politics world over has been that of agents of revolutionary change, if you look at most independence struggles and major political upsets, you will glean that the youth have played a major role in its outworking. This notorious fact is both an asset and a misfortune for the youth. It can be used either for or against the youth as will be highlighted in the course of this article.

Today the youth are mere cadres and tools used to propel other people’s political expediency- it’s a sad state of affairs. We need not to emphasize on how the youth are sidelined in the Political realm as this has already been dealt with in the earlier article. But let’s look at this from a different perspective, what are the youth themselves doing to take a more serious role in the future of Zambian politics?

We have established that the youth are powerful forces of change; this means the onus to either be a factor or not rests entirely on us. Human beings by nature designed to be free moral agents with a free conscience- choice. Indeed the power of reasoning and choice is what differentiates us from animals. Now if the majority of the youth have chosen to be used by cunning politicians, if they have decided that it is better to drink from 6 to 6 and if they have succumbed to the dictates of politics as usual, then that is not anyone’s problem. In this case we the youth have no one to blame but ourselves because we have allowed ourselves to be used. Why do we expect the government of some super natural force to put or involve us in important national matters when we ourselves have not shown the ability or the willingness to lead?

A lot of colleagues in the various youthful circles have mooted pushing for deliberate legislation that will serve to ensure that the youth have a certain representation in key government structures such as Parliament and cabinet guaranteed. My contention is that on principle we don’t need to create space or positions for any group or association just for the sake of doing it. We already have constitutional provisions that allow each and every Zambian- man, woman, youth, disabled to participate and be represented in government structures. You can vote when you are 18, you can be a member of parliament when you are 21 and you can go for Nkwazi house when you are 35, isn’t that enough?

Yet the fact that the youth are not a factor in Zambia’s political realm is not entirely our fault. In the recent years we have seen a stronger bond between money and politics develop, the two seem to complement each other. The obviously smaller financial muscle power that most youths have has placed them at a disadvantage. The youth cannot compete on a fair and equal ground with older and much more established politicians. Sadly the marriage between money and politics is a grim reality that will continue to hinder the progress of the youth in Politics.

The challenges that face the youth in their quest to partake in the national cake are real and if let unsolved will continue to impact negatively of youth development। Until the youth wake up from their 44 year old slumber and take center stage in the affairs of this country, the situation will remain the same. The way I see it, this country is not going anywhere until, we ‘the leaders of tomorrow’ do something about the bleak fate of our country. The future is in our hands!

Copper, Maize and the Kwacha

The rate at which the dollar is moving is worrisome. The markets are in frenzy and the mealie meal prices are not in their best behavior. One wonders whether it’s really the after effects of the global financial crisis or there is some element of irresponsibility on the part of the movers.

Enock Kavindele a man whose Zambia/Angola rail line idea has suffered at the hands of the negative forces of politics finally spoke out about a few days ago. I am not his biggest fun but what he talked about made start to think there is an element of greed and irresponsibility on the part of the market players and the government itself that has resulted in Zambia’s latest misfortune.

The Food Reserve Agency is busy trying to buy Maize in South Africa, this is not only embarrassing and is uncalled for since FRA say they have these strategic reserves, the funny thing is that we really don’t know how much maize stocks we have in this country. What happened to the bumper harvest we had the previous year and years before? Was that all political posturing? Isn’t it ironic how the truth always catches up with people?

Let’s make an assumption and say that the FRA really recorded a bumper harvest, what happened to the maize then? Was it sold? To whom? The millers? How come maize prices went down during the campaigns?

Look I am just shooting in the dark here but the point is how much more about maize stocks or indeed government operations do we know about? You perhaps would equally ask this question for all but a reason, like Chibamba Kanyama stated earlier this week, this government is not inspiring enough. Its operations and very composition give little hope for the Zambian economy. I am yet to be impressed.

For instance, Kavindele questioned why the government can’t fund key strategic commercial farmers around the provinces who will be responsible for maize reserves. I think it’s a very good suggestion, why don’t we do just that. The government is directly responsible for feeding its citizens, no excuse, and right now they are failing in their duty. Zambia has no maize reserves as implied by plans of importing maize from South Africa, now just imagine if we were under siege, would we survive? I am yet to see GRZ being serious about this issue. It’s such a shame.

Today the kwacha is almost trading at K5, 000.00 to a US dollar; this was not the case in the good and long gone Mwanawasa days. Of course the price of copper has decreased due to less demand and there have been a few people greedy people on the market who have bought huge quantities of dollar creating unnecessary demand and landing us all in this quandary, but what has this government done to regulate the exchange rate to our advantage or to stabiles market sentiments? The truth is Magande’s fate and just this very government has sent dome jitters on the market and there has not been much put in place by the Reserve Bank to rectify the situation.

We never learn, all we think about is copper and look what it has landed us into now! What’s the plan Zambia? Where are we going? The state of our copper, Maize and kwacha is enough to worry each and every meaningful Zambian.

REASON AND TOLERANCE

The other day I got on a bus from Stanley bar in Lusaka town and if you have been on a woodlands flash bus at 9pm then you know what my experience was like. There were two or three drunk guys headed for Kabwata, the ‘working class and a couple of other nobody’s like myself. I sat in the corner making sure my phone was hidden from the infamous Staley Bar phone snatchers while getting some fresh air from the open window. The late night bus discussion started soon after we took off and this time around it was about the extension of the proposed National Constitutional Conference mandate by twelve months. I was surprised to learn how the chaps I stereotyped as loud and drunk possible PF cadres articulated themselves in their arguments against the extension of the NCC’s mandate. In their opinion, the extension of the National Constitutional Conference is not in the best interests of Zambians seeing as the country is facing a number of problems like the souring food prices and lack of fertilizer in the districts. In their own wisdom, they noted that the NCC costs K300m every year and that the money could for instance help the homeless in Mazyopa. (Internally displaced people)

The debate got sweeter by second and I was getting tempted to get off my shelf so as to add to the discussion. But before I could put my thoughts together, the discussion switched to the issue of the so called rebel PF MP’s and so I quickly lost interest and put my i-pod on- pressed play on a song by the Mulemena boys- intambi. Yet soon thereafter, a commotion developed in the bus- forcing my attention. Apparently a big argument was taking place between some MMD and PF cadres. The two parties obviously disagreed on some issues and were now venting out insults against each other. What really bothers me is that this is not the first time I have heard or witnessed party cadres squabbling. You may be saying come Mingeli! What do you expect? Those are just party cadres! But wait a minute! Can RB stand Sata’s presence or the other way round? Why is it that the two cannot stand on one platform to debate issues of national importance?

There is grave lack of intolerance and reason in the way Zambian politics are played. You may say that’s it’s the way politicians are and call me naïve but I think its much more then politics because its starts with you actually. Some of you may recall the articles I wrote prior to the October 30th Elections, it was quite interesting how when I criticized RB- I was called a PF sympathizer, when I questioned HH- I became tribalist and when I ridiculed Michael Sata- I was called RB’s boy. Ironic, isn’t? Now imagine if any of the operatives belonging to the aforementioned political parties took the questions I raised into serious consideration, the political landscape would have been a little different. As I speak there is trouble in the UPND camp, the same questioned we raised are being echoed by some prominent UPND members, Sata lost the elections due to the same regionalism and the personality cult mentality we spoke about and RB’s image is not the best today because of the companions we had warned him about.

If only we could debate constructively, this country would go a long way. Instead of completely brushing aside views that seem to challenge your own, it will be good to try and listen. There was a cheaper way of ushering a new constitution, if only the civil society, politicians and leftist commentators like the author were heard, the situation would have been different but now we may not even have the 2011 elections under a new constitution. Further to which one wonders what is wrong with PEACEFUL demonstrations calling on the government to put their act together visa-vies the food, employment and fuel situation in the country. This is the same freedom of expression that we keep talking about. What harm does a hungry person demonstrating his displeasure over the fact that he can no longer afford a bag of meali meal cause to a mighty state?

We are way past political and social infancy and should now strive towards embracing divergent views and putting politics aside to focus on making ours a better country. This calls each and every one of us to focus on the more important things; the welfare of the Zambian people and not politics. Did you notice that a combination of the MMD, PF and UPND manifestos is actually the panacea to Zambia’s economic misfortunes? Yet before we put shallow politics aside, before we concentrate on the gist and not the pizza and before we open our arms to opposing views; we are but miles away from reaching the Promised Land.

NAIVETY MEETS REALITY

As per custom, every Tuesday I make it a point to visit the local convenient store, that way I get myself an extra pizza: one for the evening and one for my breakfast the following day. The buy is awesome but for the wait. So just as well I bump into an old friend of mine who for purposes of this article I will call Tim. I met Tim about 7 years ago, together we were very active youth advocates committing ourselves to various activates such as school debates, model united nations and the youth parliament. Between ourselves we represented the Zambian youth to the fullest both at home and abroad on various forums a time during we both gained respect for each other’s ability to analyze and articulate issues.

After exchanging courtesies we naturally dived into a chit chat about what is happening on the political scene. As usual I am eager to connect with people with whom I share the same set of political values and beliefs so I quickly asked what he thought of the events that were unfolding then in the Zambian political arena. To set him in context I cited the alleged tribal remarks, violent threats, daylight bribery and corruption attributed to certain leaders in society. To my disappointment, my colleague told me that there was nothing wrong with politicians engaging themselves in the aforementioned vices, in his own words he told me that ‘it’s just the way the game is played’. He further asked me not to be easily swayed with reports in the papers and mere street hearsay after which he added an invitation for me join the youth wing of a popular political party to which the same allegations were attributed to. Naturally I tuned down his offer, citing my beliefs in honesty and fairness, the list is endless. I recall my colleague’s last words of advice in which he asked me to become ‘exposed’ and to stop being naïve. By then my pizza was ready and so I excused myself promising to make some time for the two of us to continue our discussion. Of course I wasn’t going to see him again, I was only being courteous.

Walking home that Tuesday, I began to think about what my friend told me and indeed what many others have said about my views being too strict and by the book. Many of them often advise me to enter the political scene, see the bigger picture and come to terms with reality. One of my mentors who has held public political office for over 20 years now often gives me the same advise, telling me that if I want to make in the ‘game’ I should stop being naive and come to terms with the reality on the ground and not my text book politics.

What is even more disappointing is that politics of today’s Zambia have been reduced to the something more of the usual procedure. For instance you know that after every election, all those who campaigned for the President will be given ministerial posts, not because they are capable of delivering but because they are loyal. As to what positive impact such appointments bring to society only the President knows. Now just imagine if Ministerial posts were given to those deserving and qualified- purely on merit, it will mean that the best brains in the field will be called for national duty. Ministers will seize to be political appointees meant to appease the faithful but will be serious civil servants set to impact real change on people’s lives. If I go on to suggest that perhaps the President should have picked someone from the opposition let’s say Given Lubinda to be Minister of Local Government and Housing, someone will call me naïve. But at the end of the day, UPND, MMD, PF , ULP, HP are all Zambians who want to serve their country, the only difference among them is that they plan on different routes of getting to the same destination- development.

Every time I read the news on LT, I become angry. I become angry with the way my fathers, mothers and uncles and aunties are toying with the governance of this country. You know it was funny the other day to see Mumbi Phiri a PF member of Parliament claming that she made a mistake on voting for that controversial salary bill. That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Now being a former African youth parliamentarian myself I am aware that Parliamentary procedure can be complicated especially when you are dealing with the North Africans but the Zambian system is perhaps the easiest model in Africa and if an urban member of parliament is lost then one wonders weather this is the first time or she just has no idea what has been happening in Parliament since she took her oath. Driving to the point, UPND and PF voted for that bill and have no excuses. As I stated earlier and I will stick to my point; the constitutional office bearers don’t deserve a salary increment because the country’s economy is being affected negatively by the global economic crisis hence the people will be suffering. The salaries can only be justified if they will be increased across the board. But I know you may be thinking come on Mingeli, the reality is that the bill has already been passed.

But what reality is this? Perhaps they all mean to say that I should realize that politics is a dirty game in which one has to do what has to be done to gain political expediency regardless of weather its breaks the law or not and at the expense of the poor. Is it the reality of politics being a conveyer belt to personal gain and not public service- bringing about meaningful change in people’s lives? Comrades, I don’t think I can ever come to terms with politics being referred to as a game. I don’t think it is a game, on the contrary it is an honorable course undertaken by those disposed to servitude and those motivated by sheer determination to improve the livelihood of the millions who look up to them. A game is a gamble; you can not gamble with people’s lives nor can you toy with the expectations people have from you once they cast that ballot in your favor.

Look, red is red, black is black. Difference should be appreciated and intimidation never a method to bring people to terms with your opinions. Rules of engagement should be followed by the letter and not meant to be broken. If that is not the reality, I would rather remain in my naivety.

ZAMBIA IS TOO RICH TO BE POOR

Its was only like yesterday when we watched international news channels and wondered what the global credit crunch was all about and now we are beginning to grasp the reality of this crisis. Frankly looking at how under developed our economy is, I never thought that we would be affected. Perhaps I forgot my economics and the backbone of Zambia’s economy.

The panic on the Zambian market has mainly been brought about by the depreciating kwacha, staggering international banks and financial institutions and souring food prices. This calls questions to mind over the mechanism of our economy; what is the cornerstone of the Zambian economy? One needs not read encyclopedias to learn that the fate of our economic performance is determined by the price of our good same old copper. Zambia has not learned it lessons and yet again our most valued and precious commodity has plunged us into another economy downturn. Because of the good copper prices and seemingly good economic gains (in bits of percentages), politicians got into some comfort zone. They became comfortable with the fact that we had gained 6% economic progress, a progress which has not translated to the ordinary person. The politicians have not learned.

Events unfolding this week in our country make it sad to be Zambian, in fact embarrassing. Like I have said before and will say again, Zambia is too rich to be poor. Indeed to rich to be importing maize from South Africa. This signifies great failure on the economy on the part of Government and also tells us that the fundamentals of the Zambian economy are baseless, they are too weak. More than 40% of our budget is funded by the west- donors, 44 years after independence. The mines which are our major source of income are controlled by foreigners who I can bet with you will flee should the copper prices continue to be low, yet they have looted a lot of money from this country.

Its simple, due to the economic crises, copper demand is low and going by the law of supply and demand, the price is low thus affecting the kwacha and investor confidence in the Zambian markets. We are stuck again. The question is how prepared is Rupiah Banda’s capitalist government to take us out of this economic downturn?

I am not shy to admit that my opinions are deeply rooted in humanism and communist ideologies which have been stained by the west as evil and ineffective but look who is having the last laugh now. For many years the west had celebrated and praised their capitalist system which Chiluba adopted without understanding its effects on the average person. He quickly adopted the western brewed Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) and the fastest privatization program in the history of mankind which weakened. Our industry and manufacturing base is almost nonexistent; we have been reduced to the mercies of foreign investors.

Africa dear colleagues is much closer to humanism than capitalism, consider the African ideology of Ubunthu which was practiced by acclaimed African leaders such as Nkwame Nkruma, Julius Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda. Humanism teaches us to think about the next person and calls on leaders to take their responsibility of sharing wealth equally; seriously. It teaches us to respect and care for one another. On the contrast, Capitalism is each one for himself and God for us all- free markets driven by the law of supply and demand, yes the very system that has landed us all in this problem. Seeing from what has happened in the major economies, if you leave the economy to the mercies of market forces, there is bound to be greed creeping in the market. People will borrow and borrow to an extent that should anybody default; a lot of lives will be affected. It is highly irresponsible for the government to leave the fate of human beings to selfish market players. No way.

Now the US and friends have realized that and they are busy defying the very ideology they contradicted for years- socialism, they are bailing and taking over banking and financial institutions. Now economic pundits are busy suggesting that government financial institutions should start buying stakes on the capital and money markets, but they are forgetting that once government starts doing that, interest rates will sour and you and I won’t afford to pay bank our loans mortgages- more crises. Government needs to regulate the economy to some extent- Moderate Socialism just like China, the world’s biggest economy.

Rupiah Banda and his buddies are following a western brewed free market concept and know nothing else than calling on foreign investors to drive our economy, this amounts to sabotage and irresponsibility of the highest order. Foreigners have no interest in Zambia other than making their profits- in bad times they will go and leave us wanting. Why does the government forget that year after year they are training business men and women who if given a chance would help turn the dreadful fate of our economy around? Why do they forget that if that Katemba owner at City market was given a loan or little tax exemption, in 5 years, he will be the next hyper market owner? That’s how McDonalds, Toyota and Microsoft started out.

The capitalist policies being pursued by Rupiah Banda’s government will not take us anywhere and they do not have the acumen to take this country forward. They have given themselves salary increments regardless of the impending economic crises, no regard for the hardworking teacher, plumber, carpenter, police officer and the men and women in uniform. PF and UPND have no excuse, they are equally greedy and should all go.

The farming season is on and there are no farming implements; fertilizer is too expensive for the average farmer to attain. We are still reliant on copper, copper copper copper. The same copper that landed us in problems in the 70s, 90s and now. Yet we are in a country with 40% of southern Africa’s water, vast fertile land and available manpower- why do we still import maize?
Clearly, ours fathers have failed, all of them; Rupiah Banda, Michael Sata and HH. It will not be anyone them leading us to the Promised Land. But it will take you and I. We need to wake up and start coming up with Solutions for Zambia.