12 Reasons of How HH Became a “Flamboyant Western Puppet” and Why Joe Biden No Longer Trusts Him: The Mystery Behind Bally Missing The UN General Assembly
12 Reasons of How HH Became a “Flamboyant Western Puppet” and Why Joe Biden No Longer Trusts Him: The Mystery Behind Bally Missing The UN General Assembly
……..By end of 2019, the Americans and the entire Western Hemisphere had resolved to help in dislodging President Edgar Lungu from power for crossing five key red lines. After disapproving the PF government, they needed their own puppet to deliver certain key assignments in Zambia in order to secure Western interests. And HH became their reliable partner to politically trust and support. But as we speak, it is clear that Bally and his UPND regime have failed to deliver, widely lost public popularity and in turn, HH has lost political trust and support of the Americans and the entire West too because he is a risky star beyond 2026……
By Dr Chris Zumani Zimba
Introduction
Going into 2021 presidential and general elections, the Western block loved and trusted President HH as their Darling Puppet to take over power in Zambia. The West pompously supported HH into power and immediately praised him as one of Africa’s democratic presidents. By 2022, HH was the most prolific Western puppet in the region: “the only happening president in Africa”. He was loved by the West and they falsely ranked him very high!
Today, HH is seen as a failed leader, unpopular president and a risky politician who cannot secure Western interests beyond 2026. Moreover, London and Washington have accused him of playing double standards with America and China and thereby marking him as unreliable and dishonest partner. Below, I discuss 12 factors to appreciate in understanding the past and present contextual relationship between president HH and the West:
1. By 2019, the West were so offended by the PF government for five key reasons namely (1) taking Lusaka too closer to Beijing and bolstering Chinese influence in Zambia, (2) openly denouncing homosexuality and projecting Zambia as a Christian Nation, (3) brutally condemning, embarrassing and deporting a pro gay American ambassador from Lusaka, (4) increasing mineral tax for Western multinationals and growing state interest in the mining sector, and (5) objecting America’s request to secure and establish physical military presence in Zambia for the sub region-AFRICOM.
2. To secure all the five crucial imperial objectives in Zambia beyond 2021, the West identified and supported Mr. Hakainde Hichilema (HH) of the UPND as a defined member of the Africa Liberal Network (ALN). For America and the West who urgently needed regime change, HH was readily available to become their proxy leader. When Lungu lost power to HH in 2021, the entire Western world celebrated the installing of their government in Lusaka.
3. In September 2021, US President, Joe Biden openly celebrated HH’s political triumph when he addressed the United Nations General Assembly as “the new leader to advance democratic values”. During this first tour in the USA, HH met many top liberal politicians, philanthropists and investors with the view to support him score the mission of the Africa Liberal Network-“to empower liberal parties to grow their support, to increase their influence on politics and to implement liberal policies when in government”.
4. After their meeting in September 2021, Senator Jim Risch, a top member of the US senate foreign relations committee described Hichilema as “a strong leader and bright spot for democracy in Africa who is working hard to curb China’s malign and predatory influence in Zambia as well as increase cooperation with the US”. This media statement endorsed HH as the most flamboyant American puppet in the region. We saw flying from New York, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, etc and made history to have flown more than both Sata and Lungu in two years.
5. Without hesitation, HH took serious policy steps to demonstrate that he was certainly a sponsored puppet of the US and major Western powers. HH swiftly allowed the US to establish AFRICOM- a U.S. military office in Lusaka, a notorious position that all former Zambian leaders strongly opposed and avoided for decades. Kaunda, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, Banda, Sata and Lungu all refused to establish AFRICOM in Lusaka just like the AU guided all member states to reject it!
6. After HH took over, Zambians for first time saw Western diplomats flying gay flags on their embassies while underground pro-homosexual groups openly emerged on the streets matching and singing “liberal songs” with police escorts in Lusaka. In August 2021 itself, former British Prime Minister, Sir Tony Blair, a respected number gay ambassador in Europe, America and Australia became the first foreign VIP visitor of HH and later integrated as “foreign presidential adviser” to Bally.
7. To appreciate their new political puppet in Lusaka, the United States co-hosted the Second Summit for Global Democracy with Zambia plus two other non African countries between 29th to 30th March 2023. In non patriotic ways and without any inclusion of African, Asian or Latino countries, HH further rewarded them by unilaterally abolishing all visa fees for tourists coming from his political masters-British, Canada, Europe and America arriving in Zambia.
8. To make his pro Western policy clear, HH abandoned Zambia’s Non Aligned Traditional Foreign Policy by voting against Moscow in a US-EU sponsored war with Ukraine as well as avoided or over-delayed traveling to China despite Beijing being Zambia’s top loan creditor. As a result, HH received and hosted US Vice President, US secretary of the treasury, IMF boss, and former British Prime Minister among many top Western leaders in Lusaka!
9. In the mining sector, HH shockingly awarded big foreign mining companies heavy and unjustified tax concessions. Upon winning power in 2021, HH gave mining multinationals exploitative tax holidays to the effect that, Zambia is believed to be losing more than U$ 2 Billion Dollars in revenue annually.
10. FQM, a Canadian firm that invested in HH’s 2021 election is one of the major beneficiaries.HH decided to relinquish the government’s 20% shareholding stake in Kansanshi Mine to FQM in return for a petty 3% royalty payment on revenue. In this deal alone, it is believed that HH sacrificed more than U$2.5 billion for Zambia in what many see as a payback move to reward one of his big election funders.
12. In December 2022, HH unilaterally joined his DRC counterpart in Washington to sign an agreement ‘to develop an electric battery supply chain for U.S and like-minded Western investment in Africa’ with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Arbitrarily speaking, HH was committing Zambia’s underground mineral wealth to a fixed exploitative Western market. All these pro Western policy gestures cemented HH’s place in New York and London!
Conclusion
Recognizing that HH has holistically failed to deliver or govern and thereby facing a defeat in 2026, Washington is less interested to entertain HH. This September, it is believed that Zambian diplomats in New York failed to secure any important political for the prolific American puppet and HH consequently decided to shun the UN big event for world leaders. Last month, World Bank (WB) loudly passed a vote of no confidence in HH’s role as board chairman of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).
Through the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the West denounced HH in July 2024 that his government is grossly dirty in human rights violations such as arbitrary arrests, police brutality, harassment of critics, prolonged detentions, malicious prosecution and extra judicial killings. All these rebukes from Washington and London clearly show that Joe Biden and the West have decided to red card their own puppet as he is no longer useful and does not promise a bright future for their interests.
Dr Chris ZUMANI Zimba is a Political Scientist, Researcher, Author & Consultant specialized in Comparative Global Governance and Democratic Theories. He holds a PhD, MA, BA and Cert in Political Science. Zimba was President Lungu’s Political Advisor from December 2019 to August 2021. By philosophical approach, Dr. Zimba is a Pan Africanist as well as Afro-Christian by religion.
Email: [email protected]