HARRY KALABA CANNOT BE FOR BOTH OPPOSITION UNITY AND FIELDING OWN CANDIDATES
Perhaps smarting from the current experience of disappointment in leaders who offered us too much hope, individuals now vying for Zambia’s top leadership must ready themselves for greater scrutiny.
There will be greater attention paid to the things they are saying, as they sell themselves to the electorate. These past four years have taught Zambians that promises of election time disappear and leave despondency gnawing at the soul of the nation. A leader, once elected can jettison his publicly stated commitments like soiled undergarments. So for now, we shall ask questions at the time they arise, not compile them for videos of ‘then and now’.
If Citizens First President Harry Kalaba was quoted correctly regarding the upcoming Lumezi by-elections, then his remarks have raised some questions which need quick answers.
Right at the top of the story written by Mubanga Mubanga, Mr Kalaba is quoted as saying his party will not support any opposition candidate in Lumezi but will field its own candidate.
President Kalaba and the Citizens First party are within their rights to do that. But to say, in the same breath that he will work with the opposition because Zambian citizens have sent out a “loud call” for a United opposition, raises questions.
How will he work with fellow opposition leaders who already publicly expressed a desire to field one agreed candidate in the Lumezi by-election? Is it that he expects to work with them only if they endorse the Citizens First candidate?
Is it that Mr Kalaba and his party believe it is more desirable for them to use this by-election to plant and build up their presence in Lumezi, than join a United effort to prevent the UPND to use this process to build a majority in parliament to ease passage of the bills they have already signaled, and which they see as the path to their long stay in power?
If indeed that is what Citizens First have decided to do, the most honourable thing is to state it categorically, rather than engage in doubles peak.
The second important message in that story President Kalaba saying he will work with opposition who are genuine. That is a double-edged sword. Are Mr Kalaba and Citizens First genuine opposition themselves?
The problem here is how should Citizens who are calling for opposition unity gauge who is genuine opposition? Is it not by their acts of supporting whatever is perceived as the larger cause for the opposition formation?
When Mr Kalaba and his party left the United Kwacha Alliance, the justification was that they wanted to grow their group, but did not state how membership of UKA was hindering such growth.
Being the opposition party which has benefited from having the most notifications for public rallies approved by the Zambia Police so far, they must by now know the direction they want to take. They should state it in forthright manner.
You cannot with the same mouth say you are working with other opposition parties, while insisting you will not go along with a candidate for united front.
Secondly, it is the people who are hearing what you are saying and watching what you are doing, who will judge whether Harry Kalaba and Citizens First are the genuine opposition.
Or are they also setting and marking their own exams and giving themselves the mark of 100% genuine?!
John 8:32 “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
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