UPND IS THE MOST VIOLENT PARTY: A Dive Into UPND’s Backwardness- Augustine Mukoka
By Augustine Mukoka
[LONG READ] UPND IS THE MOST VIOLENT PARTY: A Dive Into UPND’s Backwardness
There is often a claim by UPND supporters that Zambia cannot go “backwards” because we are now enjoying “peace.”
To them, the violence that has been experienced recently in almost all parts of the country is “peaceful.”
When you challenge them with facts, they quickly respond: “This cannot be compared to the PF”.
It leaves some of us wondering whether this PF they refer to is actually a political party or whether there is more to the PF than party politics.
This is because a lot of former PF party members are in the file and rank of the UPND. Miles Sampa, Robert Chabinga, Kampamba Mulenga, Michael Katambo, Steven Mushanga and many others are all former PF members who have been adopted to recontest their former seats or newly delimitated constituencies on the UPND ticket.
So what criteria does the UPND use to brand PF as a violent party in one breath, while accepting and rewarding its former members with hefty positions in another?
This behaviour is pure hypocrisy and casts doubts on critical minds like mine on whether PF was really as violent as the UPND alleges.
In 2021, there was a popular slogan called “watermelon” where people were urged to wear green outside and be red inside.
Maybe the watermelon formula could explain who the real instigators of violence could or may have been?
The UPND are champions when it comes to painting others black.
They have mastered the art of propaganda because they have seen a gap in our population when it comes to critical thinking and analysing issues.
Anyway, back to the subject of peace, the UPND have been boasting about “restoring peace and the rule of law.” “The PF were thugs who used to beat you at the stations for simply wearing red,” UPND members are always reminded by their party leaders.
But it this really true? Anyway, what is peace?
From my understanding, peace is not merely the absence of war. It is a state of mind, wellbeing and environment that supports freedoms of thought, association, expression etc, without fear of negative consequences.
Before you even step into communities just go online and see how UPND supporters insult, ridicule and demean people that sympathise with or support other political parties, would you call that peace?
In Zambia today, people who call out tribal practices are labelled as tribalist while those that actually practice tribalism are hailed as heroes.
When you interrogate these issues with facts, UPND supporters arrogantly respond with phrases such as “it is our time.” “Where were you when we were being sidelined?”
Supporters of the opposition are branded as “dull”, grade threes and so on and so forth.
Can the environment be said to be peaceful if people cannot even freely support the candidate of their choice because they will be labelled dull?
Since when did the UPND start determining people’s IQs to separate the dull from the intelligent?
The truth is that most UPND supporters online cannot have a sober conversation with someone holding divergent views. They often resort to tactics like insults and ridicule.
As a result, many people have chosen silence and opted not to participate in debates bordering on governance.
But that doesn’t mean their views are not valid.
They still hold them with conviction and will express them in the ballot next week.
Before signing out, let us remind each other of some incidents that have happened in the ‘peaceful’ UPND environment.
* The exhumation of Suzyo Nyika, a supposed associate of ECL whom government wanted to prove that he had died indeed;
* The attempt to remove the gate at ECLs Ibex residence by the police sometime back;
* The hurling of insults on ECL as he was going for his eligibility case in Lusaka;
* The denial of ECL to access medical treatment abroad until he had to sneak out when the UN rapporteur visited Zambia;
* Dragging ECLs widow to court on the day she was supposed to bury her husband in S. A abd turning around to accuse the family of wanting to use his body for politics;
* The reported post-mortem on ECLs body without his family’s knowledge or consent;
* Insults of surrogates like Chellla, Tayali and others directed at ECL’s family;
* The audio by the RTSA CEO promoting tribalism in staff recruitment yet he has not been adminished by anyone;
* Political deaths in Magoye, Kaputa and Lusaka which have not seen any strong condemnation by the regime, yet daily, people are reminded about PF violence;
* The labelling of presidential aspirant Brian Mundubile and his running mate as Pompwe’s without any supporting conviction by a competent court of law to justify such an assertion.
There are many more examples that can be cited.
Peace under UPND is an illusion. Only UPND supporters and their members believe there is peace.
There can never be peace in an environment of bullying, suppression and selective application of the law.
This election is about governance and democracy more that it is about the economy.
Even when they boast about economic progress, this can be rebuffed by the realities of people’s living experiences.