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Zambian democracy is in peril. There are many forces both visible and invisible, overt and covert, internal and external, conscious and unconscious that are imperiling Zambian democracy which we fought so hard for to birth prior to the 1991, culminating in the multiparty dispensation victory by the people in the 1991 elections.

Prior to those elections, there was a one-party dictatorship which saw many independent minded and opposition leaders detained without charge or trial, jailed, compromised or refused to run for elections held under the dictatorship and some fled into exile. We are not going back to that period except over our dead bodies. Only those who did not live under that dictatorship would want to go back.

There are many books written under that period, two of mine included: 1. Thoughts Are Free: Prison Experience and Reflections on Law and Politics in General (1991), and 2. Class Struggles in Zambia, 1889-1989 and the Fall of Kenneth Kaunda, 1989-1991(1992). Our reaction therefore is not theoretical or merely an academic exercise to show ones intellectual prowess.

This article will name a few entities that are a danger to democracy in Zambia, pointing out with evidence why we think the behaviour or writings of these entities pose a danger to democracy in Zambia. And behind any entity we name are living and breathing individuals that are responsible for this. Everything that is anathema to democracy in Zambia is propelled by human beings, named or unnamed.

We will start with the public media which is taxpayer-funded and is supposed to promote democracy as constitutionalised in Zambia and as expected of an institution of public trust. The Sunday Times of Zambias editorial comment of March 22, 2020 is one of the greatest threats to Zambian democracy in a long time. I hypothesise that there was corroboration in writing of that editorial with a scholar based in England. We will start with that scholar although I have no proof that there was collaboration. It is my opinion. It is difficult to distinguish that editorial from the writer of the lengthy article in the same paper by Dr. Katiba Mbinga, a lecturer in the History Department, University of London.

The article on page 10 is entitled, Bill 10 and the UPNDs Hidden Agenda. Dr Mbinga laments the following after indicating that the opposition and pseudo intellectuals and arm chair critics who have been roundly opposed to Bill 10, an innocent documentwithout elaborating its salient points, concludes: I am afraid if this is multiparty we fought for in 1991, and then reverting to the one party government is better. Bill 10, an innocent document? Of course, a document is simply a piece of paper. But innocent? The Bible is innocent but look at the carnage it had wrought throughout history.

Dr Mbinga is advocating for a return to a one-party state dictatorship. His quarrel is that the opposition and the pseudo intellectuals and arm chair critics have not given any concern to the depth and complexities of Bill 10 or are not offering any credible explanations to their opposition to this Bill and in the entire article he laments how the allied entities are not credible alternatives and their aim is to criticise everything the government does or proposes.

Unfortunately, Dr Mbinga offers absolutely no evidence or analyses as to what the opposition, pseudo intellectuals and arm chair critics have given in opposition to Bill 10 and Zambian economics and politics in general. He does not seem to have read the numerous court documents, editorials, writings of lawyers like Professor Muna Ndulo, Michelo Hansungule, etc, practising lawyers like John Sangwa SC, Elias Munshya and others about Bill 10.

He has not read the contributions by many opposition parties in the forum provided by the News Diggers newspaper and The Mast newspaper. He does not seem to be aware that the very newspaper that gave him the platform to write his article, the Times of Zambia, does not give the opposition the platform to publish their critique and visions of governorship as it does to the government.

This goes the same for the Zambia Daily Mail and Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC). He is not aware that the government killed the main independent newspaper, the dynamic The Post newspaper; that the government has recently closed an independent TV station without following procedure.

Dr Mbinga does not seem to be aware of the dangers to democracy posed by Bill 10 because he does neither summarise his so-called salient points, nor the breadth and tenor of the criticisms offered in opposition to this Bill. One wonders who is a pseudo intellectual and arm chair critic here. He has behaved in the same vein as the opposition and pseudo intellectuals and arm chair critics that he criticises in his support for one-party state dictatorship. He is a danger to multiparty democracy which we fought so hard for.

The Sunday Times editorial regurgitates precisely the arguments of Dr Mbinga when it states that the oppositions alleged offer of bribery to Independent MPs to oppose Bill 10 causes it to come to the conclusion that: We should revisit the whole essence of plural politics and the problems it has caused in Zambia in polarising the citizenry along tribal and regional lines.

Like Dr Mbinga, the Times does not supply any evidence of its claims that opposition to Bill 10 has caused degeneration in the dispensation of democracy and whether it is this opposition that has brought into play any tribal and regional politics. The Times has not supplied any evidence that the opposition tried to bribe any Independent MPs in the Bill 10 saga. The Times has not looked at itself whether it has fully covered the reasons the opposition and others have given in opposition to Bill 10.

The Times must have access to court filings and all written articles and documents that oppose Bill 10, but the newspaper has not taken time to summarise these arguments like it has for the government side in promoting Bill 10. Did I miss a concerted summary of the documents including extended arguments offered in court or any published interview that the Times must have had with those vehemently opposed to Bill 10? The Times simply wants the country to consider going back to one party state dictatorship like Dr Mbinga does. The paper knows as well that the Zambia Daily Mail and ZNBC have behaved exactly the same as the Times in not giving the opposition the forum to participate in informing the public as to why they are opposed to Bill 10 and the alternative vision for the country.

Behind the Times, the Daily Mail, ZNBC are real living breathing human beings propagating the system Zambians rejected in 1991 and all of Africa rejected in that same decade. All to save the demise of this government with the help of Bill 10. This Bill 10 is a danger to democracy in Zambia. These allied entities are a danger to multiparty democracy. The individuals behind them are a danger to democracy in Zambia.

The Times is totally oblivious to some of the reasons why the opposition and others go to alternative means of participating in democracy. It is precisely because the Times, The Daily Mail and ZNBC are hostile to covering credible and well-reasoned platforms of the opposition that the latter seek out alternative platforms.

It is so hypocritical when the Times states with a straight face that: By pushing their complaints onto the streets as much as in the courts, opposition leaders are disrupting peace and blackmailing governments to have things their way. Dont you want to laugh or cry when you read such? Hello Times of Zambia, we are in a democracy.

We won our independence by going onto the streets and to the hostile courts. We did the same after one party state dictatorship was imposed in 1993. We did the same under Frederick Chiluba, Levy Mwanawasa, Rupiah Banda, Micahel Sata and Edgar Lungu. This is the stuff from which democracy emanates. They are doing the same in all democracies otherwise democracy dies. In Zambia you The Times dont provide an alternative platform so that the opposition does not resort to the streets or courts or social media. Even going to the streets is curtailed by the Public Order Act. Are you aware of that Mr or Mrs Times of Zambia?

Like Dr Mbinga, the Times concludes the editorial, In Zambia, there is need to take claims of opposition leaders having evidence against malpractices by those in power with a hefty pinch of salt. Yes, the courts are already doing that by throwing out cases on technicalities or rephrasing issues that are not before them or butchering constitutional law by imposing interpretations that dont fit or ignoring clearly laid down transitional provisions or constitutional articles. You, The Times dont even publish what these claims are and that some of the claims are published by government agencies like the Auditor General and the Financial Intelligence Centre. When these agencies report the truth, they are discredited by the government and their personnel removed or moved around.

One of the visionary leaders within the government was lawyer Kelvin Bwalya Fube KBF. The Times has, unless I missed it, not summarised his excellent two volume set, Zambia Must Prosper: Actualising Zambias Prayer For Prosperity (2018) and Zambia Must Prosper II: The Blueprint For Zambias Rapid Economic Transformation(2019). These books would offer a dynamic workable vision for the PF.

But examine where KBF is and how he has been removed from the party that he helped win the 2015 elections, if they won at all, and look at where some of the people Zambians let go in 2011 are: enjoying themselves after Satas death. Those people were removed because they were a danger to democracy, they still are. Those people who brought them in, are a danger to democracy in Zambia.

The Times newspaper brings in tribalism as if it is a creature of the opposition. Lawyer Elias Munshya has publicly declared that the government is basically a Northern and Eastern alliance government. Look at the majority of the Cabinet, Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Army and Police personnel, directors and managers of public agencies, Tribunals, Cabinet Office, Courts, Ambassadors and all conceivable appointments this government has made and judge for yourself who is consciously and silently promoting tribalism and indignities against the victims of being left out of appointments or being declared fired in the Public Interest.

And this tribalism heightened under the current PF regime, starting with President Sata. And it is all documented by looking at the contents of newspaper reports on these appointments and by reading excellent books including my compilation, The Case Against Tribalism in Zambia(2016); Charles Mwewa, King Cobra Servant King Has Struck: My Letter to President Michael C. Sata(2012); Charles Mwewa, Allergic to Corruption: The Legacy of President Michael Sata of Zambia(2019); Chisanga Puta-Chekwe, Cobra in the Boat: Michael Satas Zambia. These books dont only talk about the subject matter, they talk further about political and economic failings of the PF government and how to improve the potentialities. The Mast, Diggers, intellectuals, authors, civil society and many other entities have pointed out the phenomenon of tribalism in Zambia under this regime as well as the political and economic failings and the way forward. The Times, the Daily Mail, ZNBC do not venture into these their uncharted territories but want to turn the tables against those who are doing things in good faith. We refuse. We know who the enemies of democracy are and we know the people behind the veil. They are as transparent as a clear October sunny day. They are hiding under Bill 10 and the Times and Dr Mbinga dont even seem to know it. But Zambians know it. Dont push them too far.

The author teaches Law of Evidence; Criminal Law; and Research Methodologies and Writing in Law. The views in this article are solely his. Send comments to: forthedefence@yahoo.ca

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Naming the real dangers to democracy in Zambia - themastonline.com