By Gershom Ndhlovu
A few weeks ago, on social network site Facebook, I sent the following message to MMD spokesperson Dora Siliya:
“The MMD has just finished holding a series of provincial conferences at which provincial executive committee members notably chairpersons who are also members of the national executive committee, have been elected.
“In most cases, competition for the position of chairperson was discouraged and most of the rivals stood down at the last minute after being spoken to by the acting MMD president, Rupiah Banda who is also head of state. The move by President to talk out some candidates brings to question the “democratic” credentials of the party which has democracy in its name.”
Siliya sent me the following response: “What is good about MMD is that we are able to have internal democracy through negotiations, compromise, elections and dialogue. At the end, the voice of the majority prevails. Even when one individual tries to believe it's about them the party works out to show them that it is about the ideals of MMD based on a development agenda. In Southern, Northern, Copperbelt and Central there were more than one candidate.”
It is quite shocking that barely a few weeks later, MMD chairman for elections Mike Mulongoti should be dismissed as minister of works and supply and has his nomination as MP withdrawn for trying to stand up for democracy in the MMD. However, Mulongoti may not receive a lot of sympathy because he himself was quite abrasive to people like former defence minister George Mpombo who had been airing their views about democracy within the party.
Mulongoti should have defended the same principles he is defending now that he is gunning for the vacant position of party vice presidency, the post for which President Banda is supporting his Republican Vice President George Kunda. A lot of candidates at provincial congresses were pressurised to stand down and allow those that President Banda desired to work with. It is these people that Mulongoti should have spoken for before he ended up tying himself in knots, setting him at cross purposes with President Banda whom he says he, together with the late Benny Tetamashimba, brought into the party
Whatever the case, Mulongoti raises valid questions about democracy, or more appropriately the lack of it, in the MMD. If President Banda wants to choose the people he wants to work with in the MMD, then there is no point in holding provincial congresses and the national convention at which members are supposed to elect their representatives in the party.
Looking at the MMD now, it is a very different institution from the party that held its first convention at the beginning of 1991 which whose elections were truly and genuinely democratic. Those that have followed subsequently have degenerated into a handpicking circus.
In 2001, up to 22 senior MMD members were barred from attending the convention and challenging for the positions of their choice including that of president, which incidentally then President Frederick Chiluba was still interested in despite serving the constitutionally allowed two terms.
The 2005 convention did not equally go well as the then President, Levy Mwanawasa, froze the elections for the position of vice president apparently because he did not like some of the people that were likely to win the poll. In his words, he alleged that some candidates wanted to buy the position through bribery. The position has been vacant since then and the irony of it is that it is the same position that has burnt Mulongoti’s fingers.
May be the drama unfolding now just goes to show that the run up to the 2011 elections and what goes with campaigning is upon the nation and more drama is in store and as I say “watch this (political) space.”
Showing posts with label Mike Mulongoti. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike Mulongoti. Show all posts
Saturday, 19 February 2011
Saturday, 1 January 2011
IS DEMOCRACY IN THE MMD REGENERATING WITH MULONGOTI AND CHITI’S VOICES?
By Gershom Ndhlovu
It is now very difficult to follow pronouncements coming from the MMD regarding elections to the National Executive Committee at the forthcoming convention. Some NEC members, provincial executive members of various regions and low-level district and constituency officials have at various times stated “their” positions on which positions are to be contested, which ones are preserved for which candidates and, indeed, those that would be contested by a sole candidate.
Notably, the positions of president and vice president have generated a lot of interest. A number of MMD members at all levels have stated, obviously against the party’s constitution, that President Rupiah Banda who is acting party president would not be challenged at the convention while some cadres have indicated their support for Republican Vice President George Kunda for the position of party vice president.
So far, only Nason Msoni has indicated that he would challenge Rupiah Banda but whether his challenge would have an impact or not, is another matter. It is, however, the position of vice president that has attracted a number of candidates including the last elected MMD vice president Enoch Kavindele who has openly declared his interest.
Others who have been mentioned include Mike Mulongoti who is the current chairman for elections and Captain Austin Chewe who contested the same position at the last convention but it was frozen following allegations of serious vote buying among candidates. The MMD has never had a vice president since.
But what has prompted Mulongoti to come out with the statement that all ruling party positions will be open for contest at the convention? First and foremost, this statement should have been made much earlier when junior officials started talking about the Banda’s sole candidacy because these statements sent wrong signals to political observers and MMD sympathisers. Secondly, it appears that Mulongoti was forced to make the statement--not that it is unwelcome--when the George Kunda lobby started gaining ground.
Another very sober statement was that of MMD legal affairs committee chairman, Bwalya Chiti, who said all MMD positions including the presidency have always been contested. Again, Chiti should have clarified just after the low level cadres started calling for Rupiah’s sole candidacy.
“If you look at every election of the MMD, there has always been contestation of all the positions, the presidency included. That is the MMD, okay! So why should you fear? I think people who fear are fearing their own shadows, or it is a creation by candidates who may want to ensure that some people do not participate by creating that fear,” Chiti said.
This is exactly what happened prior to the 2001 convention when all the provincial councils, except Lusaka led then by Dr Boniface Kawimbe, supported the then Republican and MMD president Frederick Chiluba to not only go for the third term as Republican president but for the same as party president. Unfortunately, the party constitution was even amended to allow for it.
It was the Republican constitution that not only proved difficult, but it also undid all the man had stood for in terms of democracy and his other achievements. The person who succeeded him for both positions, Levy Mwanawasa, now late, even removed his presidential immunity and for the next seven who was to frequent courts of law like a common citizen on allegations of plunder of national resources.
I wonder why some people want to liken the MMD to other parties that have not had conventions or have been led by single leaders since their inception. The MMD to a generation that fought Kaunda’s one party rule is as important as UNIP is to those who fought against the colonialists. It would be good if it held aloft the standards and ideals that its founders and interim leaders such as Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika, Mbita Chitala, Arthur Wina, Humphrey Mulemba and even Chiluba set out with.
If the MMD was to easily morph into what UNIP had been before it, where no one was allowed to challenge President Kaunda, Zambians could have as well allowed UNIP and Kaunda to continue in power. But the irony here is that President Rupiah Banda comes from the UNIP background, a party whose membership he has never officially denounced. With him, is another UNIP stalwart William Banda who only joined the ruling MMD less than six years ago.
Perhaps with more and more sober and wiser voices of people who know the MMD constitution start rising up in the party, people who have been put off by undemocratic tendencies supported even by some of the most educated people within, will start cheering it once again.
It is now very difficult to follow pronouncements coming from the MMD regarding elections to the National Executive Committee at the forthcoming convention. Some NEC members, provincial executive members of various regions and low-level district and constituency officials have at various times stated “their” positions on which positions are to be contested, which ones are preserved for which candidates and, indeed, those that would be contested by a sole candidate.
Notably, the positions of president and vice president have generated a lot of interest. A number of MMD members at all levels have stated, obviously against the party’s constitution, that President Rupiah Banda who is acting party president would not be challenged at the convention while some cadres have indicated their support for Republican Vice President George Kunda for the position of party vice president.
So far, only Nason Msoni has indicated that he would challenge Rupiah Banda but whether his challenge would have an impact or not, is another matter. It is, however, the position of vice president that has attracted a number of candidates including the last elected MMD vice president Enoch Kavindele who has openly declared his interest.
Others who have been mentioned include Mike Mulongoti who is the current chairman for elections and Captain Austin Chewe who contested the same position at the last convention but it was frozen following allegations of serious vote buying among candidates. The MMD has never had a vice president since.
But what has prompted Mulongoti to come out with the statement that all ruling party positions will be open for contest at the convention? First and foremost, this statement should have been made much earlier when junior officials started talking about the Banda’s sole candidacy because these statements sent wrong signals to political observers and MMD sympathisers. Secondly, it appears that Mulongoti was forced to make the statement--not that it is unwelcome--when the George Kunda lobby started gaining ground.
Another very sober statement was that of MMD legal affairs committee chairman, Bwalya Chiti, who said all MMD positions including the presidency have always been contested. Again, Chiti should have clarified just after the low level cadres started calling for Rupiah’s sole candidacy.
“If you look at every election of the MMD, there has always been contestation of all the positions, the presidency included. That is the MMD, okay! So why should you fear? I think people who fear are fearing their own shadows, or it is a creation by candidates who may want to ensure that some people do not participate by creating that fear,” Chiti said.
This is exactly what happened prior to the 2001 convention when all the provincial councils, except Lusaka led then by Dr Boniface Kawimbe, supported the then Republican and MMD president Frederick Chiluba to not only go for the third term as Republican president but for the same as party president. Unfortunately, the party constitution was even amended to allow for it.
It was the Republican constitution that not only proved difficult, but it also undid all the man had stood for in terms of democracy and his other achievements. The person who succeeded him for both positions, Levy Mwanawasa, now late, even removed his presidential immunity and for the next seven who was to frequent courts of law like a common citizen on allegations of plunder of national resources.
I wonder why some people want to liken the MMD to other parties that have not had conventions or have been led by single leaders since their inception. The MMD to a generation that fought Kaunda’s one party rule is as important as UNIP is to those who fought against the colonialists. It would be good if it held aloft the standards and ideals that its founders and interim leaders such as Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika, Mbita Chitala, Arthur Wina, Humphrey Mulemba and even Chiluba set out with.
If the MMD was to easily morph into what UNIP had been before it, where no one was allowed to challenge President Kaunda, Zambians could have as well allowed UNIP and Kaunda to continue in power. But the irony here is that President Rupiah Banda comes from the UNIP background, a party whose membership he has never officially denounced. With him, is another UNIP stalwart William Banda who only joined the ruling MMD less than six years ago.
Perhaps with more and more sober and wiser voices of people who know the MMD constitution start rising up in the party, people who have been put off by undemocratic tendencies supported even by some of the most educated people within, will start cheering it once again.
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