What Should Change ?

Recently there has been some talk amongst the Zambian politicians, who are in the opposition, that the country is ready for change.

No one has really qualified what this change is all about.

Those belonging to the ruling party perceive this as a call to remove them from running Government.

Government never changes. What changes is the political party that has control over the running of the State machinery. After every general election a particular political party would have the mandate to run Government for a given period of time.

It is more like who is charge of the streering wheel of a vehicle that belongs to a family. Any member of the family can drive the vehicle, as long as they have a valid driving licence.

How the vehicle moves along the highway is determined by the competence of the particular member of the family.

The State machinery never changes in spite of which political party is in charge of running it.

When people talk of change they mean changing of a political party in charge of running the Government machinery.

We have had several changes of political systems since Independence in 1964.

Soon after independence, we had a multiparty system of Government which was a copy from our former colonial masters.

Later on, we changed to a one party "participatory" democracy, which was in fact, a dictatorship.

In 1991 multiparty democracy was reintroduced in the country.

The reintroduction of multiparty system saw a proliferation of many political parties, which at one time totaled over three dozen! Is this really democracy ?

By critical analysis of the behaviour of our politicians, one can see a general pattern in the attributes of individuals who belong to these parties.

The country has the following types of politicians, irrespective of which party they belong to :-

1) Political Monkeys - These are non principled individuals who jump from one political party to another. This type of politician is closely related to the one that follows.

2) Political Prostitutes - These are individuals who do not care about how our natural resources are utilized for national development, as long as a few thousand dollars are in their personal bank accounts.

3) Professional Politicians - These are individuals who make a living from politics. Some have done it for more than three decades. They have no interest of the country at heart. Some of them would like their own family members to take over from them as if they belong to royality!

4) Political Dreamers - These are individuals who come up with dossiers of economic development plans which never bear any fruits. They have very good development plans which are only pipedreams or not practical to implement.

5) Political Agitators - These are individuals who think political power should be via intimidation of the electrorate. They are ready to fight those that are not of their own party in order to remain in power.

The list can go on and on.

What is at stake is not which political party is in charge of running the Government machinery , but the type of politicians we have in our midst.

A lot of our politicians have one or more of the attributes mentioned above.

Is it not time for us to have a different approach to politics?