POLITICAL DIVERSITY
AS the election day draws near, politicians and their supporters must adopt a more moderate approach in dealing with their nemesis to truly live up to the motto “One Zambia One Nation.”
With about five weeks before the polls, the political temperature is slowly going up and it is for this reason that politicians must appreciate the “unity in diversity” concept which invariably entails coexistence in spite of varied political inclinations.
Lately, there have been accusations and counter-accusations between the opposition and the Patriotic Front (PF) on many sticky issues including tribalism and regionalism.
Each one of them is accusing the other of engaging in hate-speech and divisive politics.
The best way to placate this problem is for all political players to stick to sober and civilised discourse, whereby each and every politician discusses pertinent issues and not petty issues such as who is a tribalist and who is not.
Politicians ought to prioritise discussing plausible innovations and projects that will pull the country out of such economic and social malaise.
It will be ideal for politicians to focus their arguments on the best ways of turning Zambia from being an import intensive to that of export-oriented country.
Secondly, politicians must argue intelligently how Zambia can move away from exporting primary goods to processed products to enhance value-addition.
A politician worth their salt ought to realise that this country requires to urgently upscale critical sectors such as manufacturing, tourism, agriculture, energy, construction and mining.
In particular, politicians must convince citizens that they have what it takes to accelerate economic diversification from mining to agriculture, manufacturing and other critical sectors.
They should explain, in practical terms, how inflation which has ballooned to 23.6 percent can be brought down and how production can be boosted in the priority sectors.
The exchange rate is at K22 to $1 and this is certainly not pleasant, hence politicians must not only tell the people that they will ensure the local currency appreciates, but they must demonstrate how they will do it. It is not the “what” but the “how” which is important! The petroleum sub-sector is yet another area that requires a proper plan of action, such as how they will guarantee a steady flow of fuel for the country.
Zambia’s social order has been adversely affected, with crime levels rising while youths have adopted strange and uncouth lifestyles such as reckless alcohol drinking, substance abuse and generally misconduct of the worst order.
There is certainly urgent need to address such issues. Unfortunately, all these pertinent points have escaped the mind of many politicians, who mostly concentrate on irrelevant issues.
Little do they know that the people are getting fed-up with trivial political outbursts that have no relevance on the lives.
In some of them, political maturity is clearly missing, and one wonders why they are even in the political arena .
For once, politicians must be sober, accommodative and tolerant to divergent views for this country to attain the much-needed “unity in diversity” which should irrevocably remain in the hearts of all Zambians.
PURSUING JUSTICE AND EQUITY WITH INTERGRITY