MUNKOMBWE PHILOSOPHY - POLITICS OF BENEFITS AND DEFECTIONS
“WE all go into government to eat,” were the words of the late Daniel Munkombwe as quoted by some daily tabloids on the of April 4, 2013.
Mr Munkombwe’s words came scarcely a day after he was appointed Southern Province Minister by late President Michael Sata. He was 81 years old at the time.
The late veteran politician even bragged to the media that he continued to serve in all governments because he was rated as an “old useful man.”
And when asked if politics of benefits were at play following his appointment in government, he responded - “There is nobody who is not using my philosophy of politics of benefits. “There is nobody who goes into parliament naked, we go to parliament because of allowances. There is no more patriotism.
“Patriotism was only there when we were fighting colonialism, so everybody is adopting my philosophy of politics of benefits. I know people will say Munkombwe has gone into government because he wants to eat but who does not want to eat?”
Bizarre and queer as Mr Munkombwe’s words may sound but one can’t take away the honesty from them because what he said is exactly what a majority of our politicians do - they are in politics to eat.
Politics of the belly are the reason why we have career politicians today who have served in various governments because they jump from one ruling party to another in search of greener pastures.
Most of our politicians don’t believe in political party ideologies whatsoever - niba muselela kwa (they go with the wind) kaba and they lack principles.
Our politicians are indeed using Mr Munkombe’s political philosophy of politics of benefits and defections and election time is their prime defection time.
For example, if they are in opposition during election time, they defect to the ruling party with the hope of being amongst the ruling elite should the ruling party bounce back into power.
And when the ruling party they defected to loses power, they migrate back to their former party which happens to be in power - “prodigal sons” - without showing any sense of shame or self reproach.
There is no loyalty in our politics anymore and it’s hard to find ideologists these days because our politicians no longer believe in them. We only have megalomaniacs as politicians who think to serve the people and their country they have to belong to the ruling party.
Today, we have a lot of politicians both in government and opposition who have adopted Mr Munkombwe’s political philosophy and have opted to use the semantics of “working with the government of the day” to justify their lack of loyalty and belief to their political party and its ideologies.
As we get closer to the 2026 general elections there shall be mass defections of some opposition MPs to the ruling party because they believe that’s where the dining table is.
Mr Munkombwe’s political philosophy is partly to blame for why the country is not where it is supposed to be 58 years after gaining its independence because we have politicians who consider politics as the main source of their livelihood.
They go into politics to eat and not to serve. It is about what they will get and not what they will give.
We have had penniless individuals get into the circles of political power and within a short time they became oligarchs and I am afraid this is becoming a norm.
Among soccer fans there is a popular vernacular banter phrase “chinja team ukolewe,” translation change the team you support so that you can enjoy some beverages or simply put - join the winning team.
I think in our politics this phrase applies perfectly - join the ruling party and enjoy some privileges.
Our Country is getting poorer and poorer whilst politicians are getting richer and richer after every other election because it is the same politicians jumping from one ruling party to another.
There is a need to eradicate politics of the belly if country is to develop because there is no way it can develop if we have politicians with wild and weird reasons for ascending to public offices.