Criticize HH as president, not as a Tonga-Saviour Chishimba

IF WE MUST COMPARE ZAMBIA WITH SOUTH AFRICA, LET US TELL THE WHOLE STORY: CRITICISE THE PRESIDENT, BUT DO NOT ATTACK HIS TRIBE. There is a difference between attacking Hakainde Hichilema because he is President and attacking Hakainde Hichilema because he is Tonga. Zambia must stop pretending that the difference does not exist. I have […]

IF WE MUST COMPARE ZAMBIA WITH SOUTH AFRICA, LET US TELL THE WHOLE STORY: CRITICISE THE PRESIDENT, BUT DO NOT ATTACK HIS TRIBE.

There is a difference between attacking Hakainde Hichilema because he is President and attacking Hakainde Hichilema because he is Tonga. Zambia must stop pretending that the difference does not exist.

I have just read the comparison being made with South Africa, that South Africans can fiercely criticise President Cyril Ramaphosa, ridicule him, challenge him and disagree with his Government without simply being imprisoned for criticising the President. That principle of democratic freedom is important. Section 16 of the South African Constitution protects freedom of expression, but there is another half of the South African example that must not conveniently be omitted. The same Constitution expressly draws a line at advocacy of hatred based on race or ethnicity where it constitutes incitement to cause harm. Freedom to attack a President politically is not a licence to attack a people ethnically.

I have consistently argued that President Hichilema must be judged by the same standard by which we judged Presidents Kaunda, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, Banda, Sata and Lungu. Criticise his policies and government. That is democracy. No President should be above scrutiny, but when criticism changes from “Hichilema the President” to “Hichilema the Tonga,” we have crossed into something fundamentally different.

What I will never accept is criticism that degenerates into hatred of a people. We have seen this before. Before President Hichilema came to power, political rhetoric emerged about a Tonga becoming President. That history cannot simply be erased because Hakainde Hichilema eventually entered State House. Tribal prejudice does not cease to exist merely because its intended victim defeats it politically.

I feel particularly strongly about this because I am a Jew. I have personally experienced antisemitic abuse in Norway, USA, etc. I know what it means when somebody stops judging you as an individual and begins judging you as a people. History has taught Jews, at terrible cost, what can happen when societies normalise collective hatred. The moment we begin condemning individuals by ancestry rather than conduct, we are walking down a dangerous road.

That is why I will speak against tribal hatred whether its target is Tonga, Bemba, Lozi, Ngoni, Kaonde, Lunda, Luvale or any other community. Today it may be the Tonga. Tomorrow it may be the Bemba. The next day it may be the Lozi. Hatred never remains obediently confined to the tribe against which it was first unleashed.

So let us learn the full lesson from South Africa, not half of it. Protect fierce political criticism. Protect disagreement. Protect the citizen’s right to challenge the President, but confront ethnic hatred with equal firmness. Zambia is one Republic. No tribe owns State House. No tribe is born to govern, and no tribe is born to be governed. Attack the policy. Challenge the Government. Criticise the President, but leave his tribe out of it.

One Zambia 🇿🇲 One Nation 🇿🇲

Zambia FORWARD, TOGETHER in UNITY.

Saviour Chishimba
President
United Progressive People (UPP)
UPND Alliance Partner