Tag: humility

Zambia needs a new type of politics

Zambia needs a new type of politics Featured

Over the next eleven weeks, you will hear, from my opponents or competitors, how our country is flourishing, how happy we all are, how we trusted our government, and what bright perspective are unfolding before us.

I didn’t accept to be the presidential candidate of the Socialist Party so that I, too, would lie to you. Our country is not flourishing. Zambia is 123rd in the overall Prosperity Index rankings. Since 2010, Zambia has moved down the rankings table by 12 places.

A country once proud of its educational standards now spends so little on education that it ranks so low in the world. Our country which used to rank so low on the corruption index today is among the world’s most corrupt nations.

Today we live in a highly contaminated moral environment. We have lost our values, principles, standards and common aims. We learned to ignore each other, to care only for ourselves. In Zambia today love, friendship, compassion, equity, justice, solidarity, fairness and humility have lost their depth and dimensions.

When I talk about the contaminated moral atmosphere, I am speaking about all of us. We have all become used to a corrupt and intolerant system and accepted it as an unalterable fact of life, and thus we help to perpetuate it. None of us is just its victim; we are all its co-creators.

We urgently need a new type of politics based on morality, principles, values, standards and common aims. We need to teach ourselves and others that politics should be an expression of the desire to contribute to the happiness of the community rather than of a need to cheat or rape the community. Let us teach ourselves and others that politics can be not only the art of the possible, especially if “the possible” includes the art of speculation, calculation, intrigue, secret deals, and pragmatic maneuvering, but that it can also be the art of the possible, that is, the art of improving ourselves and the country.

We have a duty to struggle for a more just, fair and humane society. We should dream of such a Republic.

Fred M’membe
President of the Socialist Party

Zambia now divided into two, the haves and have-nots – Dr Mwikisa

Zambia now divided into two, the haves and have-nots – Dr Mwikisa


SOCIALIST Party second vice-president Dr Chris Ngenda Mwikisa has regretted that Zambia is now evidently divided into the haves and the have-nots.
Dr Mwikisa is a member of the Socialist Party politburo and the central committee, as well as the general treasurer of the party.
On Monday, October 12, 2020, he unveiled names of aspiring parliamentary candidates in three provinces – Western, Eastern and Lusaka.
The names of those adopted are Chiteo Singongi (Kalabo), Matakala (Nkeyema), Sitali Likubangu (Sikongo), Preston Chinyama (Nalolo), Ntazana Musukuma (Chawama), John Zulu (Kasenengwa), Martin Phiri (Mkaika) and Kenani Kalala (Chipangali).
Dr Mwikisa said the aforementioned comrades were selected in their communities/constituencies to stand as members of parliament.
“Those adopted clearly understands the values, principles of socialism and the Socialist Party. We are driven by solidarity, humility, equity,” Dr Mwikisa said.
He added that it was common knowledge to all everyone now that Zambia was one of the poorest countries.
“Today we have one Zambia but two nations; a nation of the well-off and a nation of the poor. That is what the Socialist Party is trying to change, to ensure [that] there is equity,”
“These comrades will work hard to ensure that there is equity in their constituencies.”
He also indicated that it was not right for a country like Zambia, with abundant water bodies, to have so many people with no access to water for drinking and other domestic uses.
The adopted candidates assured of their commitment to the socialist cause, and that they would complement Socialist Party president Dr Fred M’membe and the party’s structures, as a way of effecting positive development.

By Socialist Party reporter

Easter reflections from the Socialist Party

Easter reflections from the Socialist Party

From Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday, Christians will reflect on the death and resurrection of Christ.
It’s a story that transformed the world we live in.
Some of the character traits we value so highly today have their origins in what is said to have happened in those few days in Jerusalem.
The big one is humility. The fact that we today value humility and we think about leadership as service to those under your power – we trace that back entirely to Jesus.
This all stems from the central message of Easter and of Christianity itself: God became a man and allowed himself to be killed to redeem humanity.
This was revolutionary when you compare it to the prevailing ideas about power and leadership at the time.
We have to think differently about hierarchy, privilege, power, service, leadership, and all those things.
Before Christianity, there was no real sense that humility was a virtue. Although the Ancient Greeks had a sense of hubris – excessive pride that would be punished by the gods – there was still a firm emphasis on achievement, power and status as the ways to determine someone’s moral worth.
In the ancient world, humility was indistinguishable from humiliation. It would be horrifying that someone with power would come down to the level of someone below them.
If our god could submit to death and even a shameful death like – crucifixion – we have to think differently about hierarchy, privilege, power, service, leadership and all those things.
Over these days priests at local parishes all the way up to the Pope himself will try to recreate these lessons. They will humble themselves by washing the feet of members of their congregation.
You see someone like the Pope doing that – power voluntarily lowering itself – and there’s something really compelling about that still.
Reflections on humility, service and leadership today seem appropriate.
Easter is time for some deep thinking about what it means to lead.
Jesus up-ended hierarchies but he also up-ended conflict. Instead of responding to violence and hostility in kind, he counselled his followers to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile and to love their enemies.
Although this seems counterintuitive and incredibly difficult to do, there is evidence to suggest it’s effective.
We are increasingly hostile in dealing with disagreement.
Jesus really offers a model of nonviolence.
We don’t want to make a traditional Easter statement or sermon, however.
There are meaningful messages in the narrative about Jesus being reborn after dying that can be useful for anyone, regardless of their religious or non religious beliefs. If we would simply look at Easter’s messages of rebirth and death, we would all be able to make significant strides toward immense self-improvement. Although human beings are not able to physically die and return to life again here on Earth, we need to experience many metaphorical deaths and rebirths. There are many areas in our lives where we have things that we need to bury and experience
Christ-like rebirth of those things in our lives. By Christ-like rebirth, we mean doing away with things that are not productive in our lives and replacing those things with things that are going to promote eternal growth in our lives.
Thinking about rebirth and death can be quite unsettling for many of us. Many of us don’t want to even consider thinking about death. Although thinking about our literal deaths can be vexing psychic exercises, many of us will find metaphorical deaths to be just as difficult to contemplate as literal deaths.
When we have to think about giving up some of the habits that we cannot break that are destroying us, this can be very unnerving. We need to realise when we have some habits that need to be buried and replaced with some more productive habits.
On this Easter, it is necessary for us to think about the need to experience many metaphorical deaths and metaphorical rebirths in our lives. This juxtaposition of rebirth and death can make us better human beings who live much more fulfilling and productive lives. Let’s learn how to die so that we might have a chance to be reborn!

Issued by Fred M’membe on behalf of the Politburo of the Socialist Party