Whose Interests is Zambian Politics Serving?

Zambian politics has been interesting in the past three quarters of 2009 for mostly three reasons: (i) Zambian politicians are validating the old adage that “politics is a dirty game,” (ii) Church has been told it has no role in politics but only to praise-sing government, and (iii) politics does not truly serve Zambians who must be the custodians of politics. “It is so sad that more than 17 years of Zambia’s adoption to multi-party democracy, our politics and governance are still unstable and manifest immaturity to an extent of attempting to shut down all opposing views. This have been manifest in the recent NGO Act, banning of demonstrations over acquittals of prominent figures, criticism of Church’s valid concerns of lack of democracy and good governance in Zambia, and limiting freedom of the press,” states Dominic Liche, Governance Officer at the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR).When some civil society organisations raised strong moral voices against such “unnecessary” expenditures, they were dubbed enemies of Government. Has anyone tried to honestly calculate such “unnecessary expenditures and tried to see how many people such would serve in Zambia?” If so, where is the conscience of our leaders, most of whom are Christians? Are the interests of politicians (both in ruling party and opposition) really the people that vote them into power or simply their own? These are questions JCTR poses to our politicians in Zambia.