Hichilema is building a Police State
VIEWS FROM ROME
THE brazen coercion and punitive method exhibited by the Zambia Police Service last Friday when opposition leaders, members of the civil society, and private citizens converged outside the Lusaka Magistrate Court to stage a peaceful protest against tyranny, abuse of authority and corruption under the UPND regime, validate the claims that instead of addressing the numerous grievances being raised, Hakainde Hichilema has unleashed the police to quash public outrage.
Beginning with the blocking of Socialist Party youths, who had notified the police about their planned peaceful protest against the theft of medicines donated by the United States (US) and other cooperating partners, to the abrupt disruption and forcibly confiscation of placards from opposition leaders and activists that were addressing the media at court last week, the pattern is clear. Hichilema’s regime has resolved to curtail political and civil liberties.
This dark episode that is unfolding before our eyes, marked by blatant state intimidation, brutality and violent suppression of critics through regime policing, makes very sad reading and leaves an enormous cavity on our country’s democratic credentials, which have been well anchored in the highest respect for the rule of law, democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms.
To have a national police service that is totally sold out to the ruling elite and playing a prominent role in the theater of political chaos like a party militia, is something I never imagined I could witness in my lifetime. To have a mediocre national police service that is evidently hijacked and operating as an appendage of the ruling elite to use against its own people, is something I cannot in all honesty fathom. To have a national police service that has unswervingly mirrored the rogue character of the regime in-charge, is the lowest this country has ever sunk since the reintroduction of multiparty politics in the early 1990s.
Of course, historically, the Zambia Police Service has been an instrument of political control, whereby successive governments and ruling parties have abused it to advance their political interests rather than for public good. But there has never been a regime that has unashamedly entrenched a pattern of impunity and abused its power through the creation of an oppressive structure within the national police service to reign terror, intimidate and brutalize critics, and private citizens than the UPND. The operative formation of a two-tier police structure anchored on total subjugation of critics and protection of the ruling elite and their supporters is an unthinkable breach of public trust and confidence.
It is no longer in doubt that the executive arm of government and the national police service are at the center of the vicious abuse and policing misconduct we are witnessing in the country. The truth is, we have a rogue regime that has boldly shaped and institutionalized rogue policing in this country, which is now a menace to the same society it is supposed to protect. We have a rogue national police service that is symbolic of brutality and enforcing an agenda of the ruling elite, courtesy of Hichilema and UPND. What a disgrace!
This cycle of repression that is on display is deliberate and well calculated. In fact, it is a response by the regime to the public outrage they are currently faced with. They promised heaven on earth, remember? Then when the public prompt them over the rising cost of electricity, fertilizer, food, mealie meal, unstable fuel prices, load shedding, cyber laws, unemployment, shrinking democratic and civic space, and selective justice among other hardships, the regime’s quickest response is to summon the police to unleash unprecedented arbitrary arrests, detentions, intimidation, and application of lethal crowd-control techniques.
We have seen how all this is being done with impunity and total contempt for court orders and judgments. The regime has dug in to ensure that they are in total control of both the cyber space and the democratic and civic space, with the national police service being at the heart of this barbaric stance. The biggest problem is that the national police service has not only been theoretically assigned to serve all citizens but it is also being ran by the least competent and most compromised and attention-seeking high command that is obsessed with over impressing the appointing authority. This is the worst national police service command in history and it has caused severe damage to the service. The Zambia Police Service will never be the same!
With this amount of rot and filth in the national police service, how do we proceed from here?
I have noticed how many pro-regime or UPND zealots have been celebrating and defending the injustice being inflicted on the opposition leaders and private citizens by the regime’s police. I have seen how the pain and misery of fellow citizens has become a joyous occasion, appropriate for merriment and the popping of champagne for the UPND fanatics.
Well, we shall excuse their excitement and ignorance because such inhumane behavioral patterns can only spring from a bunch of bigots that are blind to the penalties of their conduct. To find comfort and pleasure in a repressive system that benefits you whilst hurting and harming your fellow citizens is the highest form of emotional dysfunctionality. What these UPND zealots, who are celebrating and defending the injustices being meted on the regime’s critics can’t see is that biases or inequalities tolerated, and celebrated simply because it favors or benefits them, ultimately, lead to social degeneration, misery and suffering for all, including those who once celebrated and benefitted from it. Nobody is spared the consequences. Similarly, with the passage of time, standpoints change, what was once celebrated, comforting and beneficial becomes something to be ashamed of. Regrettably, at this stage, a destruction of self-respect, justice and humanity would have already happened.
In short, such moments of madness, injustice and brutality never last or benefit anyone for long, because sooner or later everyone on both sides of the aisle becomes a victim. Tyrannical regimes have a tendency to devour their own at the slightest disagreement so nobody is actually safe in such systems.
With these troubling signs of regime policing, which is entrenched in a pattern of impunity, it is incumbent upon the opposition political parties, civil society and citizens in general, to launch a unified demand for fundamental freedoms and human dignity. There is an urgent need to demand for accountability from the national police service and the executive. The culture of impunity and blatant defiance by the police is an assault on the country’s democracy and constitutional order. The right to protest, freedom of expression and assembly as guaranteed in the constitution must be recognized and respected. The dignity of citizens must be restored.
The citizens must also realize that rights and freedoms are never given, they are struggled for. They cannot keep quiet and stay in fear when the people they gave the mandate to govern want to destroy their future. All these excessive and unfair anti-people policies this regime is attempting to justify must be lawfully challenged. You don’t keep quiet and resign in fear when the people at the helm whom you voted for are destroying you and the country. Stop living in fear and legitimately resist such attempts because the government is not God and therefore, must not be feared. Those ruling us today, are human like us, with plenty faults like all of us. So, they must not be allowed to treat us like lesser humans. Let’s speak truth to power and reject this oppressive society the UPND is trying to create. This country existed before them and it shall continue to exist after them as well.
For Hichilema and the UPND, what country do they think they are building when everyone is living in fear, hunger and anger? What country are they building when there is open bias in the entire governance structure; people that join the UPND are never probed by law enforcement agencies. Any person that is an ally of the regime, no matter the crimes, are either protected or cleared from prosecution. The regime cannot remain defensive and unaccountable in the face of such wanton injustice, abuses and double standards. Its time Hichilema and the UPND guaranteed that the national police service and other law enforcement agencies would discharge their mandate responsibly without undue political influence and biases, and also assure total compliance with the law and safeguard human rights and freedoms.
In conclusion, let the citizens stay resilient and fixated in resisting the culture of regime policing and increasing entrenchment of a police state. This country was never established to be one where people’s freedoms, especially to move, assemble and to express political opinions, were to be controlled by the government, with the help of the police. Zambia was destined to be a free country and shall remain so beyond Hichilema!
Author: Albrecht Chinyama is a Zambian based in Rome, Italy.
