By Osward Bwali
LAURA Miti has a long history in Zambian politics, even longer than that of Hakainde Hichilema. The internet says of her: “Laura Miti has been associated with civil society in Zambian … society for more than 25 years working in various roles and initiatives to strengthen governance systems. Refusing to be cowed by the attacks that female activists routinely receive, she has used first mainstream media, and more recently social media to publicly ask the accountability questions that the larger public whisper in private.” Although she probably wrote this about herself, to me, it is true, until now.
I have known Laura for at least 20 years through her writings. I have not met her in person to acquaint myself directly without the filtered persona I get of her from her media engagements. When she writes that she previously engaged through mainstream media, what jumps to my mind is a column she ran in The Post newspaper, the precursor to The Mast.
Miti has been an all-whether government critic. Chiluba, Mwanawasa, Sata, and Lungu were all at the receiving end of her abrasive criticism. Her firebrand approach against any government reflects well on her as a mentee of the late activist whom she refers to as “great Lucy Sichone”. I remember, as a young man, looking forward to her column. Her masterly of English and bravery were beyond reproach. Along the way, she has garnered many admirers, not just me. This is because she has mostly, until after the election of Hichilema, stood with the people by asking “the accountability questions that the larger public whisper in private.”
But since the ascension of Hichilema to power, she has become like the one whom the gods want to destroy – they first make mad. She has become the definition of flip-flop and inconsistency. Today, she’s indulging in crass sycophancy, tomorrow she’s usurped the government chief spokesperson, the next day she’s mildly attacking the government, usually with a sting in the tail for the Patriotic Front (PF) or the opposition.
Miti’s attack on the opposition is the new norm while attacking the so-called New Dawn government is the exception. She treats her old followers to an occasional accountability check but her new lovers are now the UPND praise singers for whom she has bestowed herself as the choirmaster. She serenades them. They hung on and parrot her every word. In the absence of proper intellectual leadership in the party, they will settle for any pseudo-intellectualism that fills the gap, forming an ill-fated symbiosis.
How do we explain Miti’s double-standards, her ambivalence, her vacillation, and her departure from the consistency she has shown across four presidents prior to Hichilema? I say four presidents because Miti hardly criticised Rupiah Banda. For some reason, she supported Banda big time and reserved her harshest criticism during the Banda years for Sata even when he was in opposition. Ethnicity explains the behaviour of most of her fellow praise singers or UPND defenders, like her colleague at the Human Rights Commission, Mweelwa Muleya. I am aware that one of Miti’s biological parents, her mother, is Tonga. Could it be that her sycophantic support for Hichilema is somewhat explained by her ethnic identity, her being partly Tonga? Could this be the reason why she hardly criticised Mazoka even before Hichilema succeeded the UPND founding president? Otherwise, how does one explain her zealot support for successive UPND presidents?
Kennedy Kamba has another explanation. Accusing Miti of being a UPND stooge, Kamba wondered, “Have you ever heard Ms. Miti saying anything good about anything that [the PF] Government has done? Have you ever heard her condemning the UPND for anything? This is what makes her operations as a leader of the CSO questionable.” With hindsight, Kamba made a rather wise observation. It is easy to see now. This is because, we are accustomed to activists attacking the government.
So, we thought it was not Miti’s style to direct her missiles at the opposition. Now that her stance has totally changed with her firing nonstop missiles at the opposition, isn’t Kamba vindicated? She seems torn between double alter egos. The activist and the job seeker or mushanina bwali. This explains to some extent her apparent hypocrisy in praise of the UPND and condemnation of the opposition, a U-turn from the Miti we know or thought we knew. This is an epic self-inflicted entanglement from wanting to eat with both hands. She wants to maintain activist credentials while playing the role of a sycophantic supporter of Hichilema.
When one is compromised, it is almost impossible to think or talk clearly. Since her entanglement, Miti blurts out incoherent gibberish, half-truths, and sheer falsehoods. Here are a few cases.
In trying to substantiate her claims that The Post was poisonous and unethical, she said during a Diamond TV interview, “It was The Post that started the tribalism that we ended up with. It wasn’t the politicians. So, The Post became very anti-Tonga.” Such a strong statement goes completely without any support. Tribal politics in Zambia pre-date The Post by far. The schisms and cleavages we see now along ethnic lines are by and large a continuation from pre- and post- independence party and interparty politics.
Shortly after independence, the likes of Simon Kapwepwe and Chanda Chimba complained about marginalisation of Bembas in Kenneth Kaunda’s UNIP government. How did The Post cause this? Let’s go to the claimed anti-Tonga project of The Post. When did this start? Did The Post incite Tongas to call the UPND cintu cesu? Did The Post cause Tonga politicians such as Syacheye Madyenkuku and Rex Natala to publicly declare that “Only a Tonga must succeed Mazoka” after the death of the UPND founding leader in May 2006? Or did the newspaper incite Ackson Sejani to declare that only a southerner should replace Mazoka? How can The Post be blamed for covering the views of Tonga politicians who stated that only one of their own must succeed Mazoka? And did The Post determine the huge ethnic vote from Southern Province that the UPND received since its formation?
Historian Giacomo Macola reports that Harry Nkumbula’s ANC wantonly engaged in ethnic politics. In a book titled One Zambia Many Histories, Macola wrote that “At the local level, the mobilization of regionalist [Bantu Botatwe] feelings passed through the expression of open hostility towards the Bemba and Bemba-speaking peoples with whom the formation of ZANC/UNIP was closely associated.” The ANC leadership used scare tactics that the lazy, and poor Bemba thieves were coming to steal their land, cattle, and women.
Probably as a result, the ANC would score between 90% and 100% in Southern Province constituencies during elections against UNIP prior to the imposition of the one-party state in 1972. Where was The Post? Where was Fred M’membe? I am not talking about Bemba tribalism not because it did not or does not exist. My point is simply that in pointing out tribalism in the “New ANC”, The Post did not cause it. The rhetoric has not changed. Hichilema and other senior Tonga UPND leaders constantly make references to Bemba “cliques” that eat from government; thieving monkeys; suffering from poverty of the mind. In saying The Post caused tribalism, Miti was dangerously insincere or ignorant, as usual, pontificating cockiness in matters she may be poorly informed. She was also trying to present or paint a picture of Fred M’membe, now a political opponent of her dearest Hichilema, as a bad person who hates Tongas.
Then, in trying to show Hichilema that she could be the ideal Minister of Information, Miti went totally berserk on Emmanuel Mwamba’s podcast. Of course, the praise team think she did a fantastic job. But it was pathetic. Miti does not see any politician around as economically astute as Hichilema. On Mwamba’s podcast, Miti said many things that defy logic, things aimed at presenting Hichilema as the best president ever. Things like: ‘Money was leaking during the PF’. The state of the economy is better than it could have been under the PF.
People were getting rich overnight. We have free education, student allowances, employed teachers. The PF love to say how cheap things were when they left government. If HH had taken over from RB, this country would be paradise. The good thing about this president is that he does not come across as needing more money. Apart from Mwanawasa, every other president has had to build a house from presidential earnings.’
Basically, Miti was churning out UPND chorus and making it pass as thoughtful independent analysis. The interview lacked coherence, and strong claims went poorly supported where any semblance of support was advanced. Let me just very quickly address three claims.
The first is about Hichilema’s house and wealth. Assuming he was as rich as Miti believes, what makes her think that he cannot steal, engage in shady deals, or make policies to advance his personal financial interest? Did all the other presidents really have no house? What of those who may legitimately think after all Hichilema built his house from fraudulent conduct during privatisation? What makes her go out of her way to canonise this president?
The second claim is about the economy being better than it would have been under PF. This is her pure fantasy. Many reasonable people think Hichilema is economically at sea, recklessly splashing CDF money.
The third is that Hichilema is a consummate corporate manager who just appointed incompetent people. Isn’t someone who appoints incompetent people himself incompetent? How does a supposedly competent person appoint or maintains incompetent officials? Let me just say that Miti will come back to eat her own words when she finds out her faith in Hichilema was naïve and infantile.
When Miti is providing checks and balances, she’s good. When she wants to eat with both hands, she entraps herself in inconsistences that make her look like a clown in cheap costume. Her credibility has tumbled. But even if she cannot regain it completely, making amends now would at least help salvage her currently dented name. After all, it is how we end that matters.
