DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in the following article are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of Daily Revelation
The war in Ukraine referred to by the Russians as a special military operation has helped many people of the world to realize that no nation despite having the advanced technology and capital resource can be an island.
You do not need to be an economist to appreciate that nations in the 21st century owe their existence to one another.
Russia despite being a military might is grappling with economic isolation imposed by the West and it goes without saying that it must be troubling to the government in Moscow.
Regional groupings are on the increase because every nation has come to terms, she can do so much when united with others. The United States, the most powerful nation of the world both economically and militarily traverse the world seeking allies even with smaller nations because it acknowledges the strength of unity.
Zambia, with its advantage of being a land linked nation can exploit this position economically because as alluded to above she cannot do without the help of others especially powerful nations.
This takes leadership with a vision to identify the comparative advantages the nation can exploit.
Successive Presidents through their successive governments in Zambia based on their political philosophies and ideologies have chosen to orient Zambia at each particular time with nations with similar Philosophies.
Zambia under the first founding President, Dr. Kenneth David Kaunda was socialist oriented where he went out to establish the Humanism philosophy.
Under the Frederick Titus Mpundu Chiluba, Zambia crossed and became capitalist oriented promoting free market economy.
The Country has been oscillating between these two philosophies and no wonder that in each of these epochs, Zambia became either Western oriented or Eastern oriented though intelligently Zambia played a non-aligned approach to international demands.
Under the FTJ, the country even changed title of calling ‘’His Excellence’’ referring to the President which is assumed to be socialist oriented to ‘’Mr. President’’, as being capitalist oriented.
Never any time during the reign of these Presidents did any politician both in opposition and government called them puppets when they seemed to have been acting of either being Western or Eastern oriented.
President Hakainde’s party does not shy away to refer to themselves as being liberal and it is no surprise that they will prefer to seek many allies from the West.
It is harsh to refer to the President as a puppet because he has chosen allies from the west. To the contrary, being an ally of the West does not mean that a leader is a puppet. Puppet is a derogatory terminology which refers to a person being under the control of another.
Puppet is used when a person’s actions are controlled by a more powerful person or government, even if they appear to be independent.
In international law and relations, the principle of sovereignty is a powerful legal principle shaping relations of nations with each other. Sovereignty means the ability of an independent state or country to govern itself through elected leaders.
However, sovereignty has come under scrutiny recently when it comes to Human rights.
The key tension between human rights and state sovereignty is the absolute nature of human rights, particularly as laid out in the UN Universal Declaration of Human rights (1948).
Article 30 of this binding document states that the previous articles are ‘not to inference’ of ratifying states. This therefore interferes with state sovereignty, more specifically internal state sovereignty, due to it overriding the power and not being subject to the jurisdiction of the governing body. The absolute nature of human rights reflects modern tension with the concept of state sovereignty. However, despite this key tension, the absolute nature of sovereignty cannot be varied.
Over the years, many African countries have depended on the Western donors and some Eastern donors to fund national budgets. Funds have come with many strings attached to a receiving government.
In recent years, especially the post-cold war, the western donor funding has come with demand for African governments to practice good governance. Others have pushed for certain rights such as LGBTQ among others. Others purely to seek solidarity on certain international decisions.
For example, the Zambian government in the last few years reported that the biggest sources of her health expenditure accounting to about 80% of the total health expenditure was from the government and donors.
Politicians should help the young generation appreciate good leadership by themselves posturing as such.
Choice of words to refer to one another is a mark of leadership itself. Certain words cannot be used on others more so the President of the Republic of Zambia.
It is derogatory to refer to fellow leaders as puppet!
Francisco Mumba
Author is a Peace and Conflict Expert
Specialized in Human Rights Governance.
0975561968
