UPND branded PF thieves, but embracing its members - Fr Mwango

 By NATION REPORTER

A ZAMBIAN Catholic priest based in Rome has challenged the UPND’s repeated assertion that the Patriotic Front (PF) should never return to power, stating that the ruling party’s acceptance of former PF members exposes a contradiction in its political messaging.

Reverend Father Martin Mwango said while political competition often encourages parties to adopt strong positions against their opponents, democracy demands consistency and respect for the electorate’s right to choose who governs them.

Fr Mwango questioned why the ruling party continued to portray the PF as unfit for office while simultaneously welcoming former PF members into its ranks.

“Banished during the day, embraced during the night. The point is, if they must never return, why invite them to the table?” Fr Mwango said.

He said politics was seldom guided purely by moral considerations because the pursuit and retention of power often led political actors into positions that struggled to withstand ordinary tests of logic and consistency.

“One such position is the increasingly popular claim, as made by the UPND, that the former ruling party, the Patriotic Front, should never be allowed to return to power,” he said.

Fr Mwango said the argument becomes difficult to sustain when individuals who once formed part of the PF were later embraced by the same people who insist the former ruling party should remain permanently excluded from governance.

“How does one argue that a political party is unfit to govern forever while simultaneously welcoming its members into one’s own ranks?” he asked.

He said political parties are not merely symbols, colours or organisational structures but collections of people who collectively define their character and direction.

“A political party is not a building. It is not a logo. It is not a colour. It is a collection of human beings. If those human beings are considered acceptable enough to be embraced, appointed, consulted and celebrated once they switch allegiance, then the argument that the entire party should remain permanently banished begins to lose its moral compass,” Fr Mwango said.

Fr Mwango  said democracy was never intended to permanently exile political parties but rather to empower citizens to evaluate and judge them through elections.

“The electorate reserves the right to punish, forgive, reward or reject political formations through the ballot box,” he said.

Fr Mwango observed that throughout history many political parties across the world had lost power, reorganised themselves and later returned to government, while others had faded away altogether depending on the will of the people.

Ends.