Katele Kalumba
Dr Katele Kalumba a Minister and National Secretary under the MMD administration has advised UPND president Hakainde Hichilema to concede defeat.
Commenting on the decision by Hichilema to challenge the reelection of Edgar Lungu in the court of law, Dr Kalumba says Hichilema or HH as he is popularly known should learn from Michael Sata.
HH with Katele addressing a rally in Chienge
Dr Kalumba who campaigned for Hichilema in the 2015 Presidential election said this in a statement below:
There are times when “No” really means just that. You cannot stretch a loin cloth to cover your exposure beyond its size. There are things that cannot be “One Size” fits all.
The nature of democratic politics is that it is strategic. It requires four principle elements. These are:
-Power strategies,
-Position strategies,
-Player strategies; and
-Perception strategies.
There are details in these elements that any political leader and his team of campaigners cannot ignore or be ignorant of. If it is the case that your Party in an election is incompetent to apprehend these strategic issues, it is game over.
The greatest measure of any politician is not how he celebrates victory but rather how he accepts and concedes defeat.
ECL has won this election; matter of fact. It is not a question of law but of how he prepared for his political strategies.
Edgar is entitled to celebrate his victory. The question is, in a democratic society like ours, have losers learnt how to accept defeat?
*In 2008, the late Michael Chilufya Sata (MHSRIP) set the standard of accepting defeat.*
Having complained to ECZ he realized, the game was over. He did not go on a legal hunt for imaginary electoral incidences, but simply prepared to fight another day.
How I pray young politicians could learn a lesson or two from Sata the Great. For some of us whose political careers were mentored by him (Sata), we know this.
Dr. Peter Machungwa and I, on whom he unleashed his greatest venom as his Deputy Ministers, for me at Health and for Machungwa at Labor, we learnt how to take a public punch the Cobra could unleash through the Post Newspaper and live to learn another day.
Guy Scott lived through this too. I just wonder whether he cannot say to his principal (HH), that the game is over. Seven provinces have now become Edgars strongholds against the three commanded by brother HH. This scenario is very important and should not be ignored in self introspecting the preferred leader for the majority of Zambians.
Sata taught me that in politics, it is not how clever you are, but how best you can read what is going on. May the whistle be heard. If you have not heard it, then there really is something wrong with you. Pray not.
I am a disciple of reasonableness. Incidentally, for those who flourish in the pigstye of insulting me whenever I express my opinion, I just have the words of Paul in 2 Corinth 12:5-11. Peace and God bless.
