Focus on splits in MMD over Chiluba's arrest

Splits have deepened within Zambia's ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) over the arrest of former president Frederick Chiluba, charged this week with more than 60 counts of theft and abuse of office. The divisions have adopted a worrying regional flavour, analysts said, potentially undermining the government of President Levy Mwanawasa and his reformist agenda. Legislators in support of Chiluba, mainly from his northern Luapula province, have threatened to resign en-masse from the MMD in order to force a leadership crisis. Relations have soured between Mwanawasa's supporters and those in Chiluba's camp since July last year when Mwanawasa, as part of an anti-corruption drive, asked parliament to lift Chiluba's immunity from prosecution. The Supreme Court ruled against Chiluba's appeal last week, clearing the way for his arrest on charges of "theft by a public servant". "I think these [internal fights] will greatly harm the MMD and the entire nation if not well handled," Fred Mutesa, an analyst from the University of Zambia's Department of Development Studies told IRIN. "Chiluba played populist politics with money, which he used to buy the rank and file, while the current regime plays the politics of distancing itself from the rank and file and does not flash money the way Chiluba did. Those that benefited from Chiluba will not give up without a fight, and while the fight goes on, economic and social programmes will suffer," Mutesa predicted. Following the Supreme Court's landmark verdict, MMD national party chairman Chitalu Sampa said a "dark page" had been opened in the party's history. "We are very sad about this development as members of the MMD, this will definitely create divisions in the party," he warned. A quick response was made by Vice-President Enoch Kavindele in a national radio and television address. "We have heard rumours that there are some members of parliament from Luapula province who want to resign from the MMD. I would like to warn them that even if they resign, they will not create a leadership crisis because President Mwanawasa was elected at a national level and not a regional one. The decision to lift former president Chiluba's immunity was a parliamentary one and should not be blamed on President Mwanawasa," Kavindele said. Even though some Luapula legislators have tried to distance themselves from the anti-Mwanawasa sentiment, generally MPs from the northern region have come out against the current leadership, alleging that they have been marginalised by Mwanawasa's administration. "I think the other downside to the MMD internal fight is that it is going to deepen the perceived ethnic divisions. This will result in people not looking at things rationally, but on tribal grounds. My suggestion is that President Mwanawasa should immediately look at ways of placating the northern Luapula faction," Mutesa suggested. Mwanawasa's position has been weakened by an opposition petition to the Supreme Court that alleges the December 2001 election was rigged. Damaging testimony has been heard from former senior party officials, some of whom have been hounded by the government's anti-corruption task force, acknowledging that votes were bought and the state machinery used to ensure Mwanawasa's victory by fewer than 34,000 votes out of a potential electorate of four million. Mwanawasa has said if state funds were used illegally, he was not aware of it. Chiluba, a 61-year-old lay preacher and former trade union movement leader, has said that he would be willing to testify against his successor. The seven-strong Supreme Court are likely to order a re-run of the election if they rule in favour of the opposition. But away from the party infighting, Chiluba's arrest has been welcomed by civil rights activists who campaigned against the lack of accountability during his 10-year rule, a period that has been dubbed the "decade of plunder", as ordinary Zambians sunk into even deeper poverty. "It sends an important message not only to Zambian leaders but to all African leaders that in a democracy nobody is above the law and that abuses will eventually lead to prosecution," said David Simpson, chairman of the Southern Africa Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes. Chiluba, who was released on bail on Monday after surrendering his passport, is due to appear in court on 3 March together with his former intelligence chief Xavier Chungu, currently in detention on similar charges of diversion of public funds. "It is a good precedent, which will teach Zambian leaders not to take the electorate for granted in the future," Reverend Nevers Mumba, who heads the opposition National Christian Coalition, told IRIN. "Politicians must know that Zambians hate to be cheated by their leaders. What has happened to Chiluba will happen to anyone who cheats Zambians." The leader of the International Federation of Free Trade Unions, Fackson Shamenda, said the precedent set that a former head of state can lose his immunity from prosecution would have far-reaching implications. "I am afraid this thing will catch up with those in power since they are products of the same plunder they are fighting," he told IRIN.