MMD founding member Prince Akashambatwa Mbikusita Lewanika says the dialogue process cannot be succeed if those who are part of the problem also want to be the solution.

And Prince Aka says the two MMD camps which are there are only fighting to eat from the same plate.

In an interview, Aka who is a former presidential advisor for political affairs said the dialogue process could not work of those who were part of the problem wanted to be part of the solution.

“The problem is that all the people trying to solve the problem are part of the problem. How this [dialogue] process has been handled confirms that all the people who are trying to be part of the solution are part of the problem. So if there is to be solution, it has to be initiated by those who are not part of the problem. So all the people who are coming forward to try to solve the problem are part of the problem. And there is no hope that those who are part of the problem can produce a solution,” he said.

“And there can never be a genuine dialogue with the participation of the unwilling and the participation of those who are not open minded and ready for a genuine win-win outcome in a process that demands that put should put in more effort into listening to what others are concerned about and less into what they themselves are concerned about as a start. Right now people are very concerned about themselves, they are concerns in their interests and their preferred outcomes.”

Aka noted that the dialogue process was laced with grudges.

“They are concerned into wina azalila and a dialogue which is concerned on wina azalila (someone will cry) cannot go anywhere. And my other concern is that there is nobody who really wants to dig up where all these problems arise from. Without a full knowledge of history, we cannot save the future. And the other thing is that we must focus less on who to blame and more on what to learn.”

And Aka said not everybody who calls themselves MMD espouse the original values, principles and programmes of the party.

“You see there is MMD which is just a name, just like UNIP which is just a name but MMD is a value system, it is a set of principles or programmes. It doesn’t mean that everybody who calls himself MMD are talking about its values and principles. They may be just talking about a name. So the MMD [which] I founded was not just a political party [but] it was values, principles and programmes for democracy and development. And that programme is a nationalist programme which means that you don’t have to be an MMD party member to take up that programme, it was a gift to all Zambians and a gift to all Africans as an example. Those who founded the African national Congress gave a gift to the future to be used or to be abused [but] mostly it has been abused; those who founded UNIP also gave a gift to the future to be used or abused [and] it has mostly been abused; and those of us who founded the MMD gave a gift to the future to be used or abused, it has mostly been abused. And that is actually the problem that needs to be resolved,” Lewanika said.

“That is why it is a pity if those trying to solve the problems of Zambia do not take a hard look at history. Those [two MMDs] are just…you see I put more importance to political parties as such, I am speaking about values, principles and programmes. Even the Bible says ‘not all those who say Lord, Lord are christians’ but a genuine MMD may not even be a member of the MMD just like a genuine freedom fighter may not be a member of UNIP. So political parties are sometimes just vehicles for being elected to power but that is just one of their least important functions. In fact the difficulty is between people fighting to eat from the same plate, so there is a lot of fight which is simply about food rather than values principles and programmes,’ he said.