[stop-imf] Zambia: We Need Freedom to Choose Our Policies

[robert weissman]

We Need Freedom to Choose Our Policies

The Post (Lusaka)
EDITORIAL
May 6, 2005
Posted to the web May 6, 2005
Lusaka

FROM his statements, it is clear that World Bank country director for
Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe Hart Schafer is contradicting himself.

While on one hand he claims that the World Bank has listened to the
concerns of governments and other stakeholders to become more flexible,
on the other hand he is talking about the need for Zambia to improve its
macroeconomic policies if the country has to receive more funding.

While he says the World Bank has started listening to demands on the
need to be flexible, Schafer is clear in his statement that depending on
Zambia's continued adherence to good macroeconomic policies, the World
Bank could get to a level of availing up to 50 per cent of disbursed
funds as grants.

He says following the attainment of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries
(HIPC) completion point, the World Bank would for the mean time be
disbursing up to US$80 million of loans for development projects
annually but that the amount could increase to US$100 million provided
there was good economic performance.

It is clear that there are still some conditions attached to all the
assistance that Zambia gets from these multilateral institutions.

And this is why we still believe that the World Bank's, and its sister
organisation the International Monetary Fund's interests are not
genuinely aimed at improving the lives of Zambians.

It is because of this reality that we share the bitter impotence our
political leaders find themselves in when dealing with these neo-liberal
institutions. Going by the conditions that are continuously being lumped
on Zambia, it is clear that it's actually not our politicians who are
running the country but the IMF and the World Bank. And these
institutions are doing so without taking any responsibility for the
failures of their policies and programmes - all these failures are
blamed on our political leaders whose hands are always tied, rendering
them totally impotent.

Zambia is being run by its creditors, creditors who have never even run
the smallest of towns in the world. Imagine if all companies and
businesses were run by banks, what chaos there would be! We say this
because bankers may know something about banking but they certainly know
very little about agriculture and industry. The IMF seems to know
everything yet they have no success story anywhere in the world.

In the last decade, the IMF and the World Bank used to sing about their
success story in Ghana. Now they don't even talk about it because it is
a mitigating disaster for all to see. What about their glorious songs of
praise showered on Uganda? Today Uganda has nothing to show.

Let these institutions play the role they were created to play other
than being used as tools for the West's domination. Zambia is too weak
and too undermined as a nation to take on the powerful World Bank and
the IMF on its own. Our country is certainly also too blackmailed to
resist the continued imposition of this evil hegemony.

Clearly therefore, there is no alternative but to increase the level of
unity among nations that are subjected to the IMF and World Bank's
exploitative policies and wage a common battle for liberation. There is
no need for the government to pretend that these policies are their own
when they are imposed on them by external forces.

We know that our political leaders are not so unpatriotic to the level
of implementing current policies that do not mean well for the Zambian
people. We know the difficulties that they have to bear and we feel for
them.

We know it is a bitter pill to swallow and they are left helpless and
powerless but to implement these retrogressive policies. But we urge
them to open up and tell the people the truth. Tell the people that they
are not as sovereign as they have always claimed.

They should explain to the people that our country is nothing but a
colony of the IMF and the World Bank who are currently in control.

We urge our leaders to tell the truth about the evil policies being
imposed on our country. We say this because throughout history, there is
no problem that has been solved until it has become tangible for all to
see. Let's educate our people about the World Bank and the IMF's
colonialisation.

It is only through this path that we will be able to equip our people
adequately to fight all necessary battles present and for the future.
This is the only way we will be able to make our own choices in terms of
the policies that can work for our situation.