In every political Movement or Party, the presence of one or more opportunists lurking around to take advantage for personal gain is always alive. Opportunists join Movements or Parties for different reasons. In certain cases, an opportunist might join a Party with very good intentions but as the Party begins to make strides and the opportunist begins to notice political advantages which could be exploited to advance flexible or fixed personal agendas, the opportunist begins to adjust his or her strategy to fit into the prevailing system. It is much easier to deal with an established opportunist whose methods are well known than one who uses camouflage to further hidden political agendas.
A camouflaged opportunist is more dangerous because he/she could penetrate into the leadership of a Party before exposing his/ her opportunism and by then, it might be too late. It is easier to handle an opportunist who doesn’t follow the rules than one who is well aware of the rules and uses them to his or her advantage. In a political Party, an opportunist who follows the rules could gather a lot of support from the membership and even constitute “alternative leadership” by influencing the membership through political sophistry. On the other hand, an opportunist who breaks the rules to try and archive his/her objectives quickly loses the confidence of the membership whose support is key to winning any war against political opportunism.
Opportunists operate at different levels of sophistication. There is the opportunist who could disagree with bits of a Party program then use these disagreements to attract attention within the Party in order to discredit the leadership or disrupt the Party. Then, there is the opportunist who could use a Party Constitution to remind both the membership and the leadership that they are on the wrong terrain and that the Party needs to change cause. In this case, the opportunist might try to assume the role of a “Prophet” in the Party or Movement.
Better still, there is the attention-seeking opportunist who exploits Party policy or decisions by the Party leadership to try and emerge as the “voice of reason” within the Party leadership. Still, there is the opportunist who seeks to build a personal profile by pretending to raise “contentious issues” in a Party using issues that have no bearing on the major objectives of the Party and which could easily be resolved through internal discussions. These are just a few examples of the general demeanor of a political opportunist.
In any political Party, there is no time when there will be a shortage of “points of disagreements” on Party program, Party Constitution, policy, strategy, tactics or methods of struggle. Anybody who wants to disrupt the leadership, create confusion among the membership, foster may hem or even quit the Party could take advantage of any perceived “weak point” within the Party to launch an assault which could be devastating depending on how the Party leadership handles the situation.
In fighting an opportunist, it is important that the general “morphology of opportunism” at play be clearly mapped out and properly understood. Once this has been done, the next step is to evaluate the level of influence or support that the opportunist(s) command within the Party or Movement. At this stage, it could also be crucial that the leadership (or think tank) isolate the fundamental polemics the opportunist wing is employing to gain political mileage in the situation.
You can be sure that you can never defeat an opportunist through a blanket condemnation or an organized process of demonization because there are certain instances when the opportunists could be right. An opportunist could utilize legitimate gaps within the Party to gain advantage. Take note!
NEVER SUSPEND OR EXPEL AN OPPORTUNIST FROM THE PARTY
Opportunists know how to create conflicts and how to make the leadership to “sweat”. Any conflict created by an opportunist needs to be dissected to facilitate a proper and thorough response at the political level. If an opportunist raises political issues, do not respond by avoiding the issues. The Party leadership has to be ready for “The battle of the minds” within the membership and this is never won through mud-slinging, character assassination and witch hunting.
If the opportunist is violating the Constitution in the process of the “propaganda war”, point this out clearly. Bring to surface the Constitutional violations and explain every aspect of the violation so as to expose the dirty methods of the opportunist.
Secondly, get into an analysis of the issues the opportunist is raising and here, try to out-reason the opportunist through well-thought out political arguments that will have an impact on the consciousness of the membership.
An inexperienced opportunist might get so emotional that he or she might begin to attack the Party leadership “below the belt”. Do not respond in a similar fashion because in doing so, the membership will not notice the difference between the opportunists and the leadership. Try to stick to the main political issues, the evidence and the dirty agenda of the opportunists. You could warn the opportunist that you have a list of dirt about their character but be cautious in using this weapon.
As the war of words continues between the leadership and the opportunists, try to focus on the membership as a possible solution to the crisis. If the Party has an intelligent membership, this membership will be able to separate the sheep from the goats during the conflict. Do not underrate the intelligence of the membership by opting for undemocratic ways of struggle against the opportunists.
If the leadership can sort out the issue through a member’s meeting, call such a meeting. If the war is such that there are elements of a power struggle (and this is the last option), call an election of a new Office. This tactic is routinely used by governments in times of crisis through “snap elections” or other related devices. This option works best if more than one opportunist in the leadership is part of the problem or if a faction has built up to oppose the leadership using opportunistic criticism.
Any leadership which is democratic and believes that it has the support of the membership should not fear challenging the opportunists to an election duel especially if the root of the conflict is based on internal power struggle. At such a meeting, key issues being raised by the opportunists could be put before the membership for a decision.
A honest leadership should be ready to stand aside if it is defeated in a democratic election. Very few opportunists will accept to participate in an election in which they are sure to lose because of the element of shame. Use this weapon.
There are opportunists who are well aware that they can never win a war they have started because of circumstances. In such situations, the opportunists will try to disrupt the Party from within with a “Plan B” of setting up their own out-fit as a splinter group or joining another political bandwagon. This type of opportunists are easy to deal with because they are normally faced out with an election.
One warning. Never try to suspend or expel an opportunist from the Party because then, you will be creating a hero out of nothing. Let the opportunist quit the Party voluntarily or if this cannot happen, a democratic Constitution should provide for a way out when it comes to wayward members. Let members decide on the fate of an opportunist trying to disrupt a Party.
Among Wakenya, every serious political Party needs to understand the politics of opportunism and how to fight opportunists. The crisis of political parties in our country today is a direct consequence of political opportunism. The risk of political opportunism is even more greater in situations where a Party has no political ideology to work with. This is the case with ODM-KS.
Okoth Osewe
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