Maravi

Sata apologises for his injustice

Sata apologises for his injustice
By Amos Malupenga
Monday February 19, 2007 [02:00]

Sata with former prime minister of Taiwan Yu Shyikun in that country recently. Shyikun is now secretary general and acting chairman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. He is also aspiring presidential candidate. Patriotic Front president Michael Sata has apologised for the role he played in the injustice infflicted on Post editor Fred M’membe, the late Bright Mwape and Lucy Sichone when they were imprisoned by Parliament for contempt.

And Sata said it would not be possible for any political party to successfully petition the election of a Republican president in the absence of a democratic Republican constitution for checks and balances.

Reacting to The Post editorial comment of February 14, which condemned him for threatening to expel Lusaka Mayor Susan Nakazwe for welcoming Chinese President Hu Jintao contrary to his instructions, Sata claimed that the comment was misleading and designed to reinforce the failed MMD strategy of painting him negative and dangerous and irrelevant to today's politics.

Recounting The Post's historical existence, Sata said the newspaper started as an explorer in 1990 when it was dismissed by UNIP and other media organisations that it would not last. He said initially, The Post was not as bold as it was meant to be until M'membe took over the editorial management and since then The Post had collided several times with the government in its quest to practice journalism with boldness.

Sata said one of its earliest collisions was when The Post launched a scathing attack on Parliament when the Standing Orders Committee of Parliament expelled Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika.

"On a point of order raised on the floor of the House, the Standing Orders Committee sat and unfortunately, I happened to be a member of the committee which in ignorance decided to send some members of the editorial staff including Fred M'membe and the late Lucy Sichone to prison for contempt of Parliament," Sata said.

"It is, however, only recently that I realised the folly of the committee whose members including myself were swimming in ignorance and assumed power of the Standing Orders Committee. I therefore sincerely apologise for my role in that injustice. It took a bold and courageous High Court judge in the name of Kabazo Chanda to get The Post editorial staff out of prison. In his ruling, judge Chanda observed that Parliament could have dual roles of legislature and adjudicating over any matters concerning it."

Sata observed that it was this bold decision that paved way for judge Chanda's exit from the judiciary as authorities started looking for an excuse or opportunity to squeeze him out of the system because they were unhappy with his decision. He said when in 1997 judge Chanda released about 50 accused persons for languishing in prison for seven years without being taken to court, the authorities appointed a tribunal to probe judge Chanda with a view to dismissing him but he resigned before the tribunal could sit. Sata said when this was happening, he was a Cabinet minister but he did not realise the implications of judge Chanda's forced resignation. "It was not until my 40 days imprisonment on trumped up charges that I realised how the system had victimised judge Chanda," Sata said.

He said several imprisonments did not deter The Post from practicing bold journalism because it was not long ago that M'membe was arrested for criminal libel against President Levy Mwanawasa. Sata said it was from this background that he felt that The Post gave a false image of itself when it criticised him in that editorial comment because he found the editorial to be against the tradition of the newspaper. Sata said contrary to The Post's assertion that Zambia was a constitutional multi-party democracy, the assessment of leading scholars and political scientists was that Zambia is a pseudo democracy.

He said he took great exception to what he referred to as attempts by The Post to falsify facts because this could benefit the opportunistic political ambitions and MMD's unprincipled efforts aimed at bolstering President Mwanawasa's "autocratic rule". Sata said it was President Mwanawasa's government that has been frustrating Zambians' ambitions to create a new democratic and prosperous society especially with the government's failure to enact a new democratic constitution for Zambia. Sata said the same President Mwanawasa had been engaging in political corruption by poaching opposition members of parliament and councillors.

"Although these activities are a negation of efforts aimed at creating a semblance of a democratic society by opposition political parties, in the absence of a democratic constitution, The Post editorial staff have chosen to bury their heads in the sand and pretend these activities on the part of those who rule our country by hook or crook should be tolerated in the name of a loyal opposition," Sata said.

"I cannot help but wonder what kind of democratic tenets The Post editorial staff subscribe to...I therefore challenge The Post editorial team to state any progressive achievement the Mwanawasa regime has brought about which the Patriotic Front and Michael Sata in particular have unfairly criticised or undermined."

Sata said PF had tried its best under the hostile political environment because being in opposition in Zambia is equated to being an enemy of the state. He said the legitimate opposition role would always remain undefined in the absence of a constitution to check the political opportunism that is centred on worshipping those who have control over the state.

Sata advised The Post to direct their advice on this matter to the MMD and President Mwanawasa saying they were the ones who needed such advice and PF. He said it was President Mwanawasa and his colleagues who presided over state functions and decided on the participants. However, Sata said PF reserved the right to accept or not to accept any invitations from the state and that no one could not blame them for stopping the mayor from welcoming President Hu because they could not impose themselves on functions they were not invited to attend. He said as a result all PF members were not supposed to attend that function.

"Since the PF was excluded from the Chinese President's visit, his visit was not a state function anymore because the Zambian state is all encompassing and cannot exclude us on the basis of our presumed political beliefs," Sata said adding that President Hu's visit in their view was reduced to an MMD affair.

Sata said PF believes that receiving dignitaries at the airport is not part of the mayor's civic duties in a democratic society as it was a sheer waste of time and resources. He said mayors' civic duties were to improve lives of the people that elected them and not to be welcoming dignitaries at the airport. He said mayors would only work with the government on non-partisan issues of development like building roads, schools and health centres, among others.

Sata said in fact, in real multi-party democratic countries, visiting dignitaries are the ones that pay courtesy calls on mayors at their parlours. He said PF councillors and mayors would not be allowed to meet President Mwanawasa when he is not on official state duties.

Asked why he did not speak against mayors who always saw off and welcomed the then president Frederick Chiluba and other dignitaries at the airport, Sata said that was possible because the mayors belonged to the ruling party and had tow the party line.
Sata said meting out appropriate disciplinary measures on erring PF members in this regard would neither be victimisation nor vindictiveness contrary to The Post's editorial. He said PF was the largest opposition party at the moment and it could not afford to have members who had legs in two camps.

Sata said PF had a vision for Zambia. He said the vision began with nurturing patriotic Zambians who were not afraid of hard work and were not prepared to sell their country for crumbs. He said patriotic PF members would stay the course until they liberated themselves and their country.

"It is this vision of putting our people and country before foreigners that won us the support and respect of our most enlightened citizens in the urban and rural areas but can only be demonstrated in urban areas where the invisible hand in our pseudo democracy could not change the electoral outcomes," Sata said.

"Yes, indeed there are issues regarding the cheating that went with the 2006 elections. Unfortunately, they cannot be resolved in our courts until we have a democratic constitution in which there are checks and balances. We are fully aware of this and that is why we have dedicated ourselves to fighting for a new democratic and people-centred constitution."

Labels: CHINA, FRED M'MEMBE, SATA, TAIWAN, THE POST

posted by MrK @ 5:27 AM