Maravi

‘Zambians need a revolutionary spirit on the constitution’

‘Zambians need a revolutionary spirit on the constitution’
By Inonge Noyoo in Kalomo
Sunday March 25, 2007 [02:00]

ZAMBIANS need a revolutionary spirit to change government's stance on the constitution, former Kalomo council chairperson Smart Muwele has said. And a Kalomo based politician Harry Kamboni wondered why the government was insisting on governing people with a ‘sick’ Constitution. Meanwhile, a Kalomo resident Charles Sanene said there was need for peaceful demonstrations as a way of pressurising the government over the constitution making process.

During a Newsmakers' Forum organised by the Press Freedom Committee of The Post at Kalomo Hotel on Wednesday evening, Muwele said Zambians needed to stand and push the government on a united front. "We should not play spectators in this whole process. We must revolt, it's our right," he said. Muwele observed that the government's constitution roadmap was winding and time wasting.
"Government's excuse of not having enough money does not hold water. We want the practical aspect of their willingness and that is the constituent assembly. We need good political will. The MMD government does not seem to be sincere and genuine on the constitution," Muwele said. "We want George Kunda to know that enacting the new constitution is also for his own good. I feel the MMD government's incapacity to enact an enduring constitution is due to selfishness."

He appealed to members of parliament to champion the fight for a new constitution. "It is also important that we appeal to our members of parliament and ministers who are in the executive to avoid this thing of wanting to be seen as a good boy by the President. They should avoid blind loyalty to the point where they do what pleases the President and not the people who put them into office. This is the same blind loyalty that has cost us so much and it is killing our country," he said. Muwele also cautioned political leaders not to use the constitution fight as a way of gaining mileage. "It's sad for one to say we want Michael Sata (opposition Patriotic Front Leader) to champion the constitution case. Sata is using the constitution to jump to State House. He is part of the people who was behind the current Constitution that is problematic," he said.
And Kamboni said the Zambian constitution was like a patient in an intensive care unit.

He said it was high time every Zambian became involved and concerned about the constitution as it affected everyone. He said the current Constitution was weak and had affected government structures to the point where justice was denied and freedoms trampled upon. Kamboni said it was because of a weak Constitution that corruption had become a normal thing in most government offices. He said it was because of a weak Constitution that some positions such as those of the police inspector general and the chief justice were not independent.

He said the police in Zambia were weak and could not investigate independently. "I have stayed in Botswana where the police are so powerful and they are feared. But in Zambia the President appoints the inspector general and thus cannot say anything against him. We have seen how inspector generals have been fired because of making their own judgment and not being the puppets that they were appointed to be," he said.

Kamboni said there was need for a new constitution that would ensure that the separation of powers becomes a reality. "We do not need to rely on an individual when we can have a good constitution. The new constitution will benefit everyone, even those in government. With this current Constitution we should pray that a dictator does not come into power because he is going to rule us for 40 years and we won't be able to do anything," he said.

And the discussion became heated when some MMD members in the audience insisted that the Constitution was not weak. However, the MMD members were silenced as most of the audience emotionally debated that the Constitution was weak and those who were saying it was strong were exercising blind loyalty.

Labels: CONSTITUTION

posted by MrK @ 3:39 AM