Maravi

A bad ending for Levy

A bad ending for Levy
By Editor
Monday June 04, 2007 [00:00]

We believe that our political leaders serve the cause of the people to the extent to which they work well, to the extent to which they are sincere, to the extent to which they are honest, to the extent to which they eradicate lying from politics and to the extent to which they eliminate deceit. If one starts a process in which all of a country’s progress is threatened with destruction, that process is very negative.

A process is being unleashed by Levy Mwanawasa that may destroy the authority of his government and diminish the standing of the ruling MMD. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that if one destroys the authority of government, the consequences may be terrible. However, this is what Levy is doing with his arrogant, self-centred and egoistic approach to the constitution-review process.

It’s very clear that Levy has very little trust of the people when it comes to the constitution-review process. He wants to keep everything concerning this process under his control. It shouldn’t be forgotten that when this whole process started in 2003, Levy single-handedly appointed all the commissioners, including the chairman of the Constitution Review Commission (CRC). He didn’t trust anyone to do it; he had to personally do it himself. We are made to believe that his fear is that if he doesn’t have full and direct control of any part of this process, the whole process will be hijacked by his enemies, supporters and sympathisers of Michael Sata and the opposition in general. Levy is said to believe that if Sata comes to power he will be arrested and locked up regardless of what he does. And this fear seems to be propelling most of his political decisions, including the constitution-review process. But this paranoia is ridiculous and public policy should not be based on it. Yes, there may be some politicians, including Sata, who may want to victimise Levy after he leaves office in revenge.

This will not be allowed unless they can show cause why Levy should be arrested or locked up. We do have enough people with a high sense of justice in this country that will stand up and count Levy’s defence. We have called for the arrest and prosecution of Frederick Chiluba not because we hate him, not because of any form of revenge but because he stole public funds. And adequate proof of this has been provided so far. If Levy has done nothing wrong, he should have nothing to fear. We will not allow Sata or anyone to victimise him. But if he has done wrong things, we will be in the forefront to call for the removal of his presidential immunity and have him prosecuted.

His sure protection is doing the right things. We are getting worried that personal interest, personal fears and ego are starting to impair his objectivity over the constitution-review process. As we have already pointed out, Levy spent billions of taxpayers’ money on the CRC whose creation many of our people had opposed. He gave them explicit terms of reference, which included among others, the mode of adopting the constitution. And accordingly, the CRC recommended the Constituent Assembly as the preferred mode of adopting the constitution. They also included in their recommendations economic and social rights. It seems these recommendations, among others, are not in accordance with Levy’s wishes and in response he has lost interest in almost the entire CRC report. Now Levy, after wasting so much of public funds on the CRC wants to go for a referendum on the mode of adopting the constitution, on the Constituent Assembly. There is nothing wrong in directly consulting the people over any important question. But it is clear that what Levy wants is to manipulate his way and give the Zambian people a constitution that is tailored, adopted and enacted in the way he wants.

No one is scared of a referendum on any issue. Even Levy doesn’t seem to be scared of a referendum. He thinks his popularity has increased because in 2001 he was elected president with 29 per cent of the votes cast and in 2006 he was elected with 31 per cent – so his popularity is on the rise and he can win any election in Zambia. This is a false conclusion. A referendum will not be a fragmented election; no one will win it with a minority vote because there will only be two sides to it – the side of Levy and that of the rest of the people. One doesn’t need a lot of intelligence to predict the outcome of a referendum on the constituent assembly. It requires little intelligence – if a little is all one has – to realise that the forces against Levy on the constitution are many and are in the majority. It also doesn’t require much foresight for one to realise that the onstituent assembly referendum election will seriously undermine the credibility of the government. It may also significantly reduce the electoral chances of the MMD in the 2011 elections.

The referendum campaign and the consequent electoral defeat will impact negatively on the government and MMD. Anyway, Levy may not be bothered much about this as long as he is sure of leaving in place a constitution that he thinks will take care of his interests and fears after he leaves office. So it’s up to the MMD members who still want to continue in politics after Levy’s term of office to ensure that the party takes a course that moves it away from the path of self-destruction that Levy has put it on. Levy may have no intention of destroying the standing of the MMD or of undermining his government in the constitution-review process, but that will be the final result of the path he seems to have chosen, which seeks to protect the constitution-review process from being hijacked by his enemies or people he considers less knowledgeable about these issues. This seems to be a matter not of the analysis or criticism of ideas, but of the destruction of the MMD and its government in an attempt to deal with Levy’s perceived political opponents.

But the leaders of MMD will be making enormous mistakes by failing to see the consequences of what they are doing about the constitution-review process and by not doing the right thing to reach the goals and purposes of this process – which, of course, are necessary and legitimate. Many strategic and tactical mistakes that are being made by Levy are viewed as the correct way of doing things. Then, when all these negative tendencies are unleashed, opportunistic elements are also introduced, plus all the elements that are wittingly acting to destroy him, his government and the MMD. The path Levy has chosen to take on the constitution-review process amounts to assassinating the MMD.

It should be very clear to all that in any referendum question on the constitution, Levy will have to face a very broad united front of the majority of our churches, save for those small congregations that can be hired or which hire themselves out as we used to see under the Chiluba regime; Levy will have to face the entire civil society including the independent media like ourselves. And we want to make it very clear that if tomorrow there will be a referendum on the constituent assembly, we will be on the opposite side of Levy. We say this because Levy has already declared that he will vote against the constituent assembly. No one should expect us to be neutral on this question. We cannot be expected to be neutral when it comes to the fundamental rights and liberties of our people, and indeed of our own. When this referendum on the constituent assembly comes, we will give it everything under our disposal, financial and otherwise.

And since the government is expected to be neutral on this question, we will expect Levy, his government and MMD not to use public funds to campaign for their position. If they do so, the same should be done for those campaigning for the other side of the question. And in fact inner party democracy will require the MMD to hold some internal mechanism for determining the party’s position on this question. Levy’s views cannot be assumed to be those of the entire party. We hope this will turnout the way the third term bid turned out for Chiluba where two thirds of his members of parliament deserted him. This may be a bad ending for Levy.

Labels: CRC, MMD, MWANAWASA, OASIS FORUM

posted by MrK @ 1:30 PM