Maravi

Political parties opt for constitutional conference

Political parties opt for constitutional conference
By Noel Sichalwe and Brighton Phiri
Sunday June 24, 2007 [04:00]

POLITICAL party presidents yesterday resolved to come up with a Constitutional Conference instead of a constituent assembly. The presidents, during their summit organised by the Zambia Centre for Inter-party Dialogue (ZCID) at Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka, all agreed that Parliament should pass legislation to give legal personality to the constitutional conference.

Reading the communique at the end of the summit last evening, ZCID board chairman Katele Kalumba said government would present a constitutional conference bill at the next sitting of National Assembly.

Kalumba further said the summit deffered consideration of the proposed content of the constitution to a later date.

Kalumba said Parliament would determine the composition, existence and functions of the constitutional conference.

According to the sources, the government agreed to fund the Constitutional Conference.
The source said all presidents and participants in the summit were happy with the manner in which deliberations were conducted and ended. Patriotic Front president Michael Sata is reported to have said, efyo mulechita ifi bashi Chipo Father of Chipo, this is what you should be doing” in endorsing President Mwanawasa’s proposals. The political leaders included MMD president Levy Mwanawasa, PF president Michael Sata, UNIP president Tilyenji Kaunda, UPND vice-president Richard Kapita, FDD vice-president Chifumu Banda, ULP president Sakwiba Sikota, NDF president Ben Mwila and All Peoples Congress president Ken Ngondo.

Earlier, Sata briefly walked out of the meeting in protest after journalists were asked to leave the hall before he and his colleagues had chance to comment on items of the agenda.

And officiating at the ZCID summit of presidents at Mulungushi International Conference Centre, summit chairman justice Frederick Chomba first gave the history of the sacrifice that the freedom fighters made and the blood that was shed when fighting for independence.

Justice Chomba further narrated how the four constitution review commissions had failed to meet the aspirations of people and that it was now an opportunity for the political leaders to find a solution to the looming constitution impasse.

He said about 22 million eyes of Zambians were focused on the political summit to find a way of reducing the disease burden, reduce the unemployment levels, help people move from the poverty, misery and solve numerous problems that people were facing.
Justice Chomba said HIV/AIDS was taking a toll and many issues lacked solutions because leaders spent most of the time politicking.

Justice Chomba said there was need to table the issue of the new constitution at the summit of presidents which could not fail to find consensus on the challenges of putting in place a new constitution.

“This inter-party forum provides a unique opportunity for you to arrive at a consensus and to harmonise your efforts in order to make Zambia prosper,” justice Chomba said. “Therefore, it will be a matter of regret, if not embarrassment, if you fail to achieve this (consensus). I am convinced that today our political leaders and our people can demonstrate the same spirit which was displayed by our founding fathers just before the independence of our country.”

ZCID board chairperson Katele Kalumba said the idea of a constitution that would stand a test of time stemmed from perceptions that past efforts to come up with an acceptable constitution have not been satisfactory.

Kalumba said there was a general resolve that the country needed a beginning based on a consensus over the new constitution and its best mode of adoption.

“ZCID believes that it is important that all stakeholders be specific and clear about the nature of agreements and disagreements surrounding the Mung’omba Constitutional Review recommendations,” he said. “ZCID believes that the process of understanding and building consensus over what is being proposed must necessarily take a political and lay language. This is necessary if Zambia has to avoid the perceived bigotry of elitism attached to such debates in other African countries.”

After reading his speech, Kalumba told the press to leave the summit hall so that political party presidents could discuss the agenda items in camera.
At this stage, PF president Michael Sata raised an objection saying the media should be able to report responses to the two speeches by justice Chomba and Kalumba.

“A point of order. There we go again, the chairman has spoken and MMD secretary general Katele Kalumba has spoken and the media must leave. Why do you want them to leave because people are going to speak and the leaders here are also going to be heard? We did not only come here to hear the chairman and the secretary general for MMD, why should they leave?” he asked. “This is because we are supposed to respond to the statements by the chairman and you, Katele Kalumba which contains a lot of contradictions. If the media leaves then we must also leave.”

In response justice Chomba said the summit was supposed to be an in-house affair and that on Tuesday next week, there would be a launch of ZCID that would be open to the public.

Justice Chomba said usually whenever there was a summit of presidents, even of different countries, if necessary a communiqué was issued at the end.

“We would like at this stage to ensure that this frank brotherly and sisterly discussion be in-camera following the two statements that have been made by myself and the chairman of the board of ZCID. There should be no fear that any views are going to be suppressed because of the suggestion that has been made...If you want to take an extraordinary course, that is totally up to you but my advice is that let’s go with the arrangement that has been made. With my consent, we allow the press to leave so that the presidents can discuss national issues.”

Sata then said they had a very important person, President Mwanawasa, who was supposed to reply to the two statements including the speech by Kalumba, which included views that had not been agreed to by different political parties.
He said the delegates did not attend the summit as a constituency of the MMD because everything Kalumba said appeared to be an MMD speech.

“The key to this constitution problem is the President. He is the one who is steering the ship, now he is not a member of PF but he is the one who is steering the ship. He is the one who has to say whether or not there will be a constitution. He is the one who has to say whether there will be a constituent assembly or no constituency assembly. He is the one who has to give us the timetable. You are talking, Mr Chomba, about 22 million Zambian eyes, now you are closing up on the 22 million eyes. We don’t want to listen to Mike Mulongoti, we want to listen to the owner of this country for the time being. What is his commitment and later on after we have discussed and later on while we have discussed these issues, then we can go into a closed session.”

United Liberal Party president Sakwiba Sikota said the speech read by Kalumba was prepared by ZCID not by MMD and that if there was anything controversial, it was supposed to be attributed to the board.

Sikota said Kalumba did not impose himself but was elected by the board and that none of the party presidents had spoken in a meeting that was supposed to allow them interact and come out in public on issues they agreed and disagreed upon.

“We are not going to hide anything from the Zambians,” he said.
National Democratic Focus president Ben Mwila said the meeting should proceed with the agenda and allow the press to leave as they discussed the agenda items.

President Mwanawasa then said he attended the meeting as MMD president and not Republican president. He said the programme did not even state anywhere that he was going to speak. President Mwanawasa urged the meeting to proceed with the agenda.

Justice Chomba then ruled that the meeting should proceed as arranged and that the nation was looking up to them to provide leadership. He then directed journalists to leave the summit hall.

It was at this stage that Sata rose and told justice Chomba that his party delegation was walking out of the meeting to consult each other.
Outside the hall, Sata attracted the attention of the media, who followed his delegation to a private room where they consulted each other.

Sata, noticing that his vice-president Guy Scott was missing among those that followed him, directed one of his officials to fish him out of the summit hall.
Sata told journalists that he was not amused with MMD’s hypocrisy.
“I am testing them. I want to show them that we are serious on the constitution issue,” he said.

In his statement during the closed-door meeting, Sata wondered why President Mwanawasa had chosen to call for a referendum on the new constitution when he did not call for a referendum before removing former president Chiluba’s immunity.

“There is no record in this country of Zambia’s struggle for independence for Mr Mwanawasa, personally or his known relatives, contributing to the struggle for this country’s independence. Because everything in this country has been bequeathed on the President on silver or is it a gold plate, he does not care about the constitution, UNZA, UTH. The economy for example, fuel in Zimbabwe and Malawi is much cheaper or half the price as compared to our country. We need change now. We need freedom for Zambia now,” Sata said.

Sata reiterated PF support for a constituent assembly because if well managed, it would help foster democracy in the country.

He said the referendum was unnecessary as it reinforced a notion that for Zambians to talk among themselves they needed legislation.

“The referendum should not be used as an excuse to derogate or dilute the freedom of expression that the people of Zambia enjoy,” Sata said. “We wish to underscore our position that we will join forces with those campaigning for a constituent assembly and we will do everything within our power to advocate a total rejection of the referendum.”

Sata warned the MMD against taking Zambians for granted by constantly changing their goal post over the constitution-making process when the people had already spoken through a government constituted Constitution Review Commission.

Immediately after delivering his statement, Sata trooped out of the meeting and led his team in having a cup of tea while his fellow party presidents remained in the hall deliberating.

Labels: CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY, PARTIES

posted by MrK @ 6:33 AM