Maravi

Petitioning SADC heads of state

Petitioning SADC heads of state
By Editor
Tuesday July 24, 2007 [04:00]

Nelson Mandela once said that, “mass action is a peaceful form of channelling the anger of the people”. When people start picketing, demonstrating and petitioning, it means that they are angry about something; it means that something or someone has annoyed them, so they peacefully want to channel or communicate their anger or annoyance.

In our view, this is the spirit in which the Oasis Forum intends to petition the SADC heads of state that are coming for a summit in Lusaka next month. In that action, the Oasis Forum would be saying that they are angry, that they are annoyed about the way things are going in our constitution-making process. They merely want to express themselves, right or wrong, because this is their right.

If they are wrong, let the government also exercise their rights and expose the Oasis Forum on why they should not petition the SADC heads of state. We do not see anything for the government to worry about concerning the Oasis Forum’s intention to petition our SADC heads of state.

And all over the world, picketing, peaceful demonstrations, including petitions are a civilised form of people expressing their grievances. We see it every day on international media channels. Recently, during the G8 summit in Germany we saw a lot of people picketing the most eight influential leaders of the world on matters that bothered or disturbed them.

In the past, the world has several times seen US President George Bush and former British prime minister Tony Blair being publicly criticised by placard - carrying protesters on a number of things, including the war in Iraq. Some of the messages on placards actually appealed to the whole world to put pressure on President Bush and Blair on their internal decisions.

Yes, the constitution-making process is an internal issue or problem but this issue goes beyond our boundaries because it touches on good governance and democratic principles which Zambia professes to the rest of the world.

But even assuming that it were exclusively an internal problem, it would not mean that we should not involve our neighbours in this constitution-making process. If that were the case, we would not have sent members of the Mung’omba Constitution Review Commission (CRC) to countries in the region and beyond to check how they dealt with similar issues in this process. The government that Lt Gen Ronnie Shikapwasha belongs to sent a number of CRC commissioners to Kenya, Namibia and many other countries because it realised that there was a lot we could learn from our neighbours who had done before what we are trying to do today in our country.

By petitioning the SADC heads of state, the Oasis Forum would not be asking these heads of state to impose anything on President Levy Mwanawasa concerning the constitution-making process. In our view, the Oasis Forum would be saying, ‘Please our brothers and sisters in the region, help us reach a meaningful consensus on this important national issue because we have failed on our own. Talk to your friend Levy and ensure that he works towards having a legitimate constitution for his country because now as he assumes the leadership of SADC, he should lead by example by ensuring that good governance is promoted in his own country before he seeks to promote the same in the neighbouring countries’.

Unless the government has something to hide, we do not see the basis for their discouraging the Oasis Forum from doing what they are legitimately entitled to do. Zambia, being a democratic country, should respect people’s fundamental human rights. It is said that democracy and human rights are inseparable. What is important is not only to attain victory for democracy, but also to retain it.

Mandela further says that a political order must be based on the majority principle, especially in a country where the vast majority have been systematically denied their rights.

Today, the Oasis Forum and many other people are saying the constitution-making process should not be a preserve of a few politicians to the exclusion of all others.
Clearly, it cannot be doubted that the Zambia Centre for Inter-party Dialogue has lately taken centre stage in this process. This is not to say politicians should be excluded from this process. What we are saying is that politicians are but just stakeholders in this process. Nothing should start and end with them in this process. There is need to have a wider representation because a constitution of the country is not just about the feelings, wishes and desires of politicians. It is about the feelings, wishes and desires of all the citizens.

If petitioning SADC heads of state will help Zambians achieve a legitimate constitution for themselves, we do not see anything wrong with the Oasis Forum doing that. What should be important and of concern to the government is to ensure that in whatever the Oasis Forum, or indeed other organisations or individuals, choose to do, the law must be observed and respected.

We do not think that it will be useful for those petitioning or picketing to aim at embarrassing Levy and his government during this time at which he will be taking over the leadership of SADC. We do not think it will be all right for such petitioners or picketers to disrupt the proceedings of the SADC summit just to deliver their grievances. We are mentioning this because we have heard other leaders who plan to do certain things with the sole purpose of embarrassing the head of state. This is unnecessary. And we think that the Oasis Forum is above that, considering the kind of people composing it.

Labels: EDITORIAL, OASIS FORUM, SADC

posted by MrK @ 3:31 AM