HH urges his MPs to unite on constitution debate

Friday, August 31, 2007

HH urges his MPs to unite on constitution debate

HH urges his MPs to unite on constitution debate
By Mwala Kalaluka
Friday August 31, 2007 [04:00]

UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) president Hakainde Hichilema has advised his parliamentarians to be united as ‘ants’ over the constitution review debate. And Hichilema said people should not be stopped from having children just because they are poor. Asked to comment on the manner his parliamentarians handled the debate on the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) Bill before it was passed by Parliament recently,Hichilema said the UPND still had a common position on the constitution issue despite some parliamentarians expressing divergent opinions during the debate.

He said divergent opinions expressed by some members of parliament from the party over the UPND’s arguments that the powers to dissolve the Constitutional Conference should not be vested in President Mwanawasa had not taken anything from his party’s position on the current constitution debate.

Following a contribution by Zambezi West member of parliament Charles Kakoma that the Constitutional Conference should be given the mandate to dissolve itself as opposed to what is recommended in the NCC Bill, Mbabala member of parliament Emmanuel Hachipuka said the recommendation should not be tampered with as there was need to have a ‘captain’ in the whole undertaking. He said if President Mwanawasa, who was better-placed to dissolve the conference, were denied that power there was a danger of the conference sitting indefinitely.

Kakoma, however, withdrew his proposed amendments pertaining to the dissolution of the Constitutional Conference a few minutes prior to the Bill’s passing, citing advise from colleagues as the rationale behind the action.

But Hichilema reluctantly said the issue was not what members of parliament did during the debate leading to the passing of the Bill but on making sure that the UPND’s organised approach on the constitution is sustained.

“In every house there will be a deviant child,” he said. “Ants have their own orderliness and I believe every community must have orderliness.

They have their own system of doing things in their anthills. Now humans are superior creatures and superior beings and must be more organised.”
He said the UPND’s stance on issues surrounding the current constitution formulation process had never been a secret.

“UPND has had a position, a very well-known position from way back on what we want to see in the constitution,” Hichilema said.

“Like any other house, we are organised but as you know in every house there is someone who wants to express their personal opinion. I will not dwell much on that.”

And in an apparent reference to President Mwanawasa’s sentiments in Ndola that people should stop bearing children if they could not afford school fees, Hichilema said this was not the right way for the government to tackle social economic challenges.

“You do not stop people from having children because they are poor.
What you should do and what any government should do is to just deliver development to the people,” he said. “Education is the greatest equalizer. It is a fact that any country where the population is highly educated families have got fewer children.”

He urged Zambians to unite and fight for economic independence.

Labels: HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, UPND