Maravi

No threats will justify unreasonable laws

No threats will justify unreasonable laws
By Editor
Wednesday October 10, 2007 [04:00]

While we welcome President Levy Mwanawasa back to Zambia after a clearly long absence from the local scene, his threats to the people of Zambia are not necessary and they are absolutely unwelcome. Levy may be a "lawyer wa ma lawyer" as he constantly reminds us, but he has no right to lecture to us that our feelings as Zambians, our thoughts and desires are of no account or consequence; that we as a people are nothing and we must live only as we are told and directed by him.

Levy should not mislead himself into thinking that he has the mandate to think on behalf all the people of Zambia. Yes, we do appreciate that since he left Zambia more than a fortnight ago, Levy's scoreboard appears to have gone up for as he puts it himself:

"Indeed, I went as Mr Mwanawasa and I have come back as Doctor Mwanawasa". That is truly good for Levy and he has every reason to be happy about it and we will not bother very much about the details of his latest achievement.

However, the words that worry us most are the following: "NCC is now law. This law is now embodied, for those who did not know, in the NCC Act. I want those who are daring government to know... those who are still doubting that this is not the law and those who want to fight government and make governance impossible, that they are committing treason...I have come back a changed person.

Let me not hear no more nonsense bordering on malice, they are going to be arrested and charged with treason and bail is not available to treason."

First of all, even the language that Levy chose to use takes away from the good lawyer that he claims to be. We have said it many times that Levy needs to take great care with the kind of words he utters because he is not an ordinary citizen - he is President of the Republic of Zambia, in case he needs another reminder.

Perhaps Levy may wish to draw some lessons on use of language by politicians from George Orwell, who wrote in 1950 that: "One ought to recognise that the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language, and that one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end.

" Certainly, some political confrontation is not necessary, and if politicians cared to check what comes out of their mouths, the chaos that we continue to witness in the political arena would to a great extent be avoided.

Second, Levy is misleading himself, especially his legal mind, by suggesting that anyone questioning the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) will be liable to treason because such an offence or crime only exists and ends within the figment of Levy's self-acclaimed legal mind.

If anything, by threatening people to stop expressing themselves freely, Levy is breaching the people's constitutional right to freedom of expression as well as that of free speech. We may be laymen at law but we know very well that the NCC is subordinate to the Republican Constitution and if there is anyone committing a greater crime or offence in this instance, it is Levy himself who is trying to apply all sorts of underhand methods and threats to deny Zambians their constitutionally guaranteed right to free expression.

However, the main point is that Levy has no argument; no case and no legal basis for his verbal tirades, and his threats yesterday will remain as empty as they really are. Levy's threats to all those opposed to his NCC should be subjected to the usual contempt that many of his other irrational pronouncements have been subjected to.

His threats contain nothing of substance; they are just a confirmation of the fact that when politicians are not backed by facts or the law, the only alternative is to offload empty threats. Besides, let us not forget that Levy was addressing his cadres and it is customary for politicians to once in a while speak to the gallery.

Having said all that, we also remain concerned that our politicians, especially those in government are still highly resistant to opposing or divergent views.

This is not healthy for our democracy. The biggest problem we seem to have in our society - and this is endemic at every level of society - is that those who oppose or present divergent views, to those in leadership are quickly labelled as disloyal or unpatriotic to the system.

It is actually this syndrome of aggressive repulsion to opposing views, by leaders, which is in fact destructive to leadership at different levels of society. And the earlier we learn this hard fact, the better. And our politicians need a larger dose of such lessons.

On the NCC, we want to repeat at the expense of attracting the "wrath of Levy's law" what we said the other day, that consensus building is a necessity in the process because we believe that it is the only way that an opportunity will be given for people from diverse groups to make input into the process.

We believe that it will be wrong to leave such an important process as the NCC to government representatives or those aligned to the ruling party.

And it is for this reason that we urge Levy and his government to look at the merits of ensuring that consensus is reached in this process because we believe that it is only through consensus building that a common understanding and solution acceptable to all can be reached.

There is no need to recount the numerous benefits which can result from properly employing consensus building processes to address important national challenges such as constitution making.

As for Levy's threats, we have already said that they are hollow and they should be treated as such. And being the good lawyer that Levy claims he is, he should have been in a better position to understand that laws do not persuade just because they threaten. No threats will make unreasonable laws justifiable or acceptable. The NCC may be in place, but its existence can still be questioned and it will continue to be questioned.

Labels: CORRUPTION, EDITORIAL, MWANAWASA, NCC

posted by MrK @ 4:32 AM