Maravi

HH accuses The Post

HH accuses The Post
By Lambwe Kachali
Monday July 28, 2008 [04:00]

UPND president Hakainde Hichilema has accused The Post of harbouring colossal hatred against him. Reacting to last Wednesday's editorial comment, which questioned his failure to engage the government in a meaningful, productive and respectful way in order to extract benefits for people in Southern Province, Hichilema described the comment as nonsensical.

Hichilema said The Post was bent on destroying his political career and the party.
Hichilema said UPND members of parliament and councillors had been engaging the government in various ways but that nothing happened to improve people's lives because of the government's lack of political will.

"We are engaging the government in the council chambers, our councillors are doing that. We are engaging MMD in parliament. You have seen many debates where we moved a motion to amend the NCC Act to allow the churches and other stakeholders to come on board, but this government did not listen. Is that not constructive engagement?" he asked.

Hichilema said even if the opposition spoke on top of their voices, there would be no development in the country without a listening government.

"The problem is that the MMD government doesn't know how to run local government. It has not been providing sufficient developmental resources to the councils. That's why you need to change the government. If we get into government, you will see how we’ll run the local government. We will allocate sufficient resources to every constituency, because a member of parliament cannot use his personal resources for development, it is a responsibility of government to allocate enough developmental resources to each constituency," Hichilema said.

He said like any other opposition political party, UPND was not responsible for the country's underdevelopment and poor standards of living for the majority of citizens.

"The issue is that, it is the government, the party in government to put enough money into constituencies and wards and members of parliament or councilors irrespective of which party they come from will be able to use that for development. And you can see that actually, your comment was bent on hatred of Hakainde," he said.

Hichilema also said The Post had no authority to question his party campaigns for the 2011 general elections. He said UPND had been campaigning since the 2006 general elections and would continue until the next polls.

"You have been asking why are we campaigning for 2011, but what is the job of a political party? The job of a political party is to go to the public and present its policies. What is wrong with that? When did The Post start to decide who should campaign and when? Who gave The Post those powers? That's nonsensical! We said to ourselves that during last elections, we only had 45 days and now we have more time, we should be on the road. Two months ago, you wrote an editorial asking why we are campaigning, that was before President Levy Mwanawasa fell ill. And now you angle President Mwanawasa's illness to the campaign we have been running. But who told you that you run UPND?" Hichilema asked. "You just have a colossal hatred against Hakainde."

Hichilema said as far as he was concerned, he had done nothing wrong to The Post to deserve such discrimination.

"I have not done anything wrong against you guys, I respect you guys a lot. I am not going to be discriminated in my own country. Where do you want me to go? I am not leaving this country for you. Yes, you shall not put limits on my freedom just because you own a newspaper," the seemingly angry Hichilema said.

"It is not easy to run a political party. There is no funding to political parties. Those who are trying to run political parties must actually be acknowledged. We don't need to be praised. No! I don't seek to be praised myself, but it is not good for you to use your newspaper to insult Hakainde. That is nonsense, utter nonsense."

He claimed that The Post was intimidating him because their preferred candidate was not doing well politically. Hichilema said The Post should tell their candidate to also start campaigning.

"I know you will not run my story because your favoured candidate is not doing well. That's why you are now using your paper to hammer Hakainde who is just doing a noble community service. Tell your candidate to start campaigning, as simple as that," he said.

Hichilema said he was surprised that he was mentioned in the editorial comment and yet it was against the formation of a medical board to look into President Mwanawasa's illness.

"Over the medical board, I simply said I disagree with that person who talked about a medical board and two days later, you ran an editorial hammering on the medical board and you hammered me as well. I didn't support the medical board and I came out clear. Again I issued a statement; it is in your paper there, where we ran an advert for our vision for Zambia and instead, you used words to say I am pretending to be campaigning for 2011. Where is the pretence because the advert is an open one? Who told you that you issue instructions on who should campaign? You don't have those powers over me, you will never have it. You can say what you want, but you will never have it, that's my right, that's my basic right and you will never take it away. All I am asking is fairness and professionalism. You shouldn't be using your paper to victimise other people on the basis of God's creation, because I didn't decide to be born in Southern Province. What crime did I commit?" asked Hichilema.

Last Wednesday's editorial comment, based on Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda's analysis on the procedure for a medical board, questioned why political parties that won landslide victories in Lusaka, Copperbelt and Southern provinces were moribund and irrelevant in resolving serious national issues. The editorial comment also called for the need to raise the political rhetoric to a level where it becomes a tool for political good and not just a means of getting to State House.

Labels: HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, LOCAL GOVERNMENT, THE POST, UPND

posted by MrK @ 4:59 AM