Maravi

Only ‘true blue’ will determine my fate – Katele

Only ‘true blue’ will determine my fate – Katele
Written by Patson Chilemba
Thursday, November 20, 2008 3:36:35 AM

MMD national secretary Katele Kalumba yesterday said he has undeclared adversaries within the party.

In an interview yesterday, Kalumba said attempts to undermine his office of national secretary have been fruitless ever since they were started in 2005 when he was elected. Kalumba said the attempts were not new.

"Many attempts have been made and fortunately, the same group of people that have been engaged in sabotaging the will of our members who elected me at the convention," Kalumba said. "For the sake of peace in the party, I've often ignored these attempts and efforts and by and large, they have been fruitless except in the effect to alienate our members who are not pleased when their national secretary is either sidelined or abused."

Kalumba said consistent with his nature, he has had to defend the same undeclared adversaries when the chips had fallen on them.

"They know themselves. I've had to defend them or protect them during the legacy of late president [Levy] Mwanawasa as our party president largely because I had felt many times that they deserved protection either as young politicians or new MMD politicians who were previously in other parties such as UPND. I've had to defend their rights or practices of weighing their political stature through the attacks on the national secretary," Kalumba said. "There is a simple saying that ‘a big tree holds the wind.’ I've shoulders big enough to protect even the most arrogant of our politicians. I'm not threatened and I'll never be threatened by them. But they should not push their luck too far. For the sake of our party, they should show more maturity now."

Kalumba said attempts to alienate him would not work now because even the attempts to stop him from standing as national secretary in 2005 failed.

Kalumba also said he had not stated publicly that he would contest the presidency.

He said he could only do so after careful consultations.

Kalumba said if he had ambitions, the fate of those ambitions would only be determined by the "true blue" members of MMD.

"Those are the ones I respect and have a right to determine my fate in the party and they are the only ones whose opinion I count heavily. So any one individual is insignificant. They must count themselves among the true blues to stop me if these ambitions are there," Kalumba said. "Since my coming from the bush, I've not publicly stated any intention to stand for presidency."

On Tuesday, MMD spokesperson Benny Tetamashimba charged that Kalumba was justifying his failure to deliver Chiengi Constituency to President Rupiah Banda.

Tetamashimba said he was surprised that Kalumba, whose responsibility was to deliver victory to the party, could proudly say that people had a choice to vote for whoever they wanted.

On Saturday, in response to Tetamashimba's letter in which he suggested that the party carry out an audit to establish why it lost in constituencies held by MMD parliamentarians, Kalumba urged members of the ruling party to avoid forming 'kangaroo courts' by rising above petty internal squabbles.

Kalumba said members of parliament could not force their constituents to vote for a particular candidate because human beings were capable of making their own decisions.

Labels: KATELE KALUMBA

posted by MrK @ 3:38 AM