Zambia is in a logjam - Dr Chongwe

Zambia is in a logjam - Dr Chongwe
Written by George Chellah
Tuesday, April 21, 2009 4:24:46 PM

VETERAN politician and lawyer Dr Roger Chongwe has said the nation is currently in a logjam because Zambians do not know the government's agenda on many issues affecting the country. In an interview, Dr Chongwe said he does not know the priorities of the government.

"Quite honestly, they have not been announced to the people. We don't know what the timetable of the government is on many issues that are cropping up in this country," Dr Chongwe said.

"Until such a time that an announcement is made that 'this is our policy and this is what we want to do in order ameliorate or to ease problems', we can say we don't know because the head has not announced to tell us this is the way forward. For the moment we are in a logjam."

Asked how serious the leadership was in governing the country amidst the current economic problems, Dr Chongwe responded: " Well, the point is this, we do have a leader in this country. We do have a President, who was elected in November last year, that President and Cabinet have not yet told us who elected them...who put the government in place how they intend to deal with so many issues, social issues, economic issues as affected locally and also globally."

Dr Chongwe said it was not sufficient to say that everything was in the budget.

"People don't eat the budget. And in any case, you are a government, which has created that budget. What is it that the budget says in order to save this country from the economic malaise that it is experiencing at the moment?" he asked.

He said there was need for government to swiftly tackle the issues facing the country.

"You need a government, which is quick to grapple with those issues and we need now to focus on issues that will be of benefit to Zambia. We need

to stop bickering over issues which do not mean a thing at all. We need to stop bickering because this is not time for elections. The elections were held last year and we chose a President. So there is only one President and the President does not go to a cultural ceremony and begin campaigning against an opposition political leader because this is not the time for campaigning," Dr Chongwe said.

"This is a time for consolidating the policies that were announced and which are the policies that attracted the people of Zambia to elect the new President into office. In 2011, we will have time for quarrel because that's when we will be holding the elections, not now. Now, we are building the nation, now we are putting forward our proposals, how we are going to run this country together. It's not time for bickering about who is loud mouthed and who is morally correct or who is morally wrong."

Dr Chongwe said President Rupiah Banda should set the pace.

"And that pace is for the promotion of peace and good governance in Zambia. What is happening now is very healthy, that you newspaper people you go to people and ask for their opinion and the people give their opinion either in support of government or critical of government because it's the only way that government can be forced to do something to be more democratic, to be alert. But if you always praise, praise, praise you will find nothing. Democracy doesn't work like that," he said.

Dr Chongwe said politicians should not feel complacent of what they were doing.

"They should always know that there is another opinion elsewhere. Yes, some of the things that we are seeing today like all of a sudden people don't have money to pay rent, people don't have money to pay their mortgages, that is the effect of the global meltdown," said Dr Chongwe.

"It does not however affect the salaries that our employees get because we ought to have budgeted for them. And then if we have money enough to pay our members of parliament and constitutional offices...huge salaries then why don't we have money to pay for journalists who work for government? That doesn't make any sense."