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Momentum to fight corruption has been lost, says Maureen

Momentum to fight corruption has been lost, says Maureen
By Chibaula Silwamba
Thu 31 Dec. 2009, 04:01 CAT

FORMER first lady Maureen Mwanawasa has said the momentum to fight corruption has been lost a bit due to perceived interference in the judiciary by the executive. And Maureen said Zambians need healing and reconciliation.

In an end of year interview, Maureen said the three arms of the government - the executive, judiciary and legislature - must operate independently. Asked if the momentum to fight corruption was still there or not after the death of her husband Levy Mwanawasa, Maureen responded:

“In a way we have lost a bit in the sense that we want to see a situation where the cases which were in court must be seen to their conclusion by the judiciary without intervention from the executive. Our Constitution is very clear regarding the powers of the different arms of government - the independence of the judiciary, legislature and executive”

Maureen said the three arms of government must be seen to be having the autonomous powers that were invented in the Constitution.

“But a minute you see one arm intervening in the other and then having difficulties for the other one to operate freely, that is a problem for democracy,” Maureen said, “So we cannot say we are starting our democracy, what we want is to see it becoming fully fledged and embracing all the tenets of democracy so that these institutions can operate the way they are expected, results can be seen to their fruitful conclusion, there should be fair play as far as cases are concerned, fair justice to whoever is facing the law without necessarily saying that, 'let us stop this case because certain individuals are involved' but allowing the judiciary to do their job.”

Asked about the abolition of the Task Force on Corruption that was established by Mwanawasa in 2002, Maureen said what was important was that the corruption crusade must continue.

“It doesn't matter in whatever form as long as it is being fought by government at the same level that Mwanawasa did, maybe even higher. If the current administration is going to use different institutions so be it as long as we are seen to be doing what the Zambians expect us to be doing,” Maureen said.

“If the current administration has seen some faults in the Task Force, as long as the alternative institutions that have been formed are going to perform the duties that are expected by Zambians because they are the stakeholders, they are the shareholders of this country, as leaders they are just there to manage the affairs on behalf of Zambians. So, whether it's the question of changing the name from Task Force to another at the end of the day we want to see that the job is being done.”

And Maureen urged Zambians to reconcile.
“Before I come to MMD, I think the overall picture in the country, we need healing. This country needs healing and reconciliation for anything tangible and fruitful to take place. We cannot be enemies of ourselves. We cannot be seen to be fighting. We have to take our country forward,” Maureen said. “But at the same time we should allow people to co-exist and belong to parties or institutions or none at all, according to their choice.”
On the internal squabbles in MMD, Maureen urged the party leadership to open channels of communications for members.

“As a party member of MMD, the bickering, I don't know if this is the right word when we say 'people are bickering'. I think they are just trying to speak out and express themselves. But when they speak out outside the institution of the party and they speak out in the press then there is communication breakdown because all institutions have channels of communication but once those channels of communications are closed… you are dealing with human beings if you shut them they will burst,” Maureen

said. “So in order to have a breather, they will speak outside the institution or outside the framework of communication. People are trying to find a platform of expression and it is my hope that the structures of our party can open dialogue because if we are not exchanging views it will be very difficult even to tap into the best ideas that can help our party stand firm and be counted.”
Maureen encouraged the MMD leadership to provide a platform for members to exchange ideas.

“As a member, you have ideas, you have an interest, you want to say something, you need to be given an opportunity to speak within the framework of the institution but if that doesn't happen then you obviously expect a spillover,” Maureen said.

On the social, political and economic status of Zambians in 2009, Maureen said 2009 was a challenging year for her and many people.

“Challenging in the sense that socially, which is a combination of political and economic factors which form an external environment in which we live, you cannot isolate each sector from the other. Normally they are intertwined. So whatever we go through as citizens of this country - the social, political and economical factors have an impact,” Maureen said. “I must say that the standards of living most of us Zambians have been quite a challenge in the sense that Zambia has not been spared like any other country from the financial meltdown which has affected the global village.”

Maureen said due to the economic crisis, many people had lost their jobs while those in employment did not receive the salary increments they expected.
“Those who are in the informal sector, like ourselves in the agriculture sector, we have also been affected. When you look at the agriculture sector, there are both positives and negatives factors that have arisen,” Maureen said. “For this season 2009/2010, we can say that the cost of fertilizer has gone down a bit but the cost of seeds is still expensive. Seeds are fertilizer go together. So if one of the inputs is still not affordable it means that the agriculture sector is still a challenge.”

Maureen hoped that in the 2010/2011 farming season the cost of seeds would reduce so that all necessary inputs that are needed by a farmer were affordable.
“Zambia like any other African country should see the economic meltdown as an opportunity for growth. Zambia, in particular, has got so many resources which we sing about as citizens. It's high time we moved from the word potential to something that can give us value addition so that our economy can grow,” Maureen said. “I don't have to be an economist to understand the economic factors that affect our country. The basic knowledge that I have should allow me to understand what is important for the economy to grow, what affects it negatively and the way forward.”

Maureen said Zambians should divide the economic growth at different levels.
“We cannot give a blanket excuse for all the levels of economic growth for our country. We have local economics, which we should be managing well, we have regional economics, we have continental economics and we have the global economics and these segments are very important for us as Zambians to look at, specifically for our leaders who are carrying the total picture of the country,” Maureen said.

“So we cannot use one single excuse to be a defence for all the problems of all those levels I have mentioned. There are things which locally we should be able to manage and we should be able to look after ourselves and ensure that the lives of people are running, standards of living do not come below the poverty datum line.”
Maureen said Zambia was one of the countries in Africa with so many educated people.

“What we need is to create an environment where you don't have to be a politician; you don't have to be in formal employment; you don't have to be in government in order to contribute to the growth of the country. We have to find a way of how we can tap these different talents which can assist in taking the country forward in our different roles,” Maureen said.

On regional economics, Maureen called on Zambians to utilize Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

“The question we should be asking ourselves is, how is Zambia benefitting or participating fully so that these regional institutions can make economic sense for Zambia?” she said. “Some of the things we started seeing last year is that industrialists in Zambia became alert that until Zambia start producing competitive products then we can take our products at regional and continental level and I think we need to continue doing that otherwise Zambia will continue being a dumping place of finished goods and services.”

Maureen said there was need to critically look at what kind of duty and taxes to put on some imported goods in order to protect the Zambia
market.

“We have all been told, I think from the time Zambia became independent or even in the colonial days, even in schools, that Zambia is a landlocked country and therefore is at a disadvantage,” Maureen said. “I believe that Zambia is not landlocked, it is land-linked.

Until we shift and make bold decisions and see how this land linkage can be a benefit rather than a disadvantage to us, how are we taking advantage of the neighbouring countries that we have?”

Maureen said there was need to look at the advantages that Zambia had that could be used to foster national development.

“In order to do this we need a strong research and development (R&D). R&D in this country is a big gap which we need to fill in and there is no way we can move forward at a faster rate the way we would want to move if our research and development lags behind because we have to capture all the happenings at a very fast rate, evaluate them, monitor them and see how we can make changes and move forward,” Maureen said. “In whatever we are doing we will need to make sure that the research and development becomes one of the big steps that we need to take in order to take a revolutionary approach towards making our country different. When I say revolutionary approach, some of the policies have to be crude in order to survive.”

Maureen said there were some good policies that Zambia had put in place.
“For example, Zambia is reported in the SADC region that is one of the countries that is regarded as almost 100 per cent wheat production.
What did Zambia do? It made sure that we had certain duties put on imported wheat in order to protect the locally produced wheat,” Maureen said. “The other thing is that Zambia is too much dependant on the mining industry and yet it brings in about 30 per cent support to the income that Zambia needs to move forward and yet mining industry is such a challenging industry.”

Maureen called for diversification of economy from copper dependence.
“We need to stand up and say 'what alternative industry should we bring in all these mining towns as a fallback when the prices of our minerals go down to be specific when prices of copper go down?'” Maureen said. “Apart from re-emphasing the need to bring back the windfall taxes, we need alternative industries in these mining areas. If you look at the Copperbelt Province, there are so many things that can be done.”

Maureen observed that in the past, Copperbelt used to boast of the biggest industrial base in Zambia.

“We were producing blankets, we were producing furniture and we can produce many more products which can increase opportunities for employment for people. People on the Copperbelt cannot all be miners but they can participate in other sectors,” said Maureen. “So these gaps can only be identified if we used research and development. For example, we need to understand that for us to say, 'this product, for example, importation of biscuits is unproductive for Zambia', we need statistics.”

Labels: CORRUPTION, MAUREEN MWANAWASA, MWANAWASA, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 7:20 AM