‘Rupiah’s govt has assumed posture of self-preservation’

‘Rupiah’s govt has assumed posture of self-preservation’
By George Chellah
Sat 02 Jan. 2010, 04:01 CAT

SOUTHERN African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD) executive director Lee Habasonda has noted that President Rupiah Banda’s administration has assumed the posture of self-preservation, insensitivity and intolerance to most of the dissenting views. Giving his reflections for 2009, Habasonda observed that the year was generally challenging for citizens and the Rupiah Banda-led government.

“Conflict resolution and management was a hotchpotch affair. In many aspects the political and conflict challenges were self-inflicted mainly due to errors of judgement. This was mainly due to the use of the “mighty is right approach” to address perceived conflicts.

Consequently the government alienated even sectors of society that were their natural allies and sympathisers during the election campaign to usher in Rupiah Banda. In many instances political rhetoric on policy was right but the concomitant action was different or lacking altogether. For some reason the economic fundamentals including fuel prices remained stable although fuel and electricity were seriously erratic at certain points,” Habasonda stated.

“Within the ambit of SACCORD’s work, we viewed 2009 as a year of transition. However, the government lost opportunities in a number of ways and did not really settle down to government business. Firstly, the appointment of cabinet reflected mainly regions that voted for President Banda to the exclusion of those who did not.

We believe the MMD government lost an opportunity to bring those who did not vote for RB on board. This approach just further entrenched the perceived divisions and self-awareness on political and regional lines.”

He stated that the traditional leaders had also been left divided due to political privileges and influence.

“The consequences have been the resurgence of tribal identities, which unfortunately too are not being managed properly and are a threat to national unity. Secondly, the President did not embrace the groups that were outside the constitution-making process thereby maintaining the standoff that was created during the rule of his predecessor.

He could have taken a different approach towards the church and other groups outside the process and engaged with them to ensure a constitutional process endorsed by a perceived majority of citizens,” he stated.

He stated that the accusations of genocide on the Catholic Church and how it was managed did not help matters at all.

He also stated that instead of enacting legislation to broaden citizen freedoms, the government set out to use the law to cage and muzzle all NGOs.
“Although the intention was to target a few, perceived to be critical of the state.

Hence 2009 was the year of return to the imposition of a draconian law which criminalises unregistered organisations; allows the State to impose limitations on an organisation’s registration status; requires re-registration every 5 years; envisions a heavily bureaucratic regulatory body called the NGO

Registration Board; grants the NGO board dangerously broad regulatory powers; imposes constraints on the ability of NGOs to communicate and cooperate with counterparts both locally and abroad; mandates membership in an umbrella organisation; and threatens those who contravene the said provisions with harsh criminal sanctions, including imprisonment- a strategy of using a hammer to kill a fly,” Habasonda stated.

“This has turned the democratic clock backwards and has certainly cost MMD many sympathisers in the NGO community. No sooner had government dealt with the NGOs did it set on a path to again use the law to deal with the media to fix perceived opponents which agenda is actively being pursued as the year comes to the close.

The media landscape has certainly changed drastically to levels where professional and balanced news coverage and reporting is quickly disappearing because media practitioners are intimidated and not protected. Hopefully 2010 will bring a change of heart on the part of government about their media relations.”

He stated that the government had evaded any constructive engagement with the opposition political parties including their own ruling party.
“This has spelled doom for the transition as energies have been diverted to political fire fighting at every level throughout the year overshadowing any real government business at hand. Again a chance for dialogue and changing the direction of our politics to higher levels of conduct was lost.

Hence we witnessed base politics of uncouth language and impolitic justifications for dehumanising one another at the highest levels of Zambian leadership,” Habasonda stated. “From our viewpoint, the government in 2009, assumed the posture of self-preservation, insensitivity and intolerance to most of the dissenting views.

The result was increased violence against journalists and political activists who were perceived to be anti-government including those working for the state. Intimidation, harassment, regulation, victimisation, cooption or exclusion from national processes of perceived state opponents was a major strategy to conduct political business as opposed to dialogue and engagement with those seen to be doing things differently from government’s way of thinking.

“While rhetoric about national unity was high government actions were divisive and selective. In many processes party affiliation was a critical consideration to the exclusion of non-party members. The appointment of permanent secretaries and those to the Foreign Service are pointers to this.”

On corruption, Habasonda stated that the fight against corruption became a political tool to win acceptance from those who were disaffected in the previous regime and had brought doubts on the integrity of the judiciary and its independence.

“It further exposed the tacit executive interference on the judicial processes. The Dora tribunal and subsequent overturning of the tribunal judgement as well as the Chiluba acquittal and blockage of appeal epitomised the doubts on the integrity of the judicature.

This was coupled with the dissolution of the task force and the issues surrounding the sacking of the task force chairman, director general of Zambia procurement authority (Tender Board) and non-renewal of the attorney general’s contract. This had damning exposure and perception on the resolve to fight corruption and has had the effect of obliterating good efforts such the launch of the anti-corruption policy,” Habasonda stated.

“The only achievement that we credit the government in the year is the approval of the decentralisation implementation policy plan. This hopefully will transfer the responsibility for local development to the people. We also want to urge the police to maintain their posture on impartiality when dealing with political and civil meetings. Their conduct in Solwezi by election tainted their otherwise good record in administering the public order act professionally.”

He stated that SACCORD would like a situation where political parties began to build peace constituencies and engage in more constructive dialogue and reach out to one another.

“We are also concerned with the frost relations between The Post newspaper and government which heightened in 2009. Clearly everyone could see that government spent huge amounts of energy and resources to fix the newspaper and the paper did what it could to defend its position. This tended to divert attention from real issues affecting our people,” stated Habasonda.

“We want to see direct engagement and a quick resolution of differences between the two to save democracy and a vibrant media in the country. In this regard, SACCORD would be willing to facilitate such engagement and dialogue.”