Maravi

Chiluba is a stubborn hypocrite – Lubinda

Chiluba is a stubborn hypocrite – Lubinda
By George Chellah
Thu 25 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT

FREDERICK Chiluba is a stubborn hypocrite, Patriotic Front (PF) spokesperson Given Lubinda has said.

Reacting to Chiluba's attacks on the PF, Lubinda - who is also Kabwata PF member of parliament - said if Chiluba's attacks were not responded to and challenged, some gullible people would forever remain victims of his chicanery and hypocrisy.

“The man ought to be exposed for what he is. We acknowledge that Mr Chiluba, like any other citizen, is at liberty to visit and meet with anyone he wants.

However, Mr Chiluba should not lose sight of the fact that as second Republican president - a position he so very much bragged about at his press conference - he is not a private citizen,” Lubinda said.

“After all, he himself admitted that he is paid by the state. He is therefore a public figure, who is surviving on the courtesy of tax-payers. Given his special credentials of dribbling and scheming, public suspicion of his every move is understandable.

After all when Chiluba travelled to the Copperbelt, did he not hold clandestine meetings where he was disparaging not only the Patriotic Front but PF MPs on the Copperbelt? Are these dark corner meetings what he is referring to as funerals of relatives?"

Lubinda said Chiluba might have called for the abolition of a one-party political dispensation in 1989 like he claims but that should not make him claim that he is the archangel of Zambia's democracy.

"To do so is to be arrogantly egocentric. In short, it is to believe oneself to be taller than you actually are," he said.

He said democracy was a practice and not only rhetoric.

"And a democrat is known by their conduct, not only by their self-aggrandizing statements. Can a president who celebrates an incident of police shooting at innocent leaders of the opposition claim to be a democrat?

Can a president who superintends over systems that declare his predecessor who had been president for twenty seven years stateless be considered a democrat?

Can a president who enacts laws to bar his known competitors from taking part in elections be considered a democrat?” Lubinda asked. “How can a president who amends the law to reduce the bar of being elected from 50 per cent plus one to simple majority claim to know anything about democracy?

For a person who, in broad daylight invested so much public money and public effort in an attempt to manipulate the constitution to allow himself a third term, to claim to be a democrat is diabolical. Does Mr Chiluba think that Zambians have forgotten how hard they fought him to stop his third term bid?

"Does Mr Chiluba think that we have forgotten how he introduced the infamous Presidential Slush fund which he used for no other purpose but to buy loyalty? Mr Chiluba should not ever consider himself a democrat because all his actions during and after his presidential tenure point to a demagogue."

He said Chiluba should be reminded that after 1991, Zambia experienced the passage of laws that targeted individuals.

"His rivals of sorts. That is not akin good governance - it is called abuse of office and authority. Do we have to remind him that a number of assassinations that took place during his tenure have not yet been explained to date?

There cannot be a worse form of violence than unexplained assassinations of political players. Mr Chiluba is again right when he says that as president and as appointing authority of the prisons and police services commission, he had records on every one of his ministers," Lubinda said.

"As such, we challenge him to use his vantage position to reveal the circumstances under which Dr Kaunda and Dr Roger Chongwe were shot at in Kabwe.

Can he please inform the nation the circumstances under which his former ministers Ronald Penza and Paul Tembo were killed in cold blood? Can he also inform the nation how Wezi Kaunda met his death? What about Baldwin Nkumbula?"

Lubinda said Chiluba's understanding of councils’ responsibility in the issuance of title deeds was very limited.

“For his information, the delay in the issuance of title deeds to those who bought council and other government houses is not limited to the ex-miners because many other people, even here in Lusaka, are yet to obtain these important land records.

The delays are occasioned at the Ministry of Lands and not by councils. How then should Chiluba blame councils and particularly PF councils? After all the houses were sold in 2000/2001 as a campaign for Mr Chiluba's failed third term bid," Lubinda said.

"Title deeds should have been processed long before PF emerged victorious in the 2006 elections. Can Mr Chiluba explain which council meeting resolved that title deeds be delayed so as to affect the ex-miners?

What mechanisms can councils use to cause a delay of issuance of title deeds at the Ministry of Lands? So as not to qualify to be referred to as a pathological liar, Mr Chiluba should come out clean on his allegation."

He said Chiluba's desperation was very vivid from his illogical arguments.

"While on one hand he cries that people are not able to use their houses as collateral to borrow money from established financial institutions due to frozen title deeds, he on the other hand questions the value of the same property that is meant to be collateral. He declared that for a house that was bought for as little as K10,000, K15,000 or K20,000 can suddenly be valued at K60,000,000 for purposes of rates is criminal," Lubinda said.

“It is clear that the man is politicking because he knows pretty well that there is a distinction between the sale value, value for purposes of rates as well as value for purposes of collateral. Chiluba knows that he sold the houses at arbitrary prices - he did not so much as ask competent officers of the government Valuation Department to value them before selling them.”

He said it was totally callous for Chiluba to disparage councils' failure to maintain the road infrastructure because he personally was responsible for the erosion of the revenue base of councils.

"It was he who transferred the collection of road tax from councils to central government. It was he who forced councils to sell all their property from which they were earning rents," he said.

On Constituency Development Fund (CDF), Lubinda said Chiluba knows pretty well that the much talked about K600 million given to each constituency annually could not construct half a kilometre of road.

“Let alone opening up adequate drainage systems in the constituencies. Compare this to the K 10 billion which government allocated for Kanyama drainage systems alone. If the drainage systems in Kanyama will require more than K 10 billion, how can Mr Chiluba insinuate that the total of K4.2 billion from all the seven Lusaka constituencies can open up all drainage systems in the whole of Lusaka?” he said.

He challenged President Banda to commission an evaluation of the Home Ownership empowerment programme.

He said it was interesting that during late Levy Mwanawasa's presidency, Chiluba was often in South African hospitals.

"Yes, it is understandable that freedom is taken so much for granted that when it is lost even only momentarily, you value it more when it is returned.
This should explain why Mr Chiluba was so patronising over President Banda and Vice-President George Kunda. He knows that his freedom is in their hands," Lubinda said.

"Suprisingly, even Mr William Banda who Chiluba deported to Malawi only to be brought back to Zambia by late President Mwanawasa was being addressed with personal affection by Mr Chiluba.

How can a man that you declared a foreigner now qualify to be addressed as your vibrant provincial chairman?”

Labels: CHILUBA, GIVEN LUBINDA

posted by MrK @ 4:58 PM