NCC - a waste of time and money
NCC - a waste of time and moneyBy The Post
Sun 21 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT
It must now be clear to all that the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) is a waste of time and money.
It must be clear even to those participating in the NCC that they have betrayed public trust and what they are doing is not in public interest but their own narrow personal and group interests.
The whole exercise has been characterised by shallowness, pettiness and a desire to fix their real or perceived political opponents.
Those participating in the NCC seem to have perceived the whole process as nothing more than a forum in which they can express their demands and have their will prevail over those of others. This is not a way to come up with a constitution that can stand the test of time.
It is also clear that most of the participants in the NCC have no interest in the future nation, the future Zambia.
The present seems to owe them everything; they are propelled by expediencies of the moment and not the desire to come up with the constitution that will help us construct a more prosperous and democratic nation.
This is very dangerous because in their pursuit of today’s personal gains they are throwing away the future of their children, and their children’s children. We say this because the future nation will not be built in the future; it will be built on the threshold of today’s decisions and actions.
Given our present problems and the uncertain future that these give rise to, given the reality that we are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today and that we are confronted with the fierce urgency of now, in the unfolding life and history, it is criminal to see things in such a narrow way, with such short-sightedness.
We must work unceasingly to lift this nation to a higher destiny, to a new plateau of responsibility and vision.
The Constitution of a country is a national document of the highest importance. As the supreme law of the land, it must be recognized and respected as embodying the sovereign will of the majority of the people.
What we are seeing at the NCC is the betrayal, the abandonment of the sovereign will of the great majority of our people as expressed in the Mung’omba draft constitution which was a product of direct deep and extensive consultations with the people.
The will of the people has been subordinated to the whims of about 500 well-selected and remunerated characters. And it is clear that the great majority of these characters are not there to advance the interests of our people but their own and those of their political masters, their sponsors or benefactors.
For this reason, they have not hesitated to abandon the people’s wishes as expressed in the Mung’omba draft constitution. For instance, the people wanted 50 per cent plus one majority vote in a presidential election.
Themselves want simple majority and their will has more or less prevailed over that of the people. The people wanted increased press freedom in their country.
Them have taken measures not to advance press freedom but to curtail it. They have elevated their current political battles above the constitution and above the wishes of the people.
Their problems with one newspaper has blinded them from the true meaning and value of a free press.
Out of their political fears, they have openly advocated for curtailed press freedom. One of their commissioners, Chama Chilukuta, put it more aptly:
“The media today is quite dangerous. It is only today that we have certain print media publishing words like idiot, foolish towards fellow human beings or even the head of state.
I am not saying its all media, but one groundnut can destroy the goodness of the other groundnuts. We need to provide safety measures.”
This NCC commissioner doesn’t even realise that words like foolish are also found in the Holy Bible and are used in it even by Jesus Christ to describe the unacceptable behaviour of certain human beings, including that of King Herod whom Jesus referred to as a fox. So are we also being told that they should provide safety measures against the Holy Bible?
And in pursuit of one unacceptable groundnut they are ready to destroy, curtail press freedom in this country for everybody! What type of people are these? What type of reasoning is this?
We have never understood this type of reasoning that seems to suggest that the press will only enjoy full rights when every one of them is worthy of it; when it is more ‘responsible’. Don’t they know that constitutional rights do not have to be earned by conduct?
We hold that the greatest right in the world is the right to be wrong, that in the exercise thereof people have an inviolable right to express their unbridled thoughts on all topics and personalities, being liable only for the abuse of that right.
Press freedom, or any other right for that matter, would be a farce if it only meant the freedom to report pleasant things.
It is often said that a free press – which often forces us to confront that which we may find unsettling – is the price of democracy. We believe a free press is not costly to society, is not dangerous to a nation. It is, in fact, a reward to a nation, to democracy.
It is said that every man or woman should have an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he or she pleases before the public; to forbid this, is to destroy the freedom of the press; but if he or she publishes what is improper, mischievous, or illegal, he or she must take the consequences of his or her own temerity.
Of course, appreciating the fact that the right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. Clearly, the mere fact that speech is accompanied by conduct does not mean that the speech should be suppressed under the guise of prohibiting the conduct.
And as we have stated before, we who so staunchly espouse free press and then seek to edit it must be wary that from today’s decisions might leach tomorrow’s hypocrisy.
And as Nelson Mandela intelligently advised, “none of our irritations with the perceived inadequacies of the media should ever allow us to suggest even faintly that the independence of the press could be compromised of coerced”.
We have repeated this advice from Madiba several times in our editorial comments but it seems the personal interests of these people are so entrenched; for them curtailing press freedom seems to be a matter of life and death and they will listen to nobody when it comes to that. They see a free press as being dangerous to their interests, to their political survival.
There will always be deficiencies in everything that is done by a human being. But that should not be the basis to curtail liberties. The cure for an irresponsible press is more press freedom.
This may seem a paradox, but in the name of free speech, free press, a democracy must sometimes defend the rights of individuals and groups whose actions, whose behaviour, whose words are found to be unacceptable.
These rights are defended out of the conviction that, in the end, open debate, a free press will lead to greater truth and wiser public actions than if they are stifled. For this reason people are harmed when a press is suppressed or repressed.
Looking at where we are coming from in terms of the way we have been governing the affairs of our country, the two most decisive factors affecting the consolidation and expansion of democracy in our nation will be the quality of political leadership and economic development.
Listening to the debates at the NCC, one wonders where this country is headed, what this country can achieve with such low capacity, such mediocrity at the helm of this politics, at the apex of this constitution-making process.
It is also clear that with such high levels of unemployment, of poverty and low economic development, people lose the ability to think properly because their immediate needs take precedence over the future of their country.
For a few millions of kwacha, people traded the future of their country for the present needs of their stomachs or pockets. Those who say that economic development makes democracy possible and that political leadership makes it real are very right when one looks at what has been going on at the NCC.
The constitution should reflect the wishes and aspirations of all our people. If it doesn’t, it will not last for long. We say this because the constitution is at the heart of the nation-building process. If it is not right, the nation has no alternative but to change it and make it better or right.
We have no doubt if tomorrow there will be a change of government another constitution review process will be initiated to remedy the situation. People shall be truly free only when their constitution is people-driven.
The constitution must be a medium that regulates human conduct in necessary matters concerning the common good. And for this reason, the constitution must acknowledge, protect, foster, together with the public duties binding all citizens the rights of all individuals and organisations.
Labels: CONSTITUTION, DEAN MUNG'OMBA, NCC
posted by MrK @ 7:25 AM
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