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Undignified former presidents will be bruised – Syakalima

Undignified former presidents will be bruised – Syakalima
By Mwala Kalaluka
Sun 28 Feb. 2010, 03:20 CAT

FORMER presidents who do not hold their office with dignity by continuing to cast aspersions on the political opponents will be bruised, Siavonga UPND member of parliament Douglas Syakalima has declared. And Kafulafuta MMD member of parliament George Mpombo has said the part that former president Frederick Chiluba is currently playing in MMD was a destabilising factor.

But UNIP vice-president Njekwa Anamela said former presidents should not be constitutionally gagged from supporting their political parties just because they had left State House.

During a Southern African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD)/ Press Freedom Committee (PFC) of The Post-organised discussion on whether the involvement of former presidents into active politics was a source of conflict on Friday, Syakalima said it was.

Syakalima said although former presidents still had an allegiance to their political parties, a former head of state cannot start running the day-to-day state functions.

“It is unacceptable for a former head of state even where there is no election to start running politics,” Syakalima said amidst applause.

“We have examples of even Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela supported Mbeki during the election. He also supported Zuma but then you saw the support it was a dignity befitting a former head of state. That is what we require.”

Syakalima asked the audience if they ever saw Mandela cast aspersions on other political opponents after the election and most of them responded in the negative.

“I can’t respect a former head of state who goes to the Copperbelt and says ‘today I am meeting miners to tell me so that I take to the President’,” he said.

Syakalima said a former president who campaigns for his party must do so with dignity and not with insults on the other opponent.

“Support your party with dignity otherwise nobody gonna respect you. I am just being told that that press conference that Chiluba held it is being played in Chipata.

So they are playing it on all radio stations everywhere and the person when he was having a press briefing was casting aspersions on the other opponents. So, how can you be respected…you do not do that at the expense of being called a crook,” Syakalima said. “You respect the office and carry the office with dignity then I am gonna respect you. If you do not then we will bruise each other.”

PF spokesperson Given Lubinda said former heads of state should be above active politics.

“It is incumbent upon the retired presidents to choose that very thin line between being a statesman and being a partisan politician,” Lubinda said. “Somebody will not be able to regulate that for them because doing so is denying that person to continue pursuing their ideals.”

Lubinda asked the audience if US President Barack Obama would have appointed former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton as goodwill ambassadors for Haiti if the previous day they had been addressing meetings insulting the head of state.

“Much as they are political party members they keep it with decorum,” Lubinda said. “In politics it is a question of passing the button and once you have run the race you pass to other, once you have passed the button you stand aside and cheer. You do not run along.”

And Mpombo said Chiluba’s statement that there would be no election at the MMD convention because President Rupiah Banda was the automatic candidate was a root of disunity in the MMD.

“The part of the former president is a destabilisng factor in the sense that our party is founded on a bedrock of democracy and therefore we should be the ones to continue to be a beacon of democracy,” Mpombo said. “Former president Chiluba says no election at the convention because President Banda is automatically the president, that is stifling democracy in the party. That is counterproductive.”

Earlier, Mpombo also said a former head of state must not participate in active politics because of the shadow boxing and insults involved in the arena.

“It puts the former president in a compromised position,” Mpombo said. “It is very important for former heads of state to completely distance themselves from political shootouts.”

Mpombo said Zambia’s political stability could only be maintained by having former presidents out of active politics.

But Anamela said the issue on the role of retired presidents was making very interesting reading in the newspapers today, hence a topical subject.

Anamela said the fact that former presidents had left office does not mean they had ceased to be citizens.

“It will be unreasonable to expect such elderly statesmen to ignore their parties or to refrain from supporting their parties,” Anamela said.

“Former heads of state have a role to play in a partisan way also as much as they have a role to play in a more partisan way. As former heads of state, it does not mean they are barred from holding their opinion. They have the right just like you and me.”

He said the definition of the role of a former president after leaving office was being left to their own initiative because of the defective legal tenets regarding the aspect.

“It is up to us citizens to accept or to reject their opinion,” said Anamela.

Labels: DOUGLAS SYAKALIMA, PRESIDENCY, SIAVONGA

posted by MrK @ 5:52 PM