Chilembo and NCC behaved shamefully
Chilembo and NCC behaved shamefullyBy The Post Editor
Fri 16 Apr. 2010, 04:00 CAT
WHEN we have said that Rupiah Banda and his minions do not believe that they are the government and therefore responsible to provide services to our people, we have no doubt that some of our people have wondered why we have been so hard.
It seems that although Rupiah likes to boast about being ‘boma’ – the government, he is only interested in the benefits that the office brings. Rupiah has no passion to serve our people and provide them with the basic necessities of life.
It does not seem that he realises, that as the government, they are the only authority that can attend to the many challenges that our people face. These people do not accept that it is their responsibility to ensure that our people are looked after. This is something that we’ve been talking about for sometime now and now we have been proved very right.
What happened the other day at the National Constitutional Conference when it was time to discuss the right to be free from hunger and to have access to food is very shameful indeed. People who, in all probability had three square meals, and hefty allowances at the taxpayers’ expense, were laughing at the need for the right to food and other social rights to be included in the Constitution.
We are not qualified to discuss the legalities of whether or not such a right should or could be enshrined in the Constitution. The little knowledge that we have acquired does not enable us to do that as competently as others might. Our interest is to expose the folly of those who sit and laugh at the needs of our people. How can anyone in their right frame of mind laugh and dismiss the need for our people to have access to food?
This is only done by people who are so careless and blinded by the allowances that they get. These people who are sitting to discuss the Constitution have forgotten that they are there to represent the people and discuss how the Constitution is going to address the basic necessities of life.
Laughing at the need for improving people’s living is shameful and something that should tell us the quality of the discourse that is going on in the National Constitutional Conference. There is complete and utter of seriousness.
Maybe the ordinary delegates could be forgiven for behaving in the way that they did because one may have to accept that they do not know what they are doing.
But how can a minister in a government proclaim that the provision of water, good shelter and a toilet for our people is impossible and utopian? Deputy justice minister Todd Chilembo in discussing the rights to water and food said the following: “I think this clause is utopian. Even Kaunda and his humanist regime did not have this dream.
You are talking of food, shelter with bathing shower and toilet for every person; how possible is that? We don’t want to live in a utopian society”. This is what a minister in Rupiah’s government believes, that our people have no right to aspire to a life where they can have access to clean water and sanitation, adequate shelter and food.
This is a man who was driven to the National Constitutional Conference in a vehicle that we pay for as taxpayers, in all probability lives in a house that we pay for, uses a toilet that we pay for. Because we provide all these things for him, he has forgotten that they cost money and that other people deserve them also.
What could be more basic than providing water and sanitation in a nation? But if a government believes that access to water and sanitation for our people is utopian, why are they in government? What is their job? We should now all understand what kind of government we have. These are people who believe that the problems that our people face have nothing to do with them. They can continue flying around and enjoying taxpayer facilities without delivering on the people’s requirements.
It is shocking that at a time when we are losing many people to simple waterborne diseases such as cholera, a minister can stand and say providing proper sanitation to all our people is utopian. What hope is there for this country? Rupiah and his ministers do not mean well for our people. They have no clue what it is to run a country.
This is why Chilembo can even mock Dr Kaunda’s government saying that even Kaunda’s humanist regime did not have such a dream. He forgets that one of the driving principles of comrade KK and his colleagues in their earlier days of government was to provide basic services to our people. It remains for every succeeding government to build on that dream and not to dismiss the plight of the people as utopian in the way that Chilembo has done.
Anyway, the behaviour of Chilembo should not surprise anyone. It typifies his government’s approach to very complex requirements of leadership. They have no real understanding of how government operates and what its functions are.
They think that government is this nebulas machine that controls things without clear leadership and input from natural human beings. To them government or ‘boma’ is a distant thing that has no obligations to the people on whose behalf it runs. This is why we say they are not fully in charge.
They are at the mercy of their own imaginations and have no clue and clear understanding of what they should be doing. They don’t really sit down to ask themselves what is the purpose of government. They don’t seem to spend too much time asking themselves how the operations of government are going to be funded.
In short, they are irresponsible. They do not feel the pressure to provide services to our people. Their job is to remain in power for its own sake. This explains why Chilembo and their agents in the National Constitutional Conference can so irresponsibly laugh at efforts that try to compel our government to provide basic services and social amenities to our people.
To them, saying our people need to be fed and given proper sanitation is a laughing matter. What a shame! What is this Constitution going to do if not to ensure that this country is made more livable and that the resources that we have as a nation are used to better the quality of life for all our people?
Laughing at people’s hunger and their lack of water and sanitation is foolish and undermines the legitimacy of government. If you can’t provide hope to our people, don’t be a politician. As for Chilembo, every time he uses a toilet paid for by government and toilet tissue paid for by government, he should remember that all our people deserve the dignity of a decent toilet, and this is not utopian.
Labels: HUMAN RIGHTS, NCC
posted by MrK @ 2:07 PM
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