Maravi

Kambwili urges The Post to criticize Pact in govt

Kambwili urges The Post to criticize Pact in govt
By Patson Chilemba
Thu 17 June 2010, 08:00 CAT

CHISHIMBA Kambwili has urged The Post to criticise the PF-UPND Pact once they assume power in the same way the newspaper is maintaining checks and balances on the MMD government.

Speaking when he and two other PF members of parliament, Samuel Chitonge Mwansabombwe and Davies Mwila Chipili, paid a courtesy call on Post editor Fred M'membe at The Post offices last Friday, Kambwili advised M'membe and The Post not to change their stance on national issues.

“We want to appeal to you that your stance on national issues should not end with the MMD government. Even if we came into power as PF, when we come into power you should continue criticising us if we make mistakes.

To some of us criticism is very healthy because a person who is never criticised will never do the right thing," said Kambwili who is Roan member of parliament.

"Even us when we come to power I would appeal to my colleagues in the PF and UPND that we should accept the criticism of The Post because it is extremely healthy for the development of this country."

In response, M'membe said The Post would not stop what it is doing.

“I am glad that you recognise our role that even if next year you win the elections as PF-UPND Pact, you want us to continue criticising your government in the way we are doing.

We'll have no choice because there is no sensible alternative for us other than to do that,” M'membe said. “Any government that is not subjected to scrutiny is headed for tyranny. Any person who has nobody to stand up to him is headed for disaster.”

M'membe said the exercise of power should be subjected to constant restraint and humility, saying even emperors who were never questioned by anybody ended up in disastrous situations.

"I can speak for the Barotse Royal Establishment. The Litunga throughout history was subjected to critics.

In Lealui even lunatics woke up in the middle of the night, started hurling all sorts of criticism at the Litunga. No one arrested them...probably at that time they were more democratic than we are today," M'membe said.

"One thing that we seem to have learnt from our colonial masters is how to use prisons...anybody who speaks against you is an enemy. The first thing they do is to set the police on them, and the prisons that were built for other things now have been built to arrest free speech."

M'membe wondered how long this trend of using the law enforcement agencies to intimidate political opponents and those with divergent views would go on.

"Our instinct of survival as human beings will not allow us no matter what forces of repression. It will not silence us. How many times, Sir, Kambwili have you been arrested? Have you kept quiet? Have you been broken?" M’membe asked.

Kambwili chipped in questioning the failure by the police to arrest health deputy minister Dr Solomon Musonda who shot a PF cadre in the head.

“When I was arrested, comrade, there was nothing like recording a warn and caution statement for them to go and investigate.

I was taken to the police at about 11 o’clock, 11:15 warn and caution statement, 11:16 I was arrested, thrown in cells," he said.

Kambwili said the idea of taking people to court or arresting them on Friday must come to an end.

“Today Friday as I speak to you one of our members of parliament is supposed to be arrested by the Drug Enforcement Commission. He had been going there since Monday and they never bothered to arrest him, and today they planned to arrest him.

But we have also said 'no, go and report there on Monday next week' so that we see what they want to do...they just want to embarrass him that he went to prison and then release him on Monday,” Kambwili said.

“Like it happened to you they knew that of course if they take you in the afternoon there will be no time to run around for bail. All they want is to see you exposed to such kind of situations."

Kambwili advised The Post to soldier on because it was the only free press the nation had.

In response, M'membe said The Post would always provide a platform for all.
M'membe also said the church had an important role to play in society, saying Jesus Christ's doctrine was devoted to fighting injustice and was crucified for the positions he took.

However, he said today the church was being criminilised when it speaks.
"We have priests being detained. This is one of the few countries where priests are detained for simply carrying on their duty as disciples to Christ," M'membe said.

"But of course we know that where there is crucification there is always a resurrection. The resurrection of the Zambian people will come."
Kambwili said the arrest of M'membe was political because President Banda made it very clear when he addressed the MMD cadres at State House that he would fix The Post.

He said he considered M’membe’s imprisonment as a blessing in disguise because he saw the true conditions under which prisoners live.

And M'membe said the preservation of values, the defence of principles and the willingness to speak for those who could not speak for themselves was important now. He said the worst affected were the prisoners because they had no capacity to speak for themselves.

M'membe said people were sent to prison to reform and not to be dehumanised.
“The Lozis say akufosibatu kufosalikota, meaning it is not the trees that commit crimes or offences. It is human beings, and the fact that one committed a crime does not deprive him of being a human being...those prisons were built for human beings and they have to meet the standards of human habitation," said M'membe.
CK/AM

Labels: CHISHIMBA KAMBWILI, FRED M'MEMBE, PF, THE POST

posted by MrK @ 3:44 PM