Pact was created for wrong reasons - Miyanda

Pact was created for wrong reasons - Miyanda
By Chibaula Silwamba
Mon 19 July 2010, 04:00 CAT

THE PF-UPND pact was created for wrong reasons and followed the same pattern of lies and half-truths of previous electoral alliances like the UDA, Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda has charged.

In a media statement issued in Lusaka yesterday, Brig Gen Miyanda stated that he had found United Party for National Development (UPND) president Hakainde Hichilema’s claim that the PF-UPND pact was the “only option” for Zambia to be wishful thinking and hence his comment on the Pact.

“I laud the recent Post revelations and editorials on the PF/UPND Pact. The Post warnings are timely because the Pact was born the same way that the UDA had been,” Brig Gen Miyanda stated. “Dismissing the point of The Post advice is their choice but not a wise one.”

Prior to the 2006 tripartite elections, the UPND, UNIP and Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) formed the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) to unseat then president Levy Mwanawasa.

Brig Gen Miyanda stated that although he agreed with Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata’s observation that non-members of the Pact should leave them to sort out their internal disputes, he was an exception because he was a target of some of their lies that added to his continued stigmatisation.

Brig Gen Miyanda, who is president of the Heritage Party, observed that a genuine pact or alliance must look beyond winning an election.

He observed that promoters of the PF-UPND pact had refused to learn from past alliances as their rationale was ill-motivated from inception.

“Instead of being defensive, it is important for them to take seriously the correct advice by The Post. I agree and support everything said by The Post so far,” Brig Gen Miyanda said.

“The issues that have compelled me to comment on the Pact are ones that The Post has repeatedly emphasised in the past week: namely shifting sands, evasion, lies and half truths. To me, these stand out as the labels that presently clothe and identify the Pact. I have latched onto The Post issues of truthfulness and honesty because of what happened to me; the two leaders lied about me, giving the impression that we had been talking; an absolute lie.”

He challenged PF-UPND pact leaders to truthfully answer about his alleged association with them.

Brig Gen Miyanda stated that the leaders of the PF-UPND Pact laid the foundation of lies about him on Muvi Television, Radio Yatsani, in The Post and other fora.

“They alleged that they had talked to me or were engaging me. They announced that in Zambia there were only three genuine opposition parties, namely the Heritage, UPND and PF. President Hichilema went further on Muvi TV and disparaged political parties that had supported President Rupiah Banda during the 2008 presidential by-election, calling them bootlickers. President Sata did the same on Radio Yatsani,” Brig Gen Miyanda stated.

“But a short while later, they announced the formation of the PF/UPND Pact, declaring that there were only ‘two giant opposition parties that were going to liberate Zambia’, namely UPND and PF.

They maliciously kept quiet about what had happened to the third party that they themselves had named, leaving the public to make their own conclusions that ‘Miyanda must have refused as usual’.”

Brig Gen Miyanda recalled that during the first memorial service of the late president Levy Mwanawasa at Cathedral of the Holy Cross in 2009, Hichilema and Sata accosted and queried him why they the trio were not working together.

“Hichilema declared inside that holy place that ‘you and us are meant to be working together’. I reminded the two that they had short memories and were not truthful. They agreed that they had not handled the matter well and were ready to start afresh and correct the mistake,” Brig Gen Miyanda explained. “I said that the ball was in their court as it was them to correct what they had done.”

Brig Gen Miyanda stated that in spite of this undertaking, Sata later addressed The Post’s Press Freedom Committee newsmakers’ forum at Mulungushi International Conference Centre, where he again repeated the lie.

“If they have lied then they are getting support for lies and half truths,” stated Brig Gen Miyanda. “I am sad to acknowledge that in Zambia leaders do not solve problems but instead create them and when things go wrong they blame imaginary foes. They must retract the lies and apologise to all those they have deceived thus far. It will be a good starting point before they make any attempts to regain credibility.”