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Zambian politics too dirty for women - Namugala

Zambian politics too dirty for women - Namugala
Zambian politics too dirty for women - Namugala
By Patson Chilemba
Sun 11 July 2010, 04:00 CAT

Tourism minister Catherine Namugala observed yesterday. ZAMBIAN politics are too dirty especially for women, tourism minister Catherine Namugala observed yesterday.

In an interview, Namugala said political parties, including the ruling MMD needed to work harder to ensure that women felt safer because women normally found politics to be too rough.

“Women find it difficult to go out there and swim with all the good, bad, ugly. So they are more reserved. They are more of a gender that wants to be in a more safer place than the politics.

The politics of today are perceived to be very rough for women,” Namugala said. “So yes, we would like to see more women in decision making positions in the party, not just in MMD, but in other political parties as well.

But for that to happen the women need to be assured that they have a place in politics and the politics must become cleaner.

As things are the politics are too rough, too dirty. Some women feel that they cannot really be up to the challenge.”

Namugala noted that there is a saying that politics is a dirty game adding that when people put themselves up to a political office their lives are torn apart.

“The game as it is played is perceived to be a bit too rough for some women. And of course we don’t say that women must not allow themselves to be tested as leaders.

But I think that we need to reach out to that point where politics are about issues and women can use their intelligence to debate these issues without necessarily running the risk of being called names,” Namugala said.

“So even the media when you cover women you tend to bring out more of the negative about women than the positive. And when you are covering men it’s like men have a right to be leaders.”

Namugala said women brought to the fore a sense of social justice.

She said society must be more encouraging for women to go out there and do their best because they had a lot to offer.

She said there was too much character assassination in Zambian politics.
“Yes, that also character assassination you know, when you talk about political debate I expect that a country like Zambia will be talking about ‘how do we educate more of our people?

How do we ensure poverty levels go down? How do we ensure that the natural resources are not depleted, the wealth of the country remains in the hands of the local people?’”

Namugala said. “Those are the issues one expects political leadership to be addressing.

Not to be talking about an individual, ‘how many wives they have for instance. Who said they are stupid? Who said that they don’t have a degree?’

You know those things that are irrelevant, that don’t add value to the lives of a person in Muyombe.”

Namugala said the nation should aspire for leadership that added value to people’s lives.

“A leadership that reduces the suffering of our people. It doesn’t matter which party, MMD, other political parties in the opposition they should aspire to be leaders that will leave a better Zambia than they found,” Namugala said.

“I don’t take sides and I have said this before that it doesn’t matter where you stand, the country needs leadership that is going to help people of Zambia to lead better lives. That is going to create wealth for the people of Zambia.

That is going to make us Zambians feel at home and not like we are visitors or we don’t create wealth. We must feel this is our home because it is.”

Asked if the MMD had managed to achieve some of the goals she had highlighted, Namugala said the government was made up of people who had weaknesses like other human beings, but they were trying very hard to develop the country.

She said the public did not appreciate the good things the government was doing.

“I am not saying all the things we do are good, but the good things we do we don’t see the public appreciating…so yes we have certainly weaknesses like any other humans have, we know that we have made mistakes but we also know that we have done a lot of good,” Namugala said.

Asked if she would aspire for the position of MMD national secretary in an acting capacity since Katele Kalumba had gone on leave, Namugala said as a minister she had more than enough to do.

Asked if women should aspire for the position, Namugala said much as there was a need for women, there would be need to have people with the time to dedicate their efforts to organising the party and making sure that the MMD wins next year’s elections.

She said politics like anything else required people to make themselves available to be elected as leaders.

“If women are not bringing themselves out it’s very difficult for any organisation to go out looking for them.

But at the same time I think that political parties, MMD included need to work harder to ensure that women feel safer in politics because as you have noticed women normally find politics to be too rough,” said Namugala.

Labels: CATHERINE NAMUGALA, MMD, WOMEN

posted by MrK @ 11:46 PM