Maravi

PF leaves Chilanga for UPND

PF leaves Chilanga for UPND
By George Chellah
Sun 03 Oct. 2010, 04:02 CAT

THE PF has resolved to allow the UPND field a candidate in the forthcoming Chilanga parliamentary by-election although they still feel they have an upper hand given their general popularity in Lusaka. The PF’s central committee, the party’s supreme organ, which met yesterday at the party secretariat, made the decision to give up Chilanga to their alliance partners.

In his opening remarks before the Central Committee resolved to let go of Chilanga, PF leader Michael Sata said he had taken the blame for several misrepresentations regarding what he said in the past because it was not in his character to stand up each time someone made wild allegations against him.

“As a result, over time, these misrepresentations begin to look like facts in the eyes and minds of the general public. There have been a lot of wild allegations against my person and groups I have belonged to. I have come to realise that in my thinking that one of my weaknesses has been my position that ignoring these attacks was the best approach,” Sata said.

“Today, we are faced with another barrage of innuendos and insinuations in trying to establish the source of the difficulties that we are experiencing in the pact between our party, the PF and the UPND. I do not want to play the blame game here but suffice to urge the public to refocus their minds into the recent past and look at where this current bickering started from.

“Personally, and the rank and file of the PF tried as much as we could to ignore the comments that our colleagues were making until some of our members thought they could not suppress the anger any longer and thus started rebutting.”

Sata said it was disappointing that some people had allowed themselves to be misled, and were now thinking PF was to blame for dashing their hopes which they had had in the pact.

“Before you blame anyone and call us names consider who initiated this hateful and retrogressive passing of comments on the pact. One of the remarks attributed to us, which seems to have been blown out of context is when we stated that the PF representatives who attended the joint working group meeting with UPND earlier this month did not carry the mandate of the party with regard to the issue of the Chilanga by-election,” Sata said.

“I do not see how a committee representing the interests of the entire body would go and start making decisions on issues it has not consulted on. It is like a lawyer, he will only act upon receiving instructions from his client and at times give advice. A lawyer cannot go and lodge an appeal on your behalf before you give him the go ahead. PF did not expect the issue of Chilanga to come up at this meeting and so did not discuss it with the representatives that were going to attend the meeting. In short, we felt that we were ambushed when we heard that there was an agreement to the effect that UPND will field a candidate in the by-election.”

Sata said there were a lot of reasons that had been discussed before such as which party was more popular in Chilanga.

“And that made us feel unduly treated in this matter. I may wish not to expend my energies stressing out those reasons today. The nation is aware that there is that MoU that exists between the PF and the UPND and also that there are issues that have emerged along the way. Surely, one and a half years is too long to go without any misunderstandings between two parties seeking to create a viable working relationship. I believe the parties are learning lessons with regard to adoption of candidates particularly in areas where the MMD held the seat,” Sata said.

“It has been a challenge but as PF, we are hopeful that these misunderstandings will be addressed in line with the provisions of the MoU. We strongly feel that the criteria should be well explained and Zambians be briefed fully once the current thorny issues are ironed out. There are other details in the agreement that people have not fully understood regarding the criteria to apply when picking a candidate. A part from the geographical criteria, there are other factors especially the reality test of which party is more popular in that area on the basis of the previous elections. In the case of Chilanga, our candidate came out as a close number two and given our general popularity in Lusaka we feel we have an upper hand.”

Sata said Zambians demanded that PF and UPND get together so that they could free them from MMD misrule.

“We should not forget that the idea of forming a pact was the people’s desire and Michael Sata and Hakainde Hichilema were only responding to the wishes of the people. I believe it has now been established that PF is a party that places human dignity at the centre of its existence. We have, therefore, no intentions of abandoning the people in this struggle. We are set to continue on this path of forging links with the UPND and indeed any political entity that will help bring hope to the Zambians. However, as we engage with our colleagues in other political organisations, we beg that sincerity be the bedrock of all our activities,” Sata said.

“We should strive not to argue over straight forward issues which will just end up taking up most of the valuable time that we may not even have. Let us not gamble with the forthcoming election; let us not take chances but be sincere and swallow our pride. There are no two ways about it but for the opposition to wrestle power from the MMD in 2011 so that we can help improve the lives of Zambians. We should realise that a win for the PF is a win for the UPND and indeed a win for the people of Zambia. This is what the people want and have been saying.

“It is embarrassing that in Africa, we could be going on endlessly on a similar issue that took our colleagues in the United Kingdom just four days to resolve and a new government is underway as we speak. This is because both parties faced each other with sincerity. Zambians are not interested in the removal of the MMD from power as an end in itself but want medicines and personnel in health centres, they want schools, jobs, food security, housing, good social and economic infrastructure. They cannot get this from a group of politicians that are openly showing their differences day on end on simple issues. This paints a bad picture on those vying for office in the minds of the electorate.”

Sata said it was unfortunate that the media attributed his recent remarks on Hichilema.

“The other statement attributed to me concerns my making a rather very casual remark during my interview with the Voice of America earlier in the week. It is unfortunate that the media chose to attribute this remark to my alliance partner Hakainde Hichilema yet it was directed at the junior officials in the pact who have been issuing damaging remarks that endanger the viability of the alliance,” Sata said.

“It will not help the dead scared MMD and other enemies of the pact to take advantage of this misrepresentation to rub it in. I will soon be meeting with the UPND president to seek a clear understanding on the statements by junior members of the alliance.”

Sata said the misrepresentation in the media sent out a wrong message that he was against allowing young people to take on the reigns of power.

“I know some young people in the country who might not know the type of politics at play are incensed with this unfortunate incident. I urge you not to take it to heart. My team has a lot of young, vibrant and principled professionals who we are grooming for greater leadership responsibilities not just in the future but even now,” Sata said.

“We are talking about decent young people not those easily swayed by the dangling cash that the MMD uses to corrupt the minds of young people. It is in this regard that our government will put in place programmes that will put money in the pockets of citizens so that poverty does not force people to sell their principles.”

Sata said there was need to instill discipline in the party.

“I would like to appeal to you Dr Guy Scott to put some sense discipline in the pact. We have had MPs going on radio to talk about the pact instead of their constituencies,” he said.

Sata also condemned the parliamentarians that were calling for the withdrawal of the circular.

“What’s the purpose of us meeting here if you as an MP is going to decide? You are going to Times of Zambia to complain, what makes you think that we all don’t want to be MPs? What makes you think that Dr Simbyakula here doesn’t want to be MP? It was in 2007 when we resolved that we are going to have the democratization of the party. You are now asking Wynter to withdraw the circular,” said Sata.

Labels: BY-ELECTIONS, MICHAEL SATA, PF, PF-UPND, UPND

posted by MrK @ 1:28 PM