Chiti opposes pact between Rupiah, HH

Chiti opposes pact between Rupiah, HH
By Patson Chilemba and Moses Kuwema
Mon 17 Oct. 2011, 13:10 CAT

MMD members should rise up and fight the pact between Rupiah Banda and Hakainde Hichilema, says Bwalya Chiti. And Chiti says disunity in the MMD will continue for as long as former Republican president Banda remains leader of the party.

Meanwhile, Chiti has resigned from the party citing the continued practice of having a few NEC members to make decisions on important matters on behalf of the party, to the exclusion of the rest of the NEC members.

In an interview, Chiti said discussions between Banda and UPND leader Hichilema to have the MMD and UPND get into a pact had been going on without the involvement of most senior former ruling party members, especially national executive committee (NEC) members.

Chiti, who was until his resignation MMD legal committee chairman in the NEC, said there was an element of excluding those who had different opinions from the discussions, including the issue of working with UPND.

"A good number of us are not really for that idea. Basically what we would have imagined and what I had proposed myself was that ‘let's see how we can work with the PF government, firstly in terms of choosing the Speaker'. I proposed to the national secretary Major Richard Kachingwe to pass on that information," he said.

Chiti said he proposed that the PF should be allowed to nominate the Speaker of the National Assembly, while the MMD had all along set their eyes on Mkhondo Lungu, who is now the deputy Speaker, for the position.

He said he was later informed that the party leadership was not interested in his proposal.

"So how do you start working with a party which is so small, UPND has 28 seats, when you have 54 seats? You can't even at worst have your own candidate for Speaker. So we are having a situation of the Arab and the camel, where slowly MMD is likely to be swallowed by UPND because of the type of leadership style we have who are afraid for themselves and they want to hide in the party," Chiti said.

He said the scheme to enter into a pact with the UPND would not work because several individuals, like he had already done, would rise up and say enough is enough.

"We will have members of parliament from the MMD who will not accept it, but for as long as Mr Rupiah Banda is president of the party we don't know when he is going out of the party, the disunity will continue and we will get to a level where members of parliament will do their own thing," Chiti said.

"So I don't see it succeeding. You can't always succeed in taking over things as we all know how things have been taken over."

Chiti said MMD members should not accept the manoeuvres by Banda to auction their party to Hichilema.

"They should not continue this silence…I would encourage them to speak out, especially those who have a platform, the members of parliament because those cannot be touched," he said.

Chiti said he had ambitions to ascend to the MMD presidency, but his ambitions had been frustrated by the style of leadership obtaining in the former ruling party.

He said the MMD lost the elections because the campaign was ‘prosecuted' by a few people, and most members did not even know the source of the campaign funds and materials.

Chiti said he was asked to contest the Kabwata and Mpika-Central seats but he refused.

"And also the perception of corruption had really, really increased to an extent where there was this phrase of politics of benefit. Majority of the leadership where involved in this politics of benefit. There were a few of us who never had that benefit at all, and I am glad I didn't follow that path because I have never been a tenderpreneur," he said, referring to several members that were focused on benefiting from government tenders.

Chiti supported calls for Banda and the other leaders to be probed over corruption allegations.

"Not only president Banda, but also any other person, whether they are ministers, whoever found themselves in this promotion of criminality or illegality they must face the law," said Chiti.

And in his resignation letter addressed to the party national secretary Major Richard Kachingwe, Chiti named some of the decisions that were made in such a manner as the person to be supported by MMD members of parliament for the position of the Speaker of the National Assembly.

Others include the person to become leader of the official opposition in the house, the type and manner of opposition to be provided by MMD as the official opposition and the treatment of MMD members of parliament appointed as ministers into the Patriotic Front government.

"My personal positions on the above matters were discussed with you with a view for you to accordingly advise the party president and his inner circle. It is quite clear from the happenings in the recent past, such as the MMD members of parliament having a caucus meeting with the UPND leadership and the subsequent pact to support Mr Richard Kapita of the UPND for the position of speaker of the National Assembly."

The rumours on the choice of leader of the official opposition and the intention to expel MMD members of parliament who have accepted to be ministers in the PF government, are all contrary to how I see the MMD in opposition contributing to national development as a loyal opposition," read Chiti's letter.

Chiti stated that he was not prepared to have such important decisions made in the name of the party by a selected few without his active participation and contribution in a democratic manner.

He said in view of the foregoing, he was left with no option but to tender his resignation from both his position as chairman of legal affairs committee of the NEC as well as that of ordinary member of the party with immediate effect.

And Chiti stated that during the meeting of the Parliamentary Liason Committee (PLC) of the party held at the Golf View Hotel on September 27, 2011, he had very strong personal views on the way forward.

He stated that among the demands he made were the immediate resignation of Banda as party president together with his inner circle, immediately constituting a postmortem team on the performance of the party in the September 20, tripartite elections.

Other demands included the election of a new leadership composed of individuals who have not been tainted with perceived corrupt practices, not only in the running of the MMD government but also in the management of the MMD electoral campaigns especially relating to the September 20 tripartite elections.

Chiti stated that so far none of these demands had been attended to apart from the imposition of Dr Kalombo Mwansa (MMD Chairman international relations) as team leader of the postmortem sub-committee.

He stated that the top leadership, irregularly refused to allow members to propose names during the aforesaid meeting of the rest of the postmortem team.