Fellow Citizens,
I recently read from The Mast newspaper reporting that President Hakainde Hichilema has formally apologized to the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops over the recent inappropriate incident in Kabwe where police halted a private meeting between the Bishop of Kabwe, the Rt. Rev Clement Mulenga, and myself.
If what the unnamed Minister quoted by the newspaper is saying is true, then I commend the President for being magnanimous when wrong. However, there is no reason to mark routine government correspondence to citizens and civil society as “secret” unless one is attempting to hide an embarrassment or to placate the church but avoid doing it publicly. This is unprofessional and unpresidential because the wrong was done in public view to the extent that most of our citizens are equally still offended.
Or maybe the Minister is lying about President Hichilema´s reported secret apology to the Catholic Bishops over the Kabwe incident, otherwise, why classify the information?
Going forward, I hope we can have genuine and open apologies regarding other issues such as the record-high cost of mealie meal, electricity shortages, expensive transportation, food, and expensive fuel. This is part of good governance.
We are now experiencing load-shedding that now extends beyond 12 hours, the indiscriminate selling of the nation’s mining assets and contraction of new debt without parliamentary approval. These policy misdeeds require public apologies to Zambians too!
The ongoing assault on our democracy including denying of opposition parties their constitutional right to hold public meetings, the numerous and arbitrary pre-trial arrests of opposition leaders and civic activists on fake charges. The constant violation of human rights and the rule of law, the criminal behaviour of panga yielding ruling party cadres, the deep regional divisions instigated by the executive, and…yes, the LIES. All these need public apologies from the President himself!
By the way, these are the issues that Zambians want government to address. Not more self-praise. Not telling people that we are spying on them. Not the false claims of “I was put on death row” when the matter never touched any court trial and judgement after regional and global mediation. As any lawyer would easily tell you, a person is only put on death row after they have been tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Fyalungula! Next time, we will be told “I even died.”
As president, I kept quiet whenever I had nothing significant to say. As leaders, let us stop wasting people’s time with meaningless, hour-long addresses. Let us learn to keep quiet and stay away from the press if all we can muster is our pathological pursuit of personal interests, political bitterness and hatred at the expense of the interests of the majority poor and unemployed Zambians that can barely eat a meal a day.
If leaders have failed to govern, it is better to step down and resign, so that other competent Zambians can take over. This is normal political practices worldwide.
And if people complain about tribalism, the solution is not to enact laws that would result in stiffer punishment for those complaining but to correct the situation. In civilized societies, governments don’t punish the victims or complainants of visible bad policies, democratic governments listen to their voters and change the bad attitude and policies to address citizens’ complaints.
There´s no need to threaten Zambians with mass arrests when they complain against tribalism and regionalism.
Let government demonstrate policy shift against tribalism and most people will stop complaining. In a true democracy, people must have the freedom to express themselves freely without fearing an arrest and punishment, that only happens in a dictatorship. The last time I checked as former President, Zambia was a democracy, NOT a dictatorship. No threats will silence Zambians.
God bless you all.
Edgar Chagwa Lungu
Sixth President of Zambia
PF President.