‘CHURCH MUST HAVE ROLE IN DIALOGUE’
IT IS an insult to Zambians that the reconciliation process which was initiated by the Catholic Bishops has now been “hijacked” by the Commonwealth while the church has been reduced to mere spectators.
Evangelical Youth Alliance (EYA) executive director Moses Lungu said the Church was a serious stakeholder in issues of national unity and peace as well as in the dialogue process, yet it had now been reduced to mere spectators.
Rev. Lungu says the complete technical elimination of the church from the national dialogue and reconciliation process among political players is likely to boomerang as it may not be premised on sincerity but could be a pedestrian activity whose outright beneficiary may be imperialists and not Zambians.
Rev. Lungu said the church had played a critical role in upholding the tenets of democracy, the rule of law, national building, and offering checks and balances to those in power since independence to ensure that those entrusted with national responsibility did not divert from their mandate.
And the Zambia Centre for Interparty Dialogue (ZCID) will not achieve its intended purpose with regards to the proposed di- alogue between UPND leader, Hakainde Hichilema and President Edgar Lungu if it decides to work in isolation, Bishops Council of Zambia (BCZ) secretary general Able Kaela has warned.
And Rev Kaela disclosed that there was intelligence information that individuals linked to the cartel were strongly against the dialogue.
He told the Daily Nation that ZCID needed to work closely with Church mother bodies and other stakeholders if the whole dialogue process was to become a success.
Rev Kaela reiterated that the power of the cartel should not be undermined, but that it could be clipped if all stakeholders worked together.
He pointed out that at least President Lungu had visibly showed his commitment to the process, and that it was still questionable on the part of Mr Hichilema following his continued attacks on the President.
Rev Kaela advised Mr Hichilema to stop trying to plunge the nation into chaos if he was truly committed to the proposed dialogue.
“Recently he was talking about holding elections, whatever he meant but how can someone who is committed to the dialogue process be talking of such. At least we are seeing commitment from President Lungu.
“And if ZCID is to achieve its purpose in this process, they have to work with church mother bodies and all stakeholders. We have information that some people are not happy with the proposed dialogue, so they will do everything possible to disturb the process,” he warned.
Meanwhile, Rev Kaela welcomed the call for the dialogue process to be locally driven and ZCID, including the church to be given a prominent role.
He assured that as long as all the necessary stakeholders were involved in the dialogue process, the initiative would be a success.
And Rev Lungu said while international entities’ involvement in promoting peace in other countries was inevitable, their sole indulgence should only be allowed when all possible local channels to arrest the lurking negative challenges were exhausted by the locals until no possible solution was arrived at unlike the current situation in Zambia.
He noted that without the involvement of the church, the on-going national dialogue may yield irreversible and disastrous results which the country will live to regret as the church had the interest of the Zambians at heart and understood the problem at hand better than any foreign entity.