STOP DEATH THREATS

IT is now more than clear that Zambia’s thriving democracy is in danger of being destroyed not by outsiders, but Zambians themselves. We appear to be heading to a stage where anyone who opposes someone’s position on any given subject is branded an enemy. Should this be the case? In Parliament yesterday, Nalikwanda Member of Parliament Professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa reported that he had been receiving death threats since Tuesday. “I have received death threats from unknown people for not walking out of Parliament with my fellow UPND MPs in protest against the Constitution Amendment Bill No. 10 of 2019 on Tuesday,” Prof Lungwangwa told Parliament yesterday. The reason being that he, with Solwezi West MP Teddy Kasonso disregarded strict orders from their party by remaining in their seats when UPND MPs walked out after Government restored the Constitution Amendment Bill No. 10 of 2019 on the order paper. The UPND MPs have been under instructions from their president Mr Hakainde Hichilema not to support the bill. The party has in fact gone on record that it will take disciplinary action against any of its members who goes against this directive. But should this “disciplinary” action entail threatening someone’s life for following his conscience? This is what the death threats amount to, and unless the UPND top brass distances itself from this extreme behaviour from some of its members, then we can assume that it agrees and supports the threats against Prof Lungwangwa. For all we know, Prof Lungwangwa, who also attended the National Dialogue Forum with other UPND members who defied their party to attend cannot be compared to those who shunned the NDF and probably have not even studied the Bill but are the most vocal critics. To his credit, Prof Lungwangwa was among those MPs picked by the Speaker of the National Assembly to be part of the Parliamentary Select Committee that reviewed the original Bill submitted to the House. The Select Committee not only received more submissions from special interest groups and institutions like the Bank of Zambia, it also refined and removed the more contentious contents in the Bill. It could even be argued that Prof Lungwangwa could have been key in persuading his colleagues on the Select Committee to remove divisive clauses like having a coalition government. If anything, we feel having the calibre of people like Prof Lungwangwa inside the House is more beneficial not only to the UPND but to the nation for they provide the intellectual input needed to come out with a document that could stand the test of time. The professor, we are confident, is more knowledgeable in what the Bill contains such that he did not see any need to play to the gallery by walking out of the National Assembly blindly. As for the death threats, we implore the Zambia Police and the Zambia Information and Communication Agency (ZICTA) not to take them lightly. We demand that they investigate thoroughly and fish out the perpetrators who are a danger to the country’s democracy as well as freedom of conscience. No person should be subjected to a “death sentence” on account of having independent thoughts. The mere fact that one disagrees with someone’s position does not make people become enemies. Our strength as a nation is in our ability to be united amidst our diversity in the cultural, political and religious divide. We must as nation flush out the rogue citizens who do not want to reason but want to force their extremist political views on those who stand for constitutionalism. We agree with Lusaka lawyer and United Liberal Party president Sakwiba Sikota that Zambians should not politicise Constitution Amendment Bill no. 10, saying what was needed was a healthy debate aimed at perfecting it. He said that most of the statements from Bill 10 attackers were based on misinformed claims that were not contained in the Bill. Mr Sikota said Bill 10 was a great step in refining the Constitution and that what were needed were contributions from patriotic Zambians on what other things to include. Yes, what is needed are sober minds and not people who do not even know what they are opposing just because “wamuyayaya says so!