The church must be the uncompressing mediator to politicians
Dear editor,
AS a Christian nation, the church is another critical stakeholder that the politicians both from the left and right should look up to as the voice of reason and hope.
There are times when the relationship between politicians from left and right can have a severely strained relationship and that the parties can only communicate through a third party. Without any taint of doubt, the church is that third party that can present a more voice of reason to foster harmony among the political stakeholders.
We find it strange that the Zambia Council of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) can pen a highly subjective statement that promotes seeds of discord in a highly hostile and politically charged environment. We all do not take pleasure in seeing cold blood being spilt for whatever reasons.
We all condemned in the strongest possible terms the protest leading to the abrupt but avoidable termination of life of two citizens Mr Nsama Nsama the state prosecutor and Joseph Kaunda a UPND cadre who were killed in circumstance that are yet to be established. President Edgar Chagwa Lungu has issued a strong worded statement to this effect and directed the police to furnish him with a comprehensive report on the regrettable incident. In his own words, the Republican President has termed this as “senseless and avoidable killing.”
We therefore find it improper for any stakeholder to issue partisan comments that are meant to undermine the credibility of the ongoing investigations. The statement by the Catholic Bishops is with all due respect not in good taste as it has partisan considerations. We wonder why the Catholic bishops in their wisdom find it convenient to condemn in a subjective manner yet they do not see anything wrong in the provocative stance by HH and the UPND leaders who ferried cadres with the view to stage manage the popularity.
We expect the church to counsel all political leaders to respect the institutions of Governance including the police which was within its Constitutional and statutory mandate of ensuring that any person suspected of having committed an offence is made to account. We wonder why the Catholic bishops did not condemn the disrespectful public statement and daring of the police by the UPND leadership which is tantamount to anarchy.
The statement has a lot of partisan lenses and short of what a neutral arbiter is expected especially in this environment building up to elections.
We are desirous to know how the church arrived at the conclusion that it is the police that shot the slain citizen. We do not agree that the Council of Bishops has any capacity to carry out a thorough and impartial investigations at the speed of light and hurriedly issue a statement. We are of the view that their comment is based on speculations and they do not have facts to establish a connecting link between their accusations and the police. Further, the Council of Bishops does not have the legal mandate to do so or make any premature conclusion.
While we agree that the Government institutions should be accountable to the people, we do not hold the view that that should be the basis of making them a source of despondency. We hope the Council should in future have courtesy to engage every concern in a manner that do not undermine the integrity of Government institutions. We least expect them to be entrapped to the gallery.
In sum, we wish to condemn the partisan approach the Council of Catholic Bishop has taken on matters of public interest. This is not the route worthy taking as it is not rewarding at all. They should be the neutral arbiter to all ends of the political divide.