The constitution and politics

Dear Editor,

I WRITE with a heavy heart to express my shock and disappointment on how as a democratic nation we so much always sing about, think differently from what we portray ourselves, democrats.

Let us know that the Zambian Constitution is not a political document but the supreme law of the land to govern everyone and should not therefore be taken as just a mere piece of document which every Jim and Jack think can interpret.

Worse is that whoever wants to school us about the interpretation of the Constitution because of the so many lacunas in it because its architects were not thinking for the semi educated class, is seen as an enemy.

For instance, I for one accept that, for any misinterpretation of the Constitution to be settled, it has to take the relevant court to do so, and not us as individuals.

We saw that when the illegal staying in office of the former ministers’ case was taken to court for interpretation for example, many decided to protect the individual ministers at the expense of the Constitution of the land, which is a shame on us as a nation.

The big question therefore is, was this Constitution designed to favour the political players and not all the Zambians for us to start even threatening each other?

Let us sober up and safeguard our Constitution and if found wanting, let us then call for a constitutional “indaba” to iron out issues being misinterpreted by a big section of society.

WISDOM MUYUNDA, Chingola.