Is Graphael telling Zambians Hakainde has failed by stopping opposition rallies?

By Daily Revelation Editor

Inspector General of Police Graphael Musamba says the United Kwacha Alliance (UKA) is a collection of so many people who are angry and annoyed, and that if intelligence tells police that they are planning disaster, the police will not sanction their meetings.

Graphael said if someone wants a rally, they should guarantee the police that they are not going to start a civil war to make police feel comfortable.

These are some of the most ludicrous statements to have come out of the mouth of the senior most cop in the country. Since when has it become part of the requirements in this country that one has to assure the police that they would not start a civil war to be granted a permit for a rally? And just to be clear, is Graphael telling Zambians that police has refused UKA permits to hold rallies because his intel is saying they will start a civil war? If so, why hasn’t Graphael been responsible enough to inform the nation or effect arrests with sound evidence to back up his claims?

Of course it is a waste of time to even dwell on Graphael’s unfounded claims. It is clear the man simply has not depth to which he can plunge in his shameless endevour to please his masters.

We are all aware that UKA is not the only political organisation he has denied space to hold rallies. Many political parties have been denied including the Patriotic Front as an independent entity, the Socialist Party among others. Is he also going to say that the SP and the others his police have stopped from holding rallies were also planning to start a civil war?

The UPND when they have gone ahead to hold political gatherings, did they assure the police that they were not going to start a civil war? The political parties who have been able to hold rallies under the contained environment of by-elections, did they provide assurances that they were not going to start a civil war? What Graphael is saying is just a foolish excuse to stop the opposition from having rallies so that he can shrink the democratic space further.

Like we said last time, Graphael is not alone in this evil grand scheme. He is doing all this for his master Hakainde Hichilema whose insecurities take precedence above everything else. Graphael is stopping opposition meetings because Hakiande does not want to see the opposition mobilising freely and giving people a different message to his. He does not want to see huge crowds gathering up before the opposition on account of the narrative that would send about public sentiment on how the people are responding to his governance. If indeed people are pleased with how Hakainde is going about governing the country, we are sure that would also reflect in terms of how people would ignore the opposition, and vice-versa.

Graphael needs to get it in his head that unfettered public gatherings are the very lifeblood of a democratic nation. You surely can’t claim to be a democratic when you are working hard against the same ideals through which democracy is supposed to be expressed. It simply means you are not a democratic if you are working extra hard all the time to stifle expression. Rather than going round claiming you are a democrat, you must actually embrace your real title as one of these tin pot dictators that have especially defined this continent for a long time.

It’s such a crying shame that a person who claimed that he would work aggressively to promote democracy, including his opponents freely holding gatherings as his performance alone would make those gatherings pointless, engage in the undemocratic practices that Hakainde is engaging in. By working extra hard through Graphael to shrink the democratic space, is Hakainde telling Zambians that his performance has not been good enough that he fears the opposition gathering up the numbers through rallies? Zambians have every reason to believe so.

And then you have some of his supporters saying some of the most nonsensical stuff that now was not the time for rallies. That is just a foolish argument because there is nowhere where is it written that democracy in form of mass gatherings can only be held during the times of elections. And are they saying that Hakainde was being unreasonable also during the many times he was hindered from holding rallies outside election time, during his many years in the opposition? Do they even apply their minds when spewing such mindless nonsense?