Chief government spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa has charged that former president Edgar Lungu is being haunted by his own past where he stopped the opposition from campaigning in the same area he was campaigning.
Lungu last week said he was not going to be retrained by government protocols to campaign in Kawambwa simply because President Hakainde Hichilema would be in the same area. But Mweetwa denounced Lungu saying the same things he was complaining about today were the same things he used to engage in himself, describing his actions as illegalities which the UPND would not engage in now that they were in power.
It is heart warming to hear such progressive pronouncements from Mweetwa, because for a long time, this undemocratic and wrong practice of stopping others from campaigning in the same area where the President was campaigning has been used by incumbent administrations with reckless abandon to stop others from campaigning.
Lungu himself arrogated himself, or allowed the system to allocate him this right to stop other people from campaigning in the same area where he was campaigning, and he never uttered a single word to actually condemn such undemocratic tendencies. The fact that he is talking about it, probably he understands better that Hichilema could also use the same against him, which should not be condoned of course if he were to venture along that path.
It is for this reason that we welcome the words from Mweetwa who is assuring that Lungu and the other competitors will not have their campaigns impeded just because Hichilema is also campaigning in the same area. And we, as the other Zambians that will hear Mweetwa’s utterances will be on the lookout to ensure that his words actually match the actions of the President and the ruling UPND, not only in Kawambwa but the other elections and other mobilisations that will follow in the future.
We also hope that Lungu is learning and appreciating some of the stumbling blocks he made his opponents to go through. It’s only in primitive societies where one who is holding power would go to the extent of doing everything in their might to stop others from enjoying their freedoms. Power must always be an exercise in self limitation, and the one holding it must always live with the knowledge that today they may have that power, but tomorrow they will not have it. Therefore, they must actually work their socks off to create a just society for all. A society which they will be happy to live and enjoy their rights in once they are out of office.
In fact, it’s fallacy for any president to fail to work towards creating a more just society because the most they can stay in power is just 10 years in this country, while the vast majority of their existence on earth is spent outside the realms of the power they enjoy at any given point.
We could only hope that politicians took time to learn as they are some of the most incorrigible people around. Mostly, these are human beings who condemn the same things they admire to engage in once they have assumed office. They literally forget their own pronouncements the moment they come across that scent of power and go on rampage engaging in all sorts of wrong things to maintain themselves in this new found world where they become the master of almost everything.
We hope that both Lungu and Hichilema, and the politicians that surround them are learning something about how to use power to make society better, as opposed to using every arsenal in ones armoury to stop the opponent from enjoying the democratic space that is guaranteed to them by the Republican Constitution.
By Daily Revelation Editor
Chief government spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa has charged that former president Edgar Lungu is being haunted by his own past where he stopped the opposition from campaigning in the same area he was campaigning.
Lungu last week said he was not going to be retrained by government protocols to campaign in Kawambwa simply because President Hakainde Hichilema would be in the same area. But Mweetwa denounced Lungu saying the same things he was complaining about today were the same things he used to engage in himself, describing his actions as illegalities which the UPND would not engage in now that they were in power.
It is heart warming to hear such progressive pronouncements from Mweetwa, because for a long time, this undemocratic and wrong practice of stopping others from campaigning in the same area where the President was campaigning has been used by incumbent administrations with reckless abandon to stop others from campaigning.
Lungu himself arrogated himself, or allowed the system to allocate him this right to stop other people from campaigning in the same area where he was campaigning, and he never uttered a single word to actually condemn such undemocratic tendencies. The fact that he is talking about it, probably he understands better that Hichilema could also use the same against him, which should not be condoned of course if he were to venture along that path.
It is for this reason that we welcome the words from Mweetwa who is assuring that Lungu and the other competitors will not have their campaigns impeded just because Hichilema is also campaigning in the same area. And we, as the other Zambians that will hear Mweetwa’s utterances will be on the lookout to ensure that his words actually match the actions of the President and the ruling UPND, not only in Kawambwa but the other elections and other mobilisations that will follow in the future.
We also hope that Lungu is learning and appreciating some of the stumbling blocks he made his opponents to go through. It’s only in primitive societies where one who is holding power would go to the extent of doing everything in their might to stop others from enjoying their freedoms. Power must always be an exercise in self limitation, and the one holding it must always live with the knowledge that today they may have that power, but tomorrow they will not have it. Therefore, they must actually work their socks off to create a just society for all. A society which they will be happy to live and enjoy their rights in once they are out of office.
In fact, it’s fallacy for any president to fail to work towards creating a more just society because the most they can stay in power is just 10 years in this country, while the vast majority of their existence on earth is spent outside the realms of the power they enjoy at any given point.
We could only hope that politicians took time to learn as they are some of the most incorrigible people around. Mostly, these are human beings who condemn the same things they admire to engage in once they have assumed office. They literally forget their own pronouncements the moment they come across that scent of power and go on rampage engaging in all sorts of wrong things to maintain themselves in this new found world where they become the master of almost everything.
We hope that both Lungu and Hichilema, and the politicians that surround them are learning something about how to use power to make society better, as opposed to using every arsenal in ones armoury to stop the opponent from enjoying the democratic space that is guaranteed to them by the Republican Constitution.
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