CYBER BILLS MUST BE REJECTED – HON MUNDUBILE
…as Hon Mundubile Challenges HH, UPND to face the Zambians about their failures
Lusaka – Thursday, December 5, 2024 (SmartEagles)
Mporokoso Member of Parliament Hon Brian Mundubile has challenged President Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND to desist from pushing the agenda of enacting Draconian laws aimed at prolonging their stay in power at the expense of citizens rights and freedoms granted to them by the Constitution.
Hon Mundubile states that the president must instead come out in the open to face the Zambian people and accept their mistakes as well as admit that some of the campaign promises they made were made out of wrong assumptions.
Commenting on the ongoing enactment process of the Cyber Crimes Bill and Cyber Security Bill currently being tabled in Parliament, he states that it is clear that Zambins have rejected the two bills based on the reaction from stakeholders.
“President Hichilema must know that the Zambian people would rather he faces them and admit that some promises he made were done without proper information or assumptions instead of bringing these bills to deter them from reminding him on what he promised them,” hon Mundubile said.
A lawyer by profession, hon Mundubile explains that the grand norm under Article Three of the Constitution gravitates towards protecting citizens hence the UPND’s attempts to come up with a law that seeks to take away those laws granted by the Constitution are misplaced.
He has wondered why law enforcement agencies particularly the Zambia Police should be given so much power to the extent of tapping into citizens private conversations without obtaining a court order because such goes against fundamental rights granted in the Constitution.
“Imagine the same police under the current Inspector General Graphel Musamba who have been ranked amongst the worst on international rankings being given such powers so as to deter even the young people from reminding the President about his promises” Hon Mundubile said.
The parliamentarian has wondered why the UPND are so bent on promoting clauses that seek to criminalise the practice of sending a forwarded message when people enjoy the freedoms of sharing messages for various reasons such as confirming authenticity of particular messages among other things.
He says the young people should be allowed to freely participate fully in the cyber space without gagging them hence the President must prevail on his ministers to withdraw the bills from Parliament.
The Mporokoso lawmaker states that what the UPND have embarked on to deter people from reminding them about their campaign promises by using the two bills is an expensive route borne out of poor judgement and must be withdrawn.
“At the rate we are moving, very soon in future people will start making rules aimed at gagging youths from reminding those in power about their campaign promises,” hon Mundubile has warned.
Hon Mundubile has since called upon leaders regardless of their political affiliation to exercise their given responsibility to serve to act in the interest of the people by rejecting the two bills.
Earlier, Chilubi Member of Parliament Hon Mulenga Fube said the attempt to enact the two bills is an attack on the nation by the UPND government in line with their systematic agenda to change laws so that they target the opposition and citizens with dissent views.
“Aside from these two bills, they have brought a number of controversial pieces of legislation such as those targeting hate speech with alarming punishments of upto 20 years because the president wants to use ‘lawfare’ so as to remain alone on the political space,” Hon Fube said.
He has reminded young people that the same cyber space they used to promote President Hichilema and the UPND is what he is targeting to squeeze their freedoms on the cyber space.
Hon Fube adds that there is nothing that has necessitated the change of laws at such lightning speed other than the President’s insatiable desire to remain in power.
#SmartEagles
People with good interpersonal skills just do not behave like this. They call for a dialogue with the other side. Often they would say,” this is our view for the following reasons. Now let’s see the reasons or the evidence why you want your view to become law. Yes, you’re the state and it’s possible that you could have more information than us”. Brian Mundubile, over to you.