HH BRINGING DIVISION IN THE COUNTRY
…let us condemn tribalism under the UPND administration – DR. M’MEMBE
Lusaka… Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Socialist Party (SP) President Dr Fred M’membe has called for all stakeholders and the nation at large to condemn tribalism that is being perpetuated the UPND government.
And Dr M’membe has accused President Hakainde Hichilema of bringing division in the country as never witnessed before.
The SP Leader was speaking, Monday, when he featured on Prime Television Program dubbed ‘Oxygen of Democracy’.
He said the UPND government is a regime that is scared of honest criticism which can be seen in the way it stops opposition parties from holding rallies.
“I have never seen the worst form of tribalism as I’m seeing today, just look at the composition of the public sector, look at the job distributions and so on. And I’m not the only one talking about it, people are complaining about it, everyone is complaining about tribalism. And people are being intimidated from talking about tribalism,” he said.
“Mr Hichilema has divided the country in the way that this country has never been divided before. These are the worst tribalist but they want to shut everyone who is talking about tribe. But they won’t succeed, how many people will they arrest? You have the fire, but you want to deal with the smoke. Deal with the fire not the smoke”.
Dr M’membe said Government wants to intimidate people by charging them with hate speech when they are the ones practicing tribalism.
“These are fundamental human rights, the right to assemble, the right to protest, demonstrate and the freedom of speech. We fought for these liberties because these are fundamental human rights and when fundamental human rights are violated there is concern and we are concerned,” he said.
“We know they are scared of honest criticism and explanations from opposition parties as it will undermine their hold on to power if there is insecurity then why just the opposition, UPND holds rallies. It’s almost three years down the line and there has been no single rally for the opposition. This does not make sense because we have held rallies before in this country under a state of emergency”.
The opposition Socialist Party was on Saturday blocked from holding its public rally at Kitwe’s Changanamai grounds despite police giving them a go-ahead a day prior.