LUNGU STOPPED LISTENING TO ME, REVEALS AMOS CHANDA
FORMER special assistant to the president for press and public relations Amos Chanda says his job as presidential spokesperson became more difficult by the day as a result of the tolerance of certain behaviours of PF cadres like the splashing of money.
And Chanda says former president Edgar Lungu began to turn a deaf ear to him and only listened to other advisors even when they were lying.
Speaking when he featured on Prime TV’s oxygen of democracy programme, Monday, Chanda said the “senseless” display of wealth in the midst of poverty by some PF cadres was prima facie evidence of corruption.
“Those are some of the things that I was gravitating around. If I’m the presidential spokesperson who must defend this, some of those things were totally perceptive issues. When you are in a situation where you begin to fail to defend whether it’s real or not, that is the moment to go.
There was no procurement unit at State House but the tolerance of some of the behaviour, for instance, party cadres who even when they have made genuine money, will go and splash money. What allegation can you defend in the face of senseless display of wealth in the midst of poverty?” he questioned.
“If the party chiefs won’t control that, a PF cadre puts money and you can see it, that was prima facie evidence of corruption. So my job was becoming more and more difficult by the day and there was no clear line from the top to say stop.
So the burden was getting greater and not less. Some of the social media things you saw were not as bad as that but some elements of that were correct because a perception in politics translates into reality.”
And Chanda said Lungu began to turn a deaf ear to him and only listened to other advisors even when they were lying.
“I must, first of all, express my gratitude that the president was a listening president. He gave a listening eye (sic) to all of us and where he didn’t even speak to you that you are wrong or right, you could see from his actions that he has agreed with you.
I did come to a conclusion that he had begun not to listen to me and listen to others even when they are lying and that was a red line for me,’ he said.
“So it was both at the highest level and my fellow advisors. I don’t have a problem with a challenge being made about your views being wrong, your views are correct. But I do have a fundamental problem with people who lie about others and when a lie succeeds, once, twice, thrice, that is not a moment.”
When asked how Lungu was doing, Chanda said he was not sure as he had not spoken to him in a long time.
“I should guess he is fine. I haven’t spoken to him, I haven’t seen him in a long time. I think it’s been a very long time. And since I left the State House I have only spoken to him twice in the last one and a half years, twice. I have just carried on with my politics,” he said.
Chanda said his resignation as presidential spokesperson was as a result of the internal toxic environment which he could no longer tolerate.
“Even president Lungu told me to think about it three times critically. He said that at the prime of my age, obviously at the peak of my career he said ‘there has never been a resignation in the State House so I hope you have considered all that.
What will the public think, what are you up to. Think again’. So three days later, I returned and said ‘that’s it, I’m done’. I was exhausted with the internal toxic environment that I could no longer tolerate. I had fundamental disagreements on a number of issues which I thought were personal.
In the line of corrective responsibility, I think what I did was a decent thing. I had concerns about the presence of the government in private lives, I don’t agree with that. I had concerns about the manner in which we were proceeding to take over KCM,” he said.
“I was very opposed to the militarization of politics, the senselessness of polarization where the difference of opinions was criminalized. You saw the escalation and transfer of power from institutions of the state to the so-called cadres.
So I was opposed to placing power in these thugs in bus stops and markets. I did not think that the difference in opinions must be criminalized. There was a general view among many that different opinions meant black and white. I did not believe in black and white, I knew there were shades of grey within the political spectrum.
I did not believe that power should be pursued for the sake of it. I began to see a departure of some of the things I was brought into politics for. I listened very carefully to what president (Michael) Sata used to tell us. I began to see that legacy completely trashed.”
Meanwhile, Chanda said PF could still lose elections in the state it was currently in if it did not carry out a proper branding process.
“I will tell them to democratize, I will tell them to depart from a central committee that is appointed by one person. There has got to be an amendment to the PF constitution. Rebranding is not just making statements, there has to be a fundamental departure from things that don’t work.
The central committee must change, the constitution of the PF must change. If you ask me up to now, rebranding is just talk, there is no rebranding taking place in the PF. It’s the same PF that lost elections on August 12, and could still lose again in the current state it is i[n],” said Chanda.