By Brightwell Chabusha
I am worried because the initial excitement that I expressed and the hope that I expressed in the new government, I think it’s being replaced with a sense of fear, Constitutional Lawyer John Sangwa, State Counsel, says.
Speaking on Capital Radio’s “Frank on Capital” program yesterday, Mr Sangwa said he expected a lot more adding that what he has seen so far is something that does not give him the comfort.
He disclosed that he has vested interest in seeing President Hakainde Hichilema and his government succeed.
“I think people misunderstood what the three months was all about. It wasn’t about expecting government to succeed and accomplish all their programs in three months. I think it was, when I said that after three months, you get the flavour of which way or which direction the new government is taking the country,” he said.
“And that should be quite evident after three months because it is very difficult to assess that in two weeks or whatever but I think three months is a reasonable period of time to be able to determine whether we should sit comfortably thinking that we are in safe hands or we should get worried.”
Mr Sangwa bemoaned the emerging intolerance to criticism by the New Dawn Administration.
He explained that criticism is made out of love for the government.
“And the other biggest problem which is emerging is intolerance to criticism. When we criticism government, we do so out of love and out of concern. Let me speak for myself. You see, I have the vested interest in seeing HH and his government succeed. I have a vested interest because I made a choice to say am not voting for Edgar Lungu am voting for HH. It’s a question of judgement,” he said.
“People always confuse me for a UPND Member. They think that when you talk good about a political party you’re a member of it, no. It’s a matter of policies. When they do good you support them when they do bad things you criticize. So I have the vested interest in his success because the last thing you want is for people to say we made a mistake in 2021. That would also be a personal failure on my side. It means that my sense of judgement was wrong. Because it means that I have failed.”
Mr Sangwa said failure of the President Hichilema and his government is also his failure because he gave them his vote.
“So the 2.8 million Zambians that voted for them, they would have failed. So when we criticize, we criticize out of concern. We criticize because we want the government to do better. So there is a misunderstanding. People think when you criticize the government then you’re anti-government. I am not anti-government, you just want them to do better,” he said.
“So if you ask me, well I am actually worried. I am worried because I rated the President very high. But there is a sense of disappointment. Let’s take for instance the current topical issue of removal of subsidies on fuel. Now, we have a situation where the President is being called a liar. That’s not a good thing. Such words should never be used to describe a person. There maybe a factual basis for somebody to use those words but those words should not be used and when they are used we should interrogate why they are being used.”
Meanwhile, the State Counsel said the only requirement for proper leadership is honesty.
“Once you’re an honest person, I don’t think you can have many challenges in governing. People should know that campaigning and governing are two different things all together,” he said.- Zambia Reports