By Peter Sinkamba
MY TAKE ON THE PRESIDENT’S PRESS ADDRESS
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1. National Unity & Rule of Law
Its great that the President addressed these pertinent issues. However, he missed the point. The unprecedented rise in hate speech and breakdown in the rule of law is not because the current laws are not harsh. Rather, it is because the police and courts have demonstrated discrimination or bias in the application of the law.
The police is swift to arrest opposition suspects while playing blind when it comes to ruling party members and government officials. Meanwhile, the courts are not helping matters in the manner they have handled opposition matters. We need to draw lessons from outcomes elsewhere when there is biased application of the law. Examples are apartheid of dark years in South Africa (1948 to 1994) and IDI in Rhodesia (1966 to 1980), and Palestine (1947 to 2024).
The regimes in these countries were brutal. They enacted very repressive laws to cow the masses into submission. However, this approach never inhibited the oppressed masses in South Africa and Rhodesia from fighting for freedom. Thousands died from brutal force but that was not deterrent to the masses. And despite bombings , progressive countries like Zambia and Tanzania, aided the fight for justice until independence. The repressive regime of Israel in Palestine has not deterred the masses from sacrificing their lives.
Back home, the penalty for murder in Zambia from.colonial times to now is capital punishment, though we have had cosmetic interventions of moritorium (1998 to 2022) and amendment of the penal code (2022). The ultimate penalty of death was not a deterrent to committing murder. Social interventions such religion, education, victim support, women legal clinics, and economic empowerment through increased job and business opportunities, criminal justice and prison reforms, and others, played key roles in minimizing murder cases.
In my view, reform of police and justice system would significantly heal the nation on hate speech than reliance on repressive laws. From experience the world over, not even capital punishment is a deterrent if there is no justice and fair play. Ongoing Gaza war is typical example.
2. Deployment of Soldiers if Police fail to perform their duties
I support deployment of the soldiers if the police fails to control the situation. I urged President Edgar Lungu to deploy soldiers in 2018 when the gassing went out of hand and over 50 people were killed. He agreed with me and deployed soldiers. Order was quickly restored. I again appealed to him to deploy soldiers in 2021 during election time when panga violence got out of hand. He agreed with me. He reluctantly deployed soldiers. And order was quickly restored. In both cases, I was condemned by UPND, British High Commissioner and American Ambassador.
I told off American Ambassador. I labelled him a hypocrite because even in the US, they use the army in situations when police fail to bring order. I have the example of Capitol Hill where soldiers were deployed to quell the election insurrection in January 2020. The British also deploy soldiers in situations that threaten security of the State
That said, before the soldiers are deployed, the President must first of all try to shake up the police. Only when shake up fails, that is when the army is deployed. Former President Edgar Lungu attempted to shake up the police before deploying the army.
3. The issue of Hon Jay Jay Banda. I was not impressed with the manner the President handled this issue. The country was highly charged when Jay Jay went missing, allegedly abducted. There are conflicting stories from the police and Jay Jay’s lawyers on what tranpired. The President should have cleared the air on this issue very divisive issue. If need be, the President should have provided an opportunity to Jay Jay to state his position.
Instead of addressing the current abduction issue, the President decided to ignore it completely, opting to raise an old issue which the nation at large is not interested in. The nation was expectant to hear what transpired to Jay Jay that led the current elevated hate speech.
My advice to the President: It will be very difficult for the country to heal if the President also joins the cherrypicking of crimes that the police should investigate and prosecute.
You are one, if not the only one, of the opposition members who have proved to be objective. But I don’t agree on JJ Banda. The man has proved to be nothing but a nuisance and a risky to society. The President was right on JJ. Crime should not be tolerated. The President should do what’s right. He shouldn’t take decisions to please everyone. He should do the right thing, no matter how unpopular it may be. That’s leadership.
Who is Jay Jay for the President to have spent a lot of time on? Peter Sinkamba should have known that that man is just a Criminal who urinated in the mouth of a Journalist. His head is made up of criminal activities
Surprisingly the so called opposition don’t condemn jj Banda urinating into someone’s mouth why? Is this kind of behaviour normal to you ba Sinkamba? Many people thought you were the real opposition giving checks and balances to the government but you have lost that respect for supporting illegalities. Don’t you wonder why your party is still a one- man party? You have drifted from your calling and gone to bed with PF a party rejected by the majority Zambians. Take it or leave it.
We know all the above comments are from Tongas as usual the so foolishly lie by pretending to be other tribes cos they are the only ones benefiting from this tyrannical, barbaric government.
No one in their normal senses should encourage changing the law for certain people and abductions.
What until it happens to you!
You are on pointe’, but not on that mp no sir…
This has nothing about tribalism. Only fools talk about tribes. We are one Zambia one nation, one people kwamana!
Stop diving the country on tribal lines you fools.