PARLIAMEMT MUST BE A BATTLE GROUND FOR IDEAS

PARLIAMEMT MUST BE A BATTLE GROUND FOR IDEAS
By Faston Mwale, Socialist Party – MCC

By all rationality, parliament must be a space for the exchange and contestation of developmental ideas and any departure from this call amounts to suppression of ideas and suppression of ideas amounts to totalitarianism. The suspension of honorable Jean Chisenga, from the House for 30 days for heckling at President Hakainde Hichilema as a liar after addressing parliament on the progress made in the application of National Values and Principles on 15th March 2024 is an obvious example of suppression of civil and political rights promulgated in articles 19 to 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which include the freedom of expression which in turn finds currency in various pieces of legislation in Zambia’s Constitution.

In bourgeoisfied politics, lying is not an unexceptional sentimental expression, it is part of the ideological apparatus seeking to turn the unsuspecting masses into passive consumers of falsehood. The heckle as an emerging idea must therefore be contested in parliament by way of debate.

I do not imagine that heckling at the President as a liar in the aftermath of the address to parliament was a breach of parliamentaryetiquette necessitating suspension from the house. The suspension is widely perceived as an effort to limit the expression of strong dissent and intuitively reinstall the President’s image which has suffered from damage occasioned by deceptive politics, manipulation, fabrications and lying. Rather than weaponizing the law to crack down on dissenters, the UPND should seriously reflect on why the leadership is frequently trapped in webs of lies.

A lying fit is an inherent feature of the bourgeoise ideology that defines the United Party for National Development. For as long as the party is shaped by the bourgeois ideology, it will continue to consciously or unconsciously pursue deceptive politics as a way to buttress itself in power. But pursuing deceptive politics is surely treading a very dangerous path whose consequences are not difficult to fathom.

The adage “lies have legs” is a tested truth. Unfortunately, the UPND is frequently trapped in webs of lies.It is important for the UPND leadership including its rank file to seriously think about why sentiments positing that the UPND is just an opportunistic lying equipment are growing bolder.

Lying can have destructive consequences on the ruling party and already it can be seen with great clarity that the distance between the masses and the ruling party is ever growing huge. Every statement coming from the UPND must first be subjected to a test of verity before consuming it. One of the reasons why the UPND is not guaranteed a second term is that its leadership has not learned the art of telling the truth and this has frustrated a lot of people. The UNPND should make a conscious effort to exorcise itself of the demon of lying, otherwise it will continue to suffer from spontaneous bouts of heckling from brave warriors in he likes of hon. Jean Chisenga.