POINT OF ORDER IS OUT OF ORDER: WHEN LOGIC COLLIDES WITH GRIEF IN THE HOUSE OF STONES
By Dr. Mwelwa
In the land of the wise, it is said, “You do not chase a widow from the graveyard before the soil dries on her husband’s casket.” Yet in the hallowed chambers of Zambia’s Parliament, grief is not a shield, and dignity bows to political expedience. How else does one explain a government that drags a mourning daughter—Tasila Lungu—into a courtroom battle over where to bury her father, only to turn around and demand that her parliamentary seat be declared vacant for absenteeism?
This is not governance; it is bureaucratic brutality masquerading as order. A point of order, we are told, was raised to question her absence. But in what world does a child abandon her father’s body in a foreign mortuary to attend plenary sessions in Lusaka? What kind of Parliament forgets that in African tradition, “the child who buries the father carries the fire of the ancestors”? Instead of standing with her in this sacred rite of passage, the state moves to punish her—as if mourning is a dereliction of duty, and love for a parent a parliamentary offence.
What we are witnessing is a constitutional circus with no moral compass. The same Executive, through the Attorney General, has dragged the family of the late President Edgar Lungu—Zambia’s sixth Republican President—into a legal gauntlet over his final resting place, refusing to honour their wish to bury him in a private funeral. Rather than facilitating a dignified repatriation, the government has chosen litigation over compassion, prolonging grief and politicising death.
“When the drums of war are louder than the songs of mourning, know that the elders have lost their wisdom.” In logic, we learn that consistency is the hallmark of reason. You cannot argue that Tasila is absent because she is in mourning, then punish her for mourning. That is a contradiction in terms, a fallacy of hypocrisy that undermines both justice and empathy. It is persecution in parliamentary robes.
Let us be honest: This is not about a seat. This is about power. About erasing memory. About politically humiliating a family that dares to mourn a man whom the establishment would rather forget than honour. “The axe forgets, but the tree remembers.” But in this moment, the tree is not just remembering—it is bleeding.
And so we must say, without fear or favour: This point of order is out of order. It violates custom, defies logic, and strips a mourning daughter of her dignity. A Parliament that cannot discern between politics and humanity is a Parliament that has lost its moral fibre.
“A person is a person because of others,” say the elders. But in this new Zambia, a person is disposable if they are on the wrong side of power—even if they are still burying their father. May wisdom return to the House before the people lose faith entirely. For even the gods do not mock the dead.
Guys be serious for once. I got a question for you Dr Mwelwa….where are you getting these PhD’s from that don’t make one to be reasonable and rational in thinking. We play too much in Zambia. Everything is politics. No critical thinking no foresight nothing zero just blame blame and dump it on HH. Listen the Lungu family cannot continue to hold Zambia to ransom whichever way you look at it. Scrap all this nonsense of Zambia is a Christian nation. Remove the also the day of National Prayers, waste of time.
A supposed doctor (doctor in what?) who does not understand the context in which the point of order was raised. The issue was a statement that “we do not intend to return to Zambia, we will be making ad hoc visits to attend court cases”. Very simple issue even for someone who is not a doctor to grasp. The point is, the point of order came too early. It should come when “they” are granted permission not to return to Zambia.