President Hichilema Needs a Little Education.
By Aaron Ng’ambi
The United Party for National Development (UPND) has staffed itself with a bunch of jokers as media handlers for the President and the party. Some are even called consultants, others are advisors and spokespersons.
However, what is terribly shocking is that, since President Hakainde Hichilema (HH) brought this debate about the so-called draft amendments to the constitution into the public domain, all these chaps have flocked to defend the indefensible with one press conference after another.
But what is worrisome about this ordeal is not the incompetence of these chaps who parade themselves as mouth pieces of the regime and the President, rather it’s their lack of basic knowledge and understanding of simple things. Hence, they make the President look ignorant and uniformed or even uneducated in his utterances.
The debate about amendments to the constitution is a classic case in point.
Interestingly, the argument by the Republican President as to why we should amend the constitution now does not hold any water. The man wants us to believe that he is doing this for the women and the youth, in the context of bringing proportional representation in parliament.
And this is according to his own words, spoken on various platforms. First and foremost, this is a lie and a smoke screen, but even worse the President has no clue as to what he is talking about. In fact, his public statements on this issue has exposed the President’s ignorance of what proportional representation constitutes.
Because what the Head of State has been describing and advancing publicly is not proportional representation by definition, but he keeps saying this without shame.
If you listen to what he is saying or his explanation, what the man is describing to the nation is a system known as a quotas system of governance for women and youth representation. It can either be a gender quotas or a youth quotas or even both, not proportional representation.
Mr. President Sir, in a proportional representation system, they are no parliamentary seats that are reserved for any specific demography or classification. Sir, I am happy to offer you a free lesson in political science 101, because your advisors or handlers and including yourself do not know what you’re talking about.
Evidently, what you have been talking about in public the last few days is a totally different system from proportional representation.
A good example of a country with proportional representation is South Africa, and if you know anything about their governance structure – they have no seats reserved for women or youths permanently in parliament. Instead, every proportional representation system allocates parliamentary seats to political parties based on their performance and the percentage of votes acquired in an election.
In such a system, the people vote for a political party and not for a candidate per se. In simple terms, President HH is talking about apples while describing oranges. He is either confused, or he is completely ignorant about this topic.
Therefore, with all due respect sir! what you have been describing at the women’s day celebrations in Kasama, at the youth day celebrations in Mongu and subsequently at the youth indaba in Lusaka is not a system of proportional representation but rather a quotas system.
Because, only in the latter system (quotas) does that system ensure a certain percentage of women or youth are represented in a group or elected body with specific parliamentary seats reserved or assigned to such specific groups of people. Regrettably, your utterances on this issue shows that you lack the basic knowledge of the different kinds of governance systems and so far you’re misleading the public.
Clearly, it appears that even your entire team does not understand the difference between a proportional representation system and a quotas system, that’s why they have allowed you to be all over Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) and social media, busy spreading ignorance.
Your excellency sir, please stop misinforming the public and call the systems by their proper names or definitions. And just for your own information Mr. President, proportional representation does not increase the number of women participating in politics or governance, and Rwanda is a good example for this argument, because they have the highest number of women in politics without proportional representation. The UPND argument on this score is nothing but a fallacy.
In the final analysis, those around the President should help the man talk about things he knows and is familiar with, and aviod such embarrassments. Otherwise, we will have to refer them to an incredible quote by an American civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael who is on record to having said that “spreading ignorance among the masses is dangerous.”
Nonetheless, please be advised that yourself (President HH) and your team are free to arrange for a 101 political science lecture or webinar at your convenience, and we will be happy to help. It is okay to admit that you do not know everything.
Aaron Ng’ambi
Geopolitical Analyst & Governance Expert
John 8:32 “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
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