PRESIDENT Edgar Chagwa Lungu has described his critics and those of government as demagogues, who for political purposes sway ordinary people’s minds using illogical arguments.
Delivering his speech during the PF manifesto launch, President Lungu noted that ‘a particular sworn critic’, ‘a prophet doom’ has continued to argue based on the premise of a wrong conclusion as the PF has transformed the country through infrastructure development as promised.
“We have invested heavily in infrastructure development which has seen the transformation of our country through roads, bridges, schools, universities, hospitals, among others,” President Lungu said.
“We have invested in building hydro-power stations which has seen the reduction in the deficit of electricity. Somebody the other day argued that there is no infrastructure development to talk about because the country is heavily indebted through over borrowing. What this prophet of doom said is referred to as a fallacy of unacceptable premises.”
President went on to explain that, government has indeed used borrowed money in some instances but for good reason which can be pointed at.
“Yes, some of the money we used to build infrastructure was borrowed, but didn’t we build infrastructure? We did. Haven’t we transformed the country? We have. This is exactly what demagogues do – for political purposes they sway ordinary people’s minds, using illogical arguments,” he said.
President Lungu further wondered how people would still not give credit to government for reducing power deficit but instead pick unreasonable arguments.
“When I said we have reduced the power deficit, another critic argued that it is rainfall that has resolved our problem. And I say yes, of course the rainfall has helped because hydro means water. But can water generate electricity on its own? You have to build a power station to generate electricity. And that is what we have done,” said President Lungu