PROPOSED STATE FUNERAL LAW NEEDS MORE PUBLIC CONSULTATION – CHISANGA
LUKASHYA PF MP George Chisanga says the proposal to come up with a law that will regulate how state funerals are handled needed more public stakeholder consultation before being taken to Parliament.
On Wednesday, the National Assembly adopted a motion urging government to regulate the conduct of funerals for sitting and former heads of the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. The motion was moved by Kanyama UPND MP Monty Chinkuli and seconded by Solwezi East UPND MP Alex Katakwe.
In an interview, Thursday, Chisanga expressed dissatisfaction over the presiding officers’ failure to allow the public to hear different views from MPs on whether that was a motion that could be supported or not.
“Our position is that there’s a better way in which such legal reform must be undertaken. In fact, for us, we were shocked on the left side of the House when, using her discretion, the Speaker allowed the acting Minister of Justice, Jack Mwiimbu, to debate ahead of other people who had indicated that they were going to debate, including myself. And Jack Mwiimbu seems to have debated in a way that suggested we close this motion. He highlighted the fact that they are considering legislation on how to handle these affairs, so it’s like this motion was instigated by government to try and give the public an impression that something is being done. But you see, legal reform is supposed to be done in a particular way. What we should have had is government should have suggested that they are looking at the possibility of legislating without having to bring a motion to Parliament,” Chisanga argued.
“We’ve got the Law Development Commission, this should have been started through a process of [the] Law Development Commission, so that by the time we are coming to discuss the draft Bill, people would have been given an opportunity to speak to what they would like to see in that piece of legislation. I think for me, the fashion in which this motion has been brought to the attention of the public is not the most desirable, it’s not been done properly. For us in the opposition, if you noticed what had transpired, the manner in which the presiding officers managed to get on with that motion did not accord the public [the chance] to hear different views on whether that was a motion
could be supported or not”.
He argued that the motion was structured as an avenue to try and respond to the challenges that the country faced in its attempt to agree on how to handle former president Edgar Lungu’s burial.
“What’s even more concerning is that it came to light, even if the government was refusing, it came to light because there is quite some disquiet about how we have handled the issue of the funeral of the sixth Republican president. So, it appeared that the motion was structured as an avenue to try and respond to the challenges that we faced in our attempt to agree on how to handle the issue of the death and the burial of the sixth Republican president.
Now, what is transpiring [is that] it’s being suggested that we should have a law in the future on how we can handle this kind of misfortune. And if you notice, it is not only limited to the former heads of state or current Heads of State but also to the heads of other government institutions. The struggle now is what should happen should it be a state funeral with the inclusion of the family, or should the family be allowed to be the one to guide what should happen in the state funeral?” asked Chisanga.
“These are the issues that will come to the fore in trying to formulate this kind of legislation, so consultation that is beyond the walls and floors of Parliament is very important in that regard. When you make the law, the law is not applied retrospectively.
Dr Edgar Lungu’s passing has already occurred, [and] when a law of that nature is passed, it will have to apply to future situations, which is why it was desirable to allow a larger public stakeholder consultation even on that issue because it’s not only parliamentarians, and it’s not only the UPND government that is concerned with the challenges we’ve got with the funeral and burial of Dr Lungu, it is the whole nation. So, everybody in the nation is supposed to be accorded an opportunity to give their views on how it should be handled”.
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I agree, George. We cannot have possible beneficiaries deciding. There’s a lot of discrimination already because politicians seem to be automatically entitled. Even then, you hv to hv the right connections.