STRATEGIC EXCLUSION OF OPPOSITION LEADERS
By Sean Tembo – PeP President
1. Bally and his new dawn administration have been strategically excluding opposition political leaders from national events.
2. The way they do it is that Cabinet Office sends an invitation to a political party for only one person. Any serious opposition leader cannot attend an event all by themselves.
3. For an self-respecting opposition leader to attend a national event, they need to be accompanied by at least four other personnel (one party official, two security and one ADC).
4. Because of this restriction of being accorded only one invitation card as a party, most serious opposition leaders do not attend nation events and end up delegating to a junior party official to attend.
5. As we speak right now, we are in receipt of an invitation card from Cabinet Office for a state banquet that is being hosted tomorrow as part of the ongoing AU mid year summit. Again, it is only a single card which will admit one person. Again we are compelled to delegate this event to a party official, who will not mind attending alone.
6. Our message to President Hakainde Hichilema is that, unlike him who used to shun national events when he was in opposition, we have no intention of following his footsteps. To the contrary, we have appetite to attend national events and contribute to the development of our country, even as we are in opposition.
7. But Hakainde and his Government should treat us with respect and dignity. If they are sincere about us attending national events, let them send a decent number of invitation cards. Otherwise their current policy of only sending a single invitation card is a deliberate ploy for strategic exclusion of opposition leaders from national events. Being President does not mean that the country is yours alone. Inclusivity is a sign of sober, mature and sound leadership.
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SET 15.07.2022