By Pamela Bwembya
WHY I THINK SEAN TEMBO IS A BIG LIAR
Sean Enoch Tembo was among the many Zambians that stood as a presidential candidate for PEP in our last general elections. The party emerged without a single seat in parliament, and not even a councilor at local government level.
Most political parties field their best members for the positions of member of parliament. This is important because MPs must sell themselves well to the constituents they seek to represent. I believe PEP identified men and women exhibiting good leadership skills and fielded them as members of parliament in the last elections. The duplicated article No. 1 of PART IV of the ill-formed PEP manifesto reads, “It is worth noting that with the exception of the Party President and Party Vice President, no other Party official will be a member of a PeP Government Cabinet. This will ensure that the governance of the country is separated from the politics.” According to the PEP manifesto, the elected MPs would not be the ones to be appointed to form the national cabinet.
The above statement is certainly in line with the aspirations of the Zambian people. Unfortunately, this would have only been possible if, from inception, Sean Tembo’s PEP pursued a national constitution review process for the sole purpose of legitimizing selection of his cabinet from outside parliament. It seems Sean is not aware that a lot of Acts of Parliament that guide operations of ministries and statutory bodies require the presence of a minister for them to serve their purpose. That is precisely why functions of the president are diluted during elections in the absence of ministers.
As an example, The Energy Regulation Board Act No.12 of 2019 has executive powers vested in the minister responsible for Energy. In the case of PEP, that would have been the proposed but nonoperational Ministry for Mines, Energy, Water and Environmental Affairs. The ERB Act deposits the power to prescribe a lot of activities in the minister through issuance of statutory instruments. While the board makes recommendations of necessary policy changes, the policy changes can only be made by the minister. The implication of this dilemma is that Sean Tembo would have had no vehicle to change anything under his arrangement in the absence of a constitution amendment.
Not even the policies governing the mining, local government, agriculture, tourism, or education would be changed in the absence of ministers. The constitution amendment was going to be the priority of PEP while the country struggled with its financial challenges. Changes to the current constitution requires publication of proposed bills in the government gazette for thirty days, and passing the constitution amendment Bill by at least two thirds of the members of parliament at the second and third reading stages of the parliamentary process. Implied in PEP’s attempt to overhaul the current constitution are prerequisite processes such as the sensitization necessary to gain consensus from Zambian citizens. The sensitization require lots of public debate and would possibly fail to take off without the existence of a cabinet and ministers to sanction them through executive decisions.
Just like the UPND were confronted with shocking revelations, a PEP government would have been greeted by shocking revelations of the extent of damage caused by the former PF government to our economy. The new party would have automatically inherited compromised institutions. PEP’s fight against corruption as stated in their manifesto would experience an interesting hurdle. Although heads of state institutions are currently appointed by the president and ratified by parliament. A number of them fall under individual ministries with Ministers at the top. Ministries, led by permanent secretaries implement government policy, but the policies are formulated by the executive and operationalized through statutory instruments issued by ministers. Under PEP, the ministries would have waited for the uncertain change of the constitution to drastically change the current system into what is proposed in the PEP manifesto.
The country would run for a very long time without a minister of finance until a successful change of the constitution. All this would be happening at the expense of resolving a ballooning debt burden through unpaid interest.
PEP promised through its manifesto to sell ZESCO, ZAMTEL, ZCCM-IH and all for-profit state owned enterprises, and disbanding IDC. All this was obviously ONLY going to be possible after a successful amendment of the current constitution.
Had Sean Tembo and his PEP managed to turn their zeroes into votes to make them instant heroes, they would have been faced with two choices; to keep the promises proposed in the PEP manifesto to the letter or to break the promises by appearing to LIE to the electorate by first continuing with the existing constitution until it was possible to amend the constitution for the implementation of the changes proposed in their manifesto. If we assumed Sean Tembo’s PEP had the 2.8 million votes that went to the ruling UPND this is what would have possibly happened.
- STICK TO THE PROMISES
The PEP government would have no choice but to prioritize the amendment of the current constitution to one that would allow for the appointment of ministers from outside parliament as proposed by the PEP manifestos. Part V of the PEP manifesto proposed an immediate replacement of all parastatal heads in government owned institutions, and permanent secretaries in all ministries. The manifesto further promised the abolishment of IDC, a body that owes its existence to the minister of finance under CAP 349. Permanent Secretaries with the help of Sean and his Vice President would paradoxically direct government activities in the absence of a cabinet to give the necessary policy direction until the constitution was amended. - BREAK THE PROMISES
This approach would require the obvious continuation of the current constitution and maintain the current government structure with reorganization of ministries into the suggest 16 ministries as suggested by the PEP manifesto. This would require quickly appointing ministers and a cabinet to address important national challenges such as underperformance by poorly funded ministries and mobilization of resources to get the country to quickly and efficiently sort out its domestic and foreign debts. The challenge with this approach is that Sean Tembo would automatically qualify to be called a LIAR be causes it goes against the duplicated item No. 1 under PART IV of the PEP manifesto.
CONCLUSION
While most of us believe Sean Tembo is academically sharp, I personally fail to appreciate his ability to see things in their correct light. I believe Sean Tembo must keep quiet over accusations of apparent lies in the UPND process of driving towards the party manifesto’s objectives. It is evident that even PEP objectives, as contained in the party manifesto, are impossible to fulfill without first adopting existing structures and the current constitution that underpins them. Sean Tembo’s incessant attacks on measures taken by the current government to ultimately achieve its promised objectives over time are misplaced because no party can outrightly change existing structures or policies without falling back on existing models. Assuming Sean Tembo would NOT LIE to the people of Zambia is baseless because the PEP manifesto cannot be implemented without long processes of changing the current constitution. The assumption that the required two thirds majority to achieve such a change is as naïve as Sean Tembo himself.
PB …always in national interest.