By Edwin Sakala
We demand a people driven constitution from the Patriotic Front (PF) government. The constitution we want to see should be free from the PF ideals and aspiration. We suspect, people like Winter Kabimba might be having some temptations of sneaking in party constitution clauses in our document. If possible, we want a true reflection of the draft which parliament rejected but with few alterations.
This is what President Michael Sata promised us during the run-up to the just ended September 20, 2011 tripartite elections. Mr. Sata categorically said in his own words that, “The constitution would be given to the people of Zambia within ninety days after his opposition Patriotic Front Organisation now in power had grabbed power from the then ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD).
Mr. Sata’s promise of the constitution within ninety days was on an understanding that, there was a lot of material upon which a people driven constitution would be built. Indeed, he was right in thinking that there was plenty of material upon which the constitution would be built. The materials in question came from the previous constitution making processes. The most recent ones include the Mong’omba Constitution Review Commission instituted by late president Mwanawasa and the National Constitution Conference which was concluded during the reign of the immediate past president Rupiah Banda.
Our focus is on the National Constitution Conference which made a good use of the materials from the Mung’omba Constitution Review Commission which the Patriotic Front as an opposition Political Party recommended to be the best. Unfortunately, the constitution bill draft was rejected by the parliament.
One of the reasons why the National Constitution Bill was rejected was that, it had left most important recommendations from the Mung’omba Review Commission. Prominent among the issues that was left out was the 50 plus one percent for the winning presidential candidate, which the National Constitution Conference had recommended that the people through the referendum decide whether they like it or not. The item which was referred to the National Referendum was the presidential running mate provision in the constitution among other things.
The whole idea of leaving these items was to give the people another chance to decide and resolve the controversy through the referendum. As far as the National Constitution Conference members are concerned, the draft constitution was the best the country could ever have in its history of existence. Unfortunately, our members of parliament for whatever reason which many believe was political, the draft constitution was rejected.
Our people still have the hope of having a better constitution. This hope was cemented by the Patriotic Front’s untimely coming into power. We expected that, the PF would restore the articles that led the National Constitution Conference draft constitution collapse and refer it to parliament for ratification.
In his wisdom, president Sata constituted another Committee he called a committee of experts to write the new constitution. Unfortunately, this group of experts killed people’s hope of getting a constitution that will see and stand the test of time by preventing people from making new submissions.
While technical committee prevented new submissions, strange and outrageous articles were sneaked into the draft constitution under review forcing people to beginning to think that the much talked constitution by the PF will end up being a one party shows. The very fact that new provision are included in the constitution by people close to the PF government while provisions which people wanted to see in the constitution are being opposed by people who are not even in government but they belong to the ruling party is an indication that, out constitution making process has been hijacked by the PF.
We wish to warn the PF that, we need a people driven constitution within the shortest period other wise, we shall call for a mass demonstration should they give us anything other than the one which we want. We want a national constitution which will be accommodative to all. We don’t to see a situation where the constitution will which is supposed to be national begin to reflect the PF ideals and aspirations.
We are already very worried that some clauses in the draft seem to be aimed at legalising homosexuality and evils like abortion which are taboos in Zambian culture. We are however watching them for the time being.
Edwin Sakala is ZDDM National Coordinator