HH A COWARD – Makebi

 HH A COWARD

…He wants to change Constitution because he’s scared of losing, says Makebi

By Mast Reporter

PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema is a coward who has sensed a deep rejection ahead of next year’s general election and now wants to use a rushed Constitution amendment process to redeem his dwindling political fortunes, Makebi Zulu has said.

In an interview with The Mast yesterday, Zulu, a constitutional lawyer, said Hichilema’s push for constitutional amendments was typical behaviour of cowards whose only survival was through manipulation of the Constitution.

He said Zambians had rejected Hichilema and his unpopular United Party for National Development (UPND) because of their untrustworthy conduct and failure to keep their promises.

“HH is a coward, and it’s typical of cowards to take this particular approach, where they want to rush to amend the Constitution going for those very things that they rejected in Bill 10,” he said.

Zulu said so far, Hichilema was the most inconsistent individual to have held the office of President.

He wondered why Hichilema and the UPND were now pushing for the amendment of the Constitution, the same proposals he had earlier rejected.

“So far, he’s the most inconsistent President because most of the clauses that were introduced for purposes of clarifying certain areas of the Constitution, when he was in opposition, he went against them. But this time around, he is pretending as though he never even spoke about those particular things. Since when did HH talk about proportional representation? And that same proportional representation is a mockery to the women, a mockery to the youths, a mockery to persons with disabilities,” Zulu said.

He said the amendments the UPND was pushing for were dangerous and lethal to the country’s democracy, which Zambians should strongly reject.

Supporting such changes to the Constitution without proper consultation, without the voice of the people, would be giving Hichilema a blank cheque to do things as he pleased to save his tenure.

Zulu said the pomposity Hichilema was exhibiting was shockingly increasing in that he would go on to insult and disrespect people with disabilities at will by only giving them three representatives to Parliament.

“And he only gives them a portrait, three, a representation of three persons with disabilities. How is that going to work out? How is that proportional representation going to work out? You’re going to have three. And how are you going to define democracy in that you are saying that we are going to stop by-elections, where if a candidate wins on a particular party and that candidate resigns, dies or anything happens then the party replaces them. What is the democracy that we are taking to the people? It should be decided as to what exactly you want. If you want a full-blown proportional representation, let him say so,” he said.

“If you want to put a footing in trying to introduce proportional representation and giving numbers that are a mockery to the groups that he says are underrepresented, he’s not doing him any good. He’s not doing him any good.”
Zulu wondered the fear Hichilema had which was motivating him to want members of Parliament and ministers stay on in office 90 days to the elections.

He said Zambians and Hichilema, in particular, should realise that the current system was better than what he was proposing.

“And this idea of saying members of Parliament will remain three months before the election, what is he afraid of? We have always moved with a system where three months before a general election Parliament is dissolved. The bottom line is consensus. Government cannot decide what is consensus. Engagement of the people is what is important at this particular stage. Just that failure to engage people, failure to build consensus, is a problem. Even if it may appear good. So that sort of hypocrisy should not be tolerated at any level. And so far, he’s proven to be the biggest hypocrite,” Zulu said.

Last week government released the draft Constitution with proposed amendments despite fierce opposition from opposition political parties, the Church, civil society and many interest groups who have argued that there has not been enough consultation and the general elections are too near.