9:19 SHOULD NOT BE OUT OF ORDER At this time of the year I get nostalgic about the ten years I spent as a Member of Parliament. Every Parliamentarian will tell you that they await the ceremonial opening of Parliament day with great anticipation. This will not be like the three minute Labor Day or ten minute Africa Freedom Day ceremonies that were witnessed by those who did not blink. Everything is deliberate and slow and has to go like clockwork. Traditions in our Parliaments all over the Commonwealth are very similar with only minor cultural additions like the Sipelu Makwasha or Fiwila traditional drummers and singers. At the start of what will be a long day, President Satas motorcade will be ecorted by police on horseback to the National Assembly as it slowly snakes it way from the corner of Great east Road and Parliament Road. The Presidential procession finally arrives at the National Assembly grounds at a precise set time. Parliament is very proud of being a place of set traditions and precision timing. Timing will be extremely important because you will have the Airforce send jets for the airborne fly past salute at the precise time the President will be on the Presidential salute dias. Upon stepping out of the Presidential motorcade the President will be met by the Service Chiefs. After the Presidential and mounted escorts have moved off, the President proceeds to the saluting dais and is accorded the Presidential Salute. As the President is accorded the Presidential Salute, the President’s standard will be broken, a twenty-one gun salute will be fired by the Salute Troop of the Zambia Artillery, Army Headquarters. The Zambia Airforce will also stage a fly past at a precise time as the President takes the salute. The Airforce jets streaking past will set anyones heart pumping just a little faster than normal, and this is guaranteed to raise blood pressures a tad due to the extreme excitement generated. Thereafter the President will be directed to walk to the Zambia Army Soldiers on parade. President Sata will then majestically inspects the guard of honour which traditionally consists of two rows of soldiers each fifty men and women strong bringing the total to a hundred. The President, accompanied by the Aide-de-Camp, inspects the Guard of Honour mounted by the 2nd Battalion of the Zambia Regiment and he will be filing past each man and woman on parade with the authority, poise and strength of a Commander in Chief. There is nothing that makes the men in uniform more proud than to show the Commander in Chief that they, like him, are fit and ready for battle to serve and protect Mother Zambia. The President will then walk up the stairs to the saluting Dias and stand to attention as the soldiers are performing a march past. The President will continue to stand at attention as a booming twenty one gun salute is shot from the canons. After the March past President Sata will descend from the Presidential saluting Dias and walk over to the waiting Mr. Speaker. The President and First Lady will then be escorted by the Speaker and his wife to climb up the stairs that lead upto the entrance of Parliament. Looking up the staircase reminds me of the steps going up the ancient Egyptian pyramids because of the same grayish colour and uneven steep incline going up. All together there are exactly thirty three stepsclimbing up from the area where the guard of honour will be to the entrance of Parliament building. The president is escorted up by traditional Sipelu Makwasha or Fiwila drummers and praise singers to the entrance of Parliament at the summit of the stairs. Ten of the steps are five paces apart, and the next nine are four paces apart followed by fourteen which are two paces apart bringing the total number of paces to one hundred and fourteen steps. What makes climbing these stairs tricky is that the paces between the steps is not uniform and all around are the throbbing traditional drums in your eardrums. This, therefore, requires a fair bit of concentration to avoid stumbling or, worse still, falling down due to a misstep or skipped heartbeat. I have seen a fair number of people stumble on these stairs and look ungainly as a result. When going up these steps one must be sure footed in order not to stumble. It is important that one ascends these steps with grandeur and grace. It all adds to the pomp and atmosphere. Inspite of their skinny and diminutive frames, the Ethiopian long distance runners have proven endurance and are world beaters because they have grown up herding their goats and running with them through the Ethiopian Highlands which are sometimes referred to as the Roof of Africa. Some of the Members of Parliament from what is now called Muchinga, during our time used to amaze us with how, inspite of looking frail, they were able to go up the steps of Parliament without breaking a sweat. One later confided in me that they lent their endurance to the fact that in their childhood they grew up herding their goats up and down the Muchinga Escarpment. Although the stairs are not like scaling the Muchinga Escarpment, I have seen many overweight or otherwise unfit members of parliament arrive at the top of these steps thoroughly out of breath wheezing and forced to sit down for a minute or two, wiping the sweat of their brows before they can proceed into the Chamber. Do not, however, be shocked with the endurance of Muchingans. The President is taken briefly to the Speakers Parlour where the President will be able to catch his breath and take on fluids and refreshments to replenish that which may have been lost during the exertions of the earlier activities and formalities. The President will also sign the visitors book. The next order of business entails another long walk from the Speakers Chamber past the side lobbies to the main entrance of the Chamber. A traditional drum and praise singers such as the Kamangu, Sipelu Makwasha or Fiwila, will herald the approach of the President and Mr Speaker, with the President’s Procession, through the Members’ Lobby to the left of the Presidential Chair. The President will stand for a moment or two to catch his breath and gather his strength as the Sergeant at Arms announces the entry into the Chamber of Mr. Speaker and the President. The President and the Hon. Mr Speaker, with the President’s Procession, will enter the Chamber to the accompaniment of traditional music and praise singers such as Sipelu Makwasha, Fiwila or Ruhwa. I have been to ten ceremonial opening of Parliaments in my lifetime and I can assure you that the rising rhythms and throbbing drumbeats never fail to take your breath away and make the heart pump the blood faster through your veins. You can almost feel the blood vessels in your temples throb to the rhythm of the drums. I can only but imagine the effect on Mr. Speaker and the President who will be surrounded by the drummers and praise singers who will each be trying to outdo each other. The President will proceed to the Presidential Chair and the Hon. Mr Speaker to his Chair on the right of the Presidential Chair. The President will take his seat to catch his breath whilst all Members of Parliament and invited guests will remain standing until requested by the President to be seated. The President will then give a lengthy speech setting out the plans of his government for the coming year. This speech is the most important address any President in the world makes. Many famous American Presidential speeches have been made at what they call The State of The Union addresses. We are due an inspiring address from the President as I am sure he has spent the last three months in quiet seclusion preparing and perfecting a speech that will rival Kenneth Kaundas Watershed Speech made on 30th June 1975 by Kaunda at the Mulungushi Rock of Authority. I can bet that President Satas speech to Parliament on 19th September 2014 will become the stuff of legends and be imprinted in our history books. At the conclusion of the address, the President, still seated, will hand the Address to the Hon. Mr Speaker, who will bow to the President. The President will then rise and leave the Chamber with the First Lady, Madam Kaseba, followed by the President’s Procession. What I used to enjoy the most was the cocktail held in the afternoon after the Presidential address hosted by Mr. Speaker where we, as MPs, were able to informally interact with the President who is after all the guest of honour. Many MPs left the cocktail with or on a high. By this I mean the elation of mixing with the President although a fair few left with a high from mixing the cocktails. This helped to bring down tensions and barriers between the various political parties. This will also serve to satisfy the parliamentarians who had been begging the Vice President to facilitate an opportunity for them to visit the President. Most are dying to exchange a few pleasantries with the President and to catch up with what has been happening in the last quarter of this year when they barely saw let alone heard from him. The President will no doubt in his speech touch on the work of the modernization Committee of the National Assembly if there are some things and ways of doing things he would like to see changed in the future. Any modernization would have to be sanctioned and come into effect after being passed by the necessary committees and adopted by Parliament. Parliament being a place steeped in tradition I am certain will not create any shortcuts or introduce strange departures of what is expected. I am sure that no one would for example expect the guard of honour to be inspected by the President by golf cart (or quad bike which we saw the Presidents son tiding at State House when he showed students around State House grounds), or indeed for the President to enter and leave Parliament escorted by, instead of the sober Sipelu Makwasha or Fiwila traditional praise singers and drummers, Dandy Crazy gyrating on those sacred and hallowed grounds with his dancing queens singing Donchi Kubeba! As they even enter in the Chamber. There is so much for the President to say to the nation that this is bound to be a long speech. There is a great thirst in the country to hear His Excellency speak and give guidance, hope and inspiration to this country. An inspirational leader can make the difference to the fortunes of a country. We all remember how Winston Churchills inspirational speeches like the We Shall Fight on the Beaches (AKA We shall never surrender) speech delivered by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 4 June 1940 is credited with having motivated a relatively weaker and Ill prepared British army resist and eventually, against all odds, defeat the well oiled German war machine. Zambia needs its leader to provide after such a long silence an inspirational speech that will stir patriotism to blossom in every Zambian heart. President Sata will show that he is indeed the Great Communicator. After all that is the primary role of a President; to be the voice of the people. Knowing that everybody is eagerly awaiting this day and all eyes will be on him, I am sure the President will take advantage of this occasion to do all the necessary public relations to ensure that everything passes smoothly without controversy and there will be no tongues wagging. It was nice to see the President shaking hands with students who went to State House earlier today even though we were denied the opportunity to hear for ourselves what words of wisdom he imparted to the children. Unfortunately ZNBC only let us hear the First Ladys words to the students. Any way I suppose it was permissible for such an occasion for someone to speak on behalf of the President. With all this pomp and tradition I am sure no one expects an institution run by people so conservative that the men presiding over it still pride themselves in running around in long gowns and wigs, to, ever, allow or consider having the Presidential address delivered via Facebook! That would certainly be OUT OF ORDER!
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 20:43:51 +0000
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