HAPPENING: We share this from Permanent Secretary Chanda Kasolos page regarding one of the most trending stories in Zambia currently. -- Leave Chikwanda, Edgar Lungu alone -- Folks I always try to steer as far away from politics as possible, as a technocrat. But as a family member, I do not like to stand by and see things dip from bad to worse and say or do nothing about it. It’s for this reason that I have decided to make this statement here below regarding recent media developments that have played out pretty badly in the eyes of right thinking Zambians. -- I am very disappointed with the decision taken by sections of the Zambian media to deliberately distort facts and try to foment hate in the Patriotic Front in a bid to achieve what is clearly a selfish end. As a member of the family, I want to state that it is absolutely unfair for the media to attribute divisive statements to Hon. Alexander Chikwanda regarding issues that cannot be independently verified in the media. I was with hon. Chikwanda before and during the past weekend that the illicit so-called recordings are said to have been taped as we worked on a family issue and I do not recall him uttering any such statements falsely and maliciously attributed to him. I know honorable Chikwanda as an older brother and an hon. man just like so many people close to him in business, family and politics know him. I am also very disappointed that if the recordings were true which I have already said they are not, someone could go to the Chikwanda house armed with the motive of taping him and betraying his trust. Ladies and Gentleman, I unlike others, am not a moralist but I would like to believe the adage that there must “honour even among thieves.” How can you go to someone’s house, break bread and wine with them, get accepted as a family member or friend and record them for the purpose of injury?—that is a typical Judas Iscariot Kiss of death. Also as a news institution, how can you try and arm-twist or even muscle yourself out of a situation simply because you are being investigated for one alleged offence or another? This is Zambia in the 21st Century it is not ‘Cold War’ Eastern Europe before the fall of the Iron Curtain, you cannot eaves-drop on people, its dishonorable, it is illegal under Zambian press law and it goes against natural justice. It is cheap. What we are seeing is a calculated move by sections of the media to crack right in the middle, the PF and scupper all the great works it has embarked on in the past three years. I am talking about the 650 health posts, the railway rehabilitation exercise, the youth empowerment, the University constructions country-wide, the Link 8000 road network, and the water reticulation to mention but a few. Any responsive and productive media would try and look at this instead of planting seeds of hatred and deceit. We have enjoyed peace in this country for close to 50 years and we do not want that to fade into ether just because there appears to be ‘sour-grapes’ or indeed a wounded buffalo somewhere. We cant always get what we want. Zambia is bigger than our pocket agendas so let us always remain alive to that fact, and as a family member and a citizen of this country, I say, Zambia first, pocket agendas out. Leave Hon. Chikwanda alone let him do his great job that has seen Fitch Ratings give us a positive rating upwards amidst all the hate and contempt being peddled in the media. Let us, as a nation and a family, concentrate on that which will build us and not that which will crack as at the seams. Let us also not forget that no matter how powerful you are as a medium of communication or indeed an individual, time does come when the bell tolls for you if you break the law. The perfect example is that of the most influential media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the Australian born tycoon that once boasted of making or breaking leaders in the West. His day came in UK in 2012 when the British parliament took him to task for illegally recording, or rather his people’ recording, government officials and using illicit recordings for dodgy media purposes. We live in a Commonwealth but above all, we should not use the power and talent God gave us to harm others. We should use it like President Sata does to heal and love others. To serve. I rest my case here and hope that we can move together in unity and not hatred and deceit. The Sata family is tired of being dragged in the mud when all the President (Sata God bless him) has done in his first term is serve the country selflessly through infrastructure building and fighting graft wherever it raises its ugly head. Let us not get black-mailed by those that have elected themselves to be champions of democracy and morality. United, we stand, divided we fall. Let us also give all the support we can to Hon. Edgar Lungu because the popularly elected President Michael Sata has given him the responsibility to serve us on his behalf. Mr. Sata was voted for on a popular democratic platform by more than 43 percent of Zambians in 2011 which is not so long ago. If you ridicule Hon. Edgar Lungu, you are plainly ridiculing the man that asked him to discharge the duties of the Presidency. Mr. Lungu, Mr. Chikwanda and several others under the charge of Mr. Sata are people that have won the trust of the President, why don’t we support them and foster development instead of pushing “tribal” and “graft” agendas that can only harm the country. God bless you all and just remember God gave you power to build this country in each and every capacity that you are in today and not destroy it. God did not bring you on this earth to foment hate and contempt. No one man or woman has the monopoly of wisdom, to think that is to be proud and foolish and everybody knows that pride always comes before the fall. Feel free to reproduce this is in full, and for all of you my media colleagues, we can always chat on the side-lines in case you need any verification. It is always good journalism to verify. CK 24-11-14.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 20:47:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015