PF SHOULD LEAD IN STEMMING VIOLENCE – MILUPI CHARLES Milupi says inasmuch as opposition political party leaders have a role to play in stemming the political violence that seems to be creeping into Zambian politics, the PF as a ruling party should take the lead. The Alliance for Democracy and Development president said no opposition party treasured engaging in violence in Zambia. In fact if my party, the ADD, MMD, UPND or any other opposition political party was to perpetrate violence, the law enforcement agencies would swiftly move in to arrest our cadres, including their leaders. So in as much as we dont condone political violence as opposition, the PF should take the lead in ending this ugly trend as a ruling party, Milupi said in reference to concerns raised by acting US Ambassador to Zambia David Young about the pattern of violence among political cadres which was rearing its ugly face in Zambian politics. Ambassador Young recently expressed concern at the pattern of violence among cadres, stressing that such an evil needed to be taken seriously by all political parties and other political players. However, Milupi noted that most of the political violence that obtained in the country was perptrated by the ruling party, which was opposed to divergent views. The violence that worries us the most is that pepetrated by cadres from the ruling party, for a simple reason that the law enforcement officers seem to be absolutely powerless to deal with such violence. And if the ruling party stops this violence, you would find that there will be no need for any other party to even attempt to defend themselves because we would all rely on the police, Milupi said. So number one, the ruling party has shown great propensity for lawlessness, against themselves, against other political parties. We have seen people with pangas, and total lawlessness. So they must stop that. The PF should also free the police so that officers look at everyone as a citizen and protect them. Milupi said once such measures were taken, there would be no violence of any kind. We shall be going to campaign freely like we have done before. The third aspect is that once the President indicates or makes a strong statement that all political parties are free to meet, express their opinions and they should be protected by law, the moment he says that, you will see two things happen; the police will begin to do their job properly and the PF cadres will stay away from engaging in political violence, Milupi said. So the key are those that are bestowed with the right to maintaining law and order, through the Constitution and those are the Executive. Milupi said what was happening was that those political parties that were able to mobilise, did so using their own marshals while those that couldnt manage were quiet. Therefore the political discourse that should be in this country is lopsided and so the country is not being given an opportunity to listen to other people who have ideas for this nation, said Milupi. postzambia/post-read_article.php?articleId=50413
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 05:07:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015