Meet and talk, Kalaba advises Lungu, HH

HARRY Kalaba has advised President Edgar Lungu and UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema to meet and talk without necessarily waiting for Church mother bodies or any other third party to facilitate their meeting.

And Kalaba, a former foreign affairs minister, says President Lungu takes long to anger and that Hichilema should be saluted for choosing Zambia over self when he accepted a slim loss to the former in 2015, without creating a fuss.

Kalaba, who featured on the Burning Issue programme on 5 FM radio yesterday, regretted that Zambias politics were anchored mainly on the public insisting on what was wrong with those who aspired for political office.

He then highlighted some positive traits of President Lungu and Hichilema and hoped that the two rival political leaders would ride on such attributes and be able to dialogue.

Well, one of the traits that that man (President Lungu) has is that he takes long to anger. That is a very good trait [and] that is a virtue that should be emulated. The problem we have had with our politics is that we have always insisted on what is wrong with those that aspire for political office. We dont seem to look at what the strengths are. For President Lungu, for me, that is one trait that even as I aspire to go for the Office of President, I should look at critically. As a father, you need to be magnanimous, Kalaba explained, when asked by the programme host, Zachariah Banda, what he learnt from working with President Lungu.

About Hichilema, Kalaba, who is aspiring for the Republican presidency in 2021, said: in 2015 the Patriotic Front only won [with] only about a percentage and I have been trying to find out which other African country did not go to war, given the slim difference between the ruling [party] and the opposition.

But Mr Hichilema just let it be and for me, he needs to be saluted because the peace of the country was more paramount to him than self-aggrandisement. He chose the country over self! Anybody that wanted to create a fuss would have created a fuss because its a one percentage difference and they would have said ‘we need to look at this, maybe we can have a government of national unity. Kalaba said.

So, those are strengths that these leaders have and I would just hope that they would use those strengths that they have even to meet and discuss between themselves, without even involving the Church mother bodies and a third party. In 1973 when [Dr Kenneth] Kaunda and Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula migrated from the multiparty system to the one party participatory democracy, they met and I dont recall seeing the Church anywhere near at Choma Secondary School. I dont recall seeing the European Union or any other body bringing them together to say this is the way you should go.

Asked if he feared President Lungu or whether he believed in the principle of not burning bridges, Kalaba said he did not believe in politics of name-calling.

President Lungu is the President of the Republic of Zambia; he holds the position Im aspiring to take over in the next two and half years. President Lungu was my chairman of Cabinet, I served under him. For me it is not right that I should begin calling him names where it is not necessary. It is not, first of all, me – thats not my nature, he noted.

The last time I checked, President Lungu was 20 years older than me [and] so, he deserves respect. He is a married man who has got a family; he has a wife who looks up to him. He is the Head of State [and] whether I like him or I dont like him, he is the Head of State and we have to respect the office that he holds.

Kalaba added that even as he highlighted issues that need attention in Zambia, he ought to do it in a way that did not take away from the presidency because tomorrow Im going to be [a] President.

I will not be happy to be called names…. If I was going to use demeaning words towards the President, those that are close to him might feel uncomfortable; they might feel injured because they look up to that man. So, I refuse to practice politics of insults simply because I need to score cheap political points. I will practice my own politics and my politics are of civility, Kalaba underscored.

Meanwhile, on whether or not his political commentary against the PF had remained guarded because he wanted to take the presidency of the ruling party, at some point, Kalaba responded negatively.

As to the issue of probably ‘he wants to be the preferred presidential candidate for the PF, not at all! For me, in the words of scripture, when you put your hands to the plough, you dont look back. I was a Cabinet minister and I was not fired [but] resigned on my own. Im not going to be the PF presidential candidate; I have moved on, clarified Kalaba.