April 6, 2017
We have no position on ICC, feel free to form your opinion, PF tells members
Davis Mwila
As the exercise of consulting Zambians on whether to leave or remain part of the International Criminal Court (ICC) gathers momentum it has become necessary for us to address some issues that have come up.
1. Our members have been calling asking for guidance on what to say in their submission to the team from the Ministry of Justice that has been conducting the public consultation.
We have been telling our members that PF has not taken a position because the nature of the issue requires a non-partisan approach. As such, members are free, like any other citizen, to form an opinion on the matter and submit according to the dictates of their reasoning. We have been telling our members that the issue at hand is not one whereby members are expected to toll the party line. Therefore, we wish to urge our members who have not yet submitted to do so as their reasoning dictates.
2. Some stakeholders including civil society and politicians have been calling for the halting of the consultations spearheaded by the Ministry of Justice on grounds that His Excellency President Edgar Chagwa Lungu has allegedly taken a position not to leave the ICC which many stakeholders accuse of only targeting African leaders. These people have further argued that spending money on the exercise of consulting Zambians is a waste of resources because President Lungu has allegedly already decided not to withdraw from the ICC.
On this issue we wish to assure Zambians of President Lungu’s sincere leadership and his unquestionable loyalty to the common cause. Further, we wish to assure Zambians of President Lungu’s democratic credentials which make him value dialogue and consultations such as the on-going consultation exercise regarding the ICC. As a democrat President Lungu will never impose his will nor indeed that of PF party on the people of our great country.
It is said that dictators are made by the people. Indeed we think that some civil society personalities and politicians are trying to turn President Lungu into a dictator who uses the pretext of saving money to deny citizens their right to be part of important decision making processes such as the one at hand. It’s for this reason that many of our people are shocked to see that the same people who have been saying democracy is expensive as a way of justifying their demand that the government finds money for undertakings such as the Bill of Rights referendum are the ones against government spending money on the on-going consultation exercise. Against this background we urge Zambians to continue appreciating and supporting President Lungu’s leadership style.
We know that some people in our country want to promote the One Party mentality where what the ruling party wants carries the day and people are excluded from vital decision making processes. On our part we shall never abuse the confidence Zambians have in us by disregarding their views on important national issues such as the current debate on whether to leave or remain part of ICC.
Finally, I want to take advantage of this briefing to announce that after consultation with our Party President I have appointed a member of the PF Information and Publicity Committee Mr Sunday Chanda as Patriotic Front Media Director.
Mr Chanda will head the media directorate under my office at the Secretariat. This position of Media Director is a full time job. I want to wish Mr Chanda success in his job as our Media Director.
God bless our country.
I thank you all.
Davies Mwila
SECRETARY GENERAL
Delivered at the Party Secretariat during a press briefing.