Who should facilitate and mediate the PF-UPND talks?
By Justin Mupundu
It’s clear that Zambians want a national ‘indaba’. But then who should facilitate and mediate the national ‘indaba’?
Is it the governing Patriotic Front (PF)? Or is it the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND)? Or is it the e Clergy?
The Clergy, as the Prince of Peace (Our Lord Jesus Christ)’s representatives, should facilitate and mediate the PF-UPND reconciliation talks, and not issuing provocative statements.
This explains why God admonishes them in His Holy Bible’s Malachi 2:7: “For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his lips men should seek instruction? because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty.”
Further, the Holy Bible‘s Matthew 5:9 also offers a wise counsel: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
But it’s regrettable that some clergy have joined forced with the critics of President Edgar Lungu, and sacrificed priestly duties to their selfish interests.
The clergy have a noble task to unite and not to divide the nation, and build the nation in peace and pieces.
Contrary to the Catholic Archbishop Telephore Mpundu’s assertions that President Lungu is a dictator, President Lungu has demonstrated his statesmanship: He has gracefully accepted to dialogue provided the UPND recognises him as a duly elected Republican President What else do the clergy want him to do?
Bu the incarcerated UPND leader, Hakainde Hichilema, has vehemently refused to recognise him as a duly elected Republican President.
Meanwhile, the UPND wants to dialogue with President Lungu whom they have not recognised.
How then will they dialogue with President Lungu? Is it in his capacity as PF President? Or is it in his capacity as Republican President?
Recognition of President Lungu as a dully elected Republican President is the gist of the PF-UPND stand-off.
However, the clergy, particularly archbishop Mpundu has lamentably failed to counsel the UPND leaders on this matter. Yet quick to paint (Lungu) the Head of State black. But fails to discern how UPND leaders are proud and arrogant.
The Holy Bible’s James 4:5 also offers a wise counsel: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
How then should the clergy facilitate and mediate this seemingly intractable stand-off?
It’s also worth noting that a ‘Give-and-take’ principle is critical to dialogue.
It’s naïve to ask President Lungu to dialogue amid unresolved gist of the stand-off.
The national ‘indaba’ is not a one-time-off event. It’s a long and tedious process of bringing warring parties on a face-to-face roundtable dialogue.
The task requires not only diplomatic, negotiating, communication and analytical skills, but also empathy and good judgment.
Indeed, the mediator should also be impartial and acceptable to both parties, and posses abilities to iron out contentious issues in their order of importance: The first being the easiest to agree on, and the hardest to agree on is the last.
In this case, the hardest issue, which remains unresolved, for both parties to agree on is the recognition of President Lungu as a duly elected Republican President.
Archbishop Mpundu and his two counterparts fall short of the abilities to perform such a task. Therefore, they should immediately step aside, and refrain from commenting on the PF-UPND stand-off.
The clergy except the trio (Arch bishop Mpundu, Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ)’s Bishop Paul Mususu and Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ)’s Rev. Susan Matale) should immediately initiate a consensus-building process for dialogue.
Zambians expect the PF-UPND talks to take –off at the soonest possible time.
However, the onus is on the clergy to guide the nation: Initiate the PF-UPND dialogue, and not issuing provocative statements.
Issuing provocative statements will not resolve but escalate the stand-off. What has Archbishop Mpundu achieved by issuing such a provocative statement? Nothing, but created a hostile atmosphere for dialogue! But tact and diplomacy will help resolve the stand-off.
Whoosh! What a big test for the clergy! I pray that they will pass this test!
The author is a freelance journalist and a political analyst