Africa-Press – Zambia. The Candidates’ Comment Yesterday, Kabushi Constituency Member of Parliament, Bowman Lusambo was arrested and released on police bond by the Police in Luanshya the same day. We are sure that even Bowman himself did not anticipate that he would be released on bond few minutes after his arrest. This is because this kind of arrangement where the Police respect the fundamental human rights in this country was eroded by the successive regimes.
Not long ago, a myriad of United Party for National Development (UPND) and other opposition members were kept in Police detention weeks, on offenses that are bondable or bailable by law.
The leadership of the Patriotic Front (PF) did not care about those violations of human rights by the Police. In most instances, the PF leadership was very pleased to see those who opposed them spend longer days in detention than what the law states. This nonsense of violating people’s fundamental rights went on untamed by the PF. They encouraged it. They sponsored it and they sustained it.
Today, the PF are not being mistreated by Hakainde Hichilema. This is someone the PF treated unfairly. They treated Hakainde like animal that deserved no consideration. In fact, if the PF had it their way, they would have loved to see Hakainde die. This is the level at which PF’s hate for Hakainde had reached. By consequence, anyone who was perceived to be in agreement with Hakainde was considered an enemy whose fundamental human rights were stripped unashamedly.
We remember a young female journalist who was stripped naked in Lusaka for merely putting on a red scarf, on account that red signified that one was UPND. While this terror against the people was being perpetuated by PF cadres, their leadership was mute albeit knowing fully about this.
Today, they are on the opposite of the coin and the same person they treated badly is not mistreating them. It took just a word of Hakainde for the nonsense in the Police to end. There was no law that was passed for things to change. The laws are there that allow people to be treated properly with dignity.
These are lessons that our politicians must learn. Power – at any juncture- is not a birth right but rests in the people. It can be taken away from you at the blink of an eye. Therefore, no one must think that they shall forever be in power so as to abuse those that do not agree with them. We would like to take this opportunity to remind the ruling party that their leader Hakainde is doing so many things right but the very low rank cadres and other elements within the ruling party will spoil things for their President.
There are elements that have come to us to issue out open threats against The Candidates, for the works that we do. We wish to state that, The Candidates is not an underground establishment. We have never been underground since inception. Therefore, if there is anyone who is unhappy with our operations so much that they think we have contravened any laws of this country, they have a lot of avenues to seek redress. We do not exist to soothe elements on political lines. Our works find expression in the common good of the people.
The Candidates has no partners to please and we shall never betray our conviction for anything. We must state that, we know the risks associated with our works. At the same time, we believe noble causes are never compatible with comfort. If UPND elements think by telling us that the system is after us and think that terrifies us, they will be disappointed. We do not exist to fight Hakainde and his administration or the so-called system. The Office of the President does not exist to silence people or eliminate those with different views against the government of the day. That is broken-down and ancient thinking. If that were the case, we would never have seen change of government from one party to another because the OP would have been a compromised institution that serves the interest of an individual occupying the Presidency.
We exist because we believe the general public at large needs a vibrant Forth Estate for the common good of Zambia in whole. This includes the common good of the very people that serve in the OP. We believe – and we think we are not far from truth that – even Hakainde does not believe that those associated with The Candidates must be killed or must be harmed. If he believes that, we are sorry for him because even if everyone at The Candidates is taken out – there is no doubt that nature will always produce people who will still stand on the anti-hill and choose to do things that find expression in common good of the people. If their actions and decisions while in power find itself in conflict with that common good, we’re afraid they will have to kill, to take out many people in their lifetime. In the end, they will have to remain governing themselves. – The Candidates
