WHY ARE SOME DIPLOMATS AND HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS SILENT ON OPPOSITION-INSPIRED LAWLESSNESS?

Dear Editor, THE recent directive by the Police Inspector General, Mr Kakoma Kanganja regarding the distribution of masks by political leaders is timely and will restore normalcy ahead of the August 12 elections. On the other hand, we have heard stakeholders among them the Human Rights Commission and some embassies and other stakeholders teaming up …

WHY ARE SOME DIPLOMATS AND HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS SILENT ON OPPOSITION-INSPIRED LAWLESSNESS?
Dear Editor, THE recent directive by the Police Inspector General, Mr Kakoma Kanganja regarding the distribution of masks by political leaders is timely and will restore normalcy ahead of the August 12 elections. On the other hand, we have heard stakeholders among them the Human Rights Commission and some embassies and other stakeholders teaming up to challenge the Police for their decision to restrict the public assemblies. What is more shocking is that one embassy has jumped ship on the political battle front and is making disparaging comments against the country’s institutions responsible with enforcing the law. From the outset we wonder where the opponents of Mr Kanganja’s statement have been when the police were the lonely players in the fight against the UPND-orchestrated political violence. It is also immoral for the Human Rights Commission, some known diplomats and their cohorts to condemn the legitimate instruction from the police when they have paid willful blindness to the lawlessness which was committed by UPND around the country. It is also immoral for this clique to demand equal treatment of President Edgar Lungu who is exercising his Executive authority with the private citizens who have no mandate from the Zambian people. They can only make such insinuations unless they are saying we have no President and we have no government. We wonder why the partisanship yet they are conspicuously absent when the opposition are in the side of the aggressor. Their approach toward national issues makes them to lose credibility in the estimation of the patriotic citizens and for diplomats that would strain the cordial relationship Zambia enjoys with other countries. On our end we can only demand fairness from the diplomats and the Human Rights Commission and their selective attitude towards the political activities causes their agenda to be questionable. Are human rights aggression committed by the opposition exceptional and do they pose a less danger? We do not think so. Of course we cannot tell them what to say but we can only demand fairness. Such selective attitude towards the pre-election era has the ability to misrepresent our democracy. Any citizen or indeed electoral stakeholder will endorse the statement from the police chief. On our end we sympathise with the police and their stance on the distribution of face masks as they mean well for the nation. The sentiments coming from the named diplomat is unwarranted harassment to the people of Zambia and it is our hope that our government will invoke the diplomatic process. MARVIN CHANDA MBERI, Lusaka.