Kennedy Limwanya
8 July 2009
ON his 207th day in office, President Rupiah Banda held only his second Press conference since winning the October 30, 2008 election, and the nation was pregnant with expectation.
By the time the June 24 State House Press conference was concluding, the words of the 36th United States president, Lyndon B Johnson, had come to pass.
That: "A president's hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right".
A president is never elected to do what, in the eyes of the public, may look right or what may sound right at the time the action is taken, only to end up with disastrous consequences on the people in the long run.
Any serious president worth his salt must look beyond tomorrow and, where necessary, make hard decisions for the greater and long-term good of his country, which was what President Banda did 14 days ago.
Among the high expectations during the Press conference was how the president was going to respond to the plight of public service workers who had gone on strike pressing for improved emoluments.
This was a tough issue, particularly that the people on strike included health workers who are an essential sector of any society, which is why healthier societies are generally more productive.
Some politicians and the president's detractors were, not unexpectedly, already making fodder out of this strike and painting a picture of a country that was degenerating into chaos.
So the president was presented with a jigsaw puzzle; he would have to give the public service workers what they wanted to forestall further industrial unrest but with a negative impact on the national Budget or do otherwise and incur serious political ramifications.
What was he to do?
He decided to be realistic and not play to the gallery for ephemeral popularity.
Some public service workers had rejected the 15 per cent pay rise that the Government had offered them, although that was actually four per cent more than what had been budgeted for.
The initial 11 per cent increment would have meant that out of the Government's programmed revenue of K10.6 trillion, K5.1 trillion (47.6 per cent) would go towards these emoluments.
After the unions rejected the 11 per cent, the additional four per cent meant a further K145.3 billion knock from the expected K10.6 trillion revenue.
The meaning of this K5.2 trillion wage bill was that 50 per cent of the Government's domestic revenue would be spent on 170,000 people or one per cent out of the national population of over 11 million people.
Now, where is the justification?
"As Zambians, we must take the decision as to whether spending half the budget on this small number of people is right or justified," President Banda reasoned.
"If 50 per cent of the domestic revenue is spent on personal emoluments, how then do we provide other necessities, the social and economic infrastructure including schools and energy, defence and security which are critical to economic growth and poverty reduction?"
It takes strong and focused leadership to make such bold decisions when least expected as opposed to doing only what is politically right but without firm foundation.
"It is the advantage and the nature of the strong that they can bring crucial issues to the fore and take a clear position regarding them," says German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
"The weak always have to choose alternatives that are not their own."
And the current global economic crisis offers no kind alternatives, thereby inviting prescriptions that may, for some time, be quite bitter to take but eventually prove beneficial to the country.
President Banda has remained true to the promises he made in the run-up to the 2008 election although political opponents have attempted to distract his attention by dwell on trivialities that are of no benefit to the Zambian people.
Dora Siliya
They have, for instance, expended their energies on questioning the re-appointment of Dora Siliya to the Cabinet, this time as Education Minister after she had earlier in the year resigned as Communications and Transport minister.
The resignation had followed the findings of the Dennis Chirwa tribunal which ruled that Ms Siliya had breached the Constitution by ignoring the advice of the attorney general in the awarding of a contract to RP Capital Partners of Cayman Islands for the valuation of Zamtel assets.
After applying for judicial review, Ms Siliya was cleared by Lusaka High Court judge Philip Musonda who ruled that she had, in fact, not breached the Constitution by merely not adhering to the advice of the attorney general.
That clearance thus prepared ground for Ms Siliya's re-appointment to Cabinet in a move that President Banda defended at the Press conference.
"What is peculiar about accepting what the judge ruled? All along, people were saying let us accept what the courts will say and I do not understand why women groups are not coming out to defend her."
Some interest groups and politicians have even sought to undermine the independence and sanctity of the judiciary by criticising Judge Musonda's ruling and wondering how a high court judge could overrule the findings of Supreme Court judges.
Yet there is nothing political about this matter; it is purely legal, and what people should be discussing is the amendment of the law that allows the chief justice to appoint Supreme Court judges as members of tribunals.
The Parliamentary and Ministerial Code of Conduct Act of 1994 stipulates that a tribunal shall consist of three persons appointed by the chief justice from amongst persons who hold or have held the office of judge of the Supreme Court or the high court.
Surely, as retired high court judge Kabazo Chanda recently observed, it creates unnecessary conflict and embarrassment for the findings of Supreme Court judges to be overruled by a lower court.
While awaiting the amendment of the law, the chief justice could restrict oneself to appointing sitting or retired high court judges so that in the case of an appeal, Supreme Court judges would then come in as the final arbiter.
Besides, does Ms Siliya, like any other Zambian, not have the right to seek judicial review if not satisfied with judgment so passed?
Should she be crucified simply because she is a member of President Banda's Cabinet?
After being cleared, does she not deserve the current appointment? Is she not one of the most hardworking ministers currently?
Trivialities should never be permitted to blur the bigger picture just for the sake of political expediency.
That matter has been laid to rest, and President Banda, in fact, pointed out that he did not need to get permission from students to appoint an Education minister.
Given Ms Siliya's commitment to work, students will soon find that they have been given more than what they had bargained for.
There should be no denying that Ms Siliya is one of the most intelligent and hardworking ministers around, and what she needs, even from her adversaries, is encouragement.
Why is it that for a woman to be considered worthy of her place among men, she has to do twice as much as men?
Cost-cutting measures
Because of being too engrossed in looking out for perceived cracks in President Banda's Government, his political opponents have chosen to ignore all the positive steps he announced at the Press conference, among which is cost-cutting measures in the civil service.
Nearly everyone in the country is agreed to the fact that there is so much misuse of public resources in the civil service, and the president certainly deserves plaudits for moving in to pull the plug on uncalled-for expenses.
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