Edith Nawakwi weighs in on Political Violence

17th April 2014

PRESS STATEMENT ON POLITICAL VIOLENCE

We as FDD are gravely worried with the wave of political violence that has engulfed our country. If nothing is done to stop this violence our country will soon degenerate into anarchy and civil strife.

CAUSES OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE

There are several factors that have given rise to a culture of political violence among them being:

1. Our collective failure to embrace democracy in its full sense. Democracy entails that tolerating divergent views, stiff competition for public office and an obligation on the part of those in leadership to publicly account for their actions.

2. The infiltration of the Police Service by known PF cadres who are ill- trained.

3. High levels of poverty and lack of education among the youths has made many of our youths vulnerable hence they are hired as tools of violence. These youths use violence as a means of survival.

UPND’S THREATS THAT THEY WILL ARM THEMSELVES

While we as FDD recognize and appreciate the fact that the UPND has in the recent past been at the receiving end of political violence i.e. both police and PF violence, the statement that the UPND will arm themselves sends shivers in our spines because we know that such a scenario will not resolve the violence but instead worsen it and we risk going into an armed conflict.

As a Party we do not believe that having an armed PF and an armed UPND is the way to resolving conflict. We therefore propose the following as a solution to ending political violence.

WAY FORWARD

1. His Excellency President Michael Chilufya Sata as Commander- in- Chief of the armed forces PF President should come out in the open; condemn the PF violence and instruct his men and women in uniform to get down to work and disarm and cage these PF thugs.

2. Instead of threatening UPND who are the victims of PF violence the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr. Simbiyakula should instead focus his energy on ensuring that the police bring those violent PF cadres to book.

3. The police should conduct themselves in a professional way and stop getting instructions from PF officials and cadres.

4. The police command should weed out PF cadres who have infiltrated its rank and file.

5. The PF leadership should desist from hiring our youths and unleash them on innocent citizens. The PF leadership is taking advantage of the poverty of the majority of our youths whom they hire for a fee cause havoc

6. As leaders we should learn to talk to each other and see eye to eye. We should not allow our personal ambitions to go to State House or to remain in power to supersede our moral obligation to foster peace, unity and stability

Politics should not divide us but rather if should unite us because it is the only vehicle that we should use to address the social and economic woes facing our people.

7. The government should seriously and urgently address issues of youth poverty and unemployment as it is a threat to national stability – we have all seen the political turmoil that has erupted in several countries due to high youth poverty and unemployment. We are all aware that the youths that are being used to perpetrate violence are those youths that are poor and illiterate so we should address these issues if we are to seriously address political violence in a long term.

Lastly I urge all my fellow political leaders to use the forthcoming Easter Holiday as a period of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Prepared and issued by:
Edith Z. Nawakwi
FDD President.