Friday, March 29, 2024

PF Government Should Seriously Draw Lessons from the Deportation of Late President Sata from Malawi

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GREEN Party Presidential Candidate Peter Sinkamba
GREEN Party Presidential Candidate Peter Sinkamba

By Peter Sinkamba

The announcement by Chief Government Spokesperson and Information Minister, Hon. Dora Siliya that the PF Government deported nine foreign nationals for attempting to get into the country to witness the launch of Fred Mmembe’s Socialist Party is terrible news. In fact, it is proof that the PF has not drawn any lessons from the deportation of the late leader Michael Sata from Malawi years back.

As the nation will recall, in March 2007, the late Michael Sata – then the opposition leader leading the PF – travelled to Malawi for a private visit, but was deported on arrival at Chileka Airport without the Malawi Government stating the reasons for deportation and was driven 400 kilometers back to Zambia.

Four years later, Sata was elected President of the Republic of Zambia. What happened next? The newly-elected President Sata snubbed his Malawian counterpart Bingu wa Mutharika’s invitation to attend the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) summit in protest against the Mutharika government’s 2007 deportation.

What happened thereafter? Six months later, President Mutharika died suddenly after a heart attack and late President Sata donated five million liters of fuel to Malawi then worth about US$6 million. The gift was apparently to help with funeral of the country’s late President Mutharika. As fate turned out then, there was a serious fuel crisis in Malawi.

First, it was the deportation of Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimani mid last year who had travelled to Zambia for private visit. And now, it is the deportation of nine invited guests of Socialist Party leader Fred Mmembe. Yet, PF in opposition, and government, has sent its leaders and cadres to other countries around the world to attend meetings and make presentation of the party’s political and ideological dispositions. Beside the Malawi incidence, none has ever been deported on their numerous outings in Africa, China and elsewhere in the world.

One of the famous lessons from Confucius, who lived around 450 B.C., is the importance of active engagement and real time experiences in learning. As intelligent species, humans need to understand themselves in the context of their past and future, and to see the interplay of past and future, and how coming to grips with the past is important for the future.

As the Green Party, we earnestly urge our colleagues in the PF to have an in-depth reflection of the wealth of past experiences to inform their future methodological decision-making in government. We urge them to always seek to draw out the lessons from their experiences of the past so as to inform future practice. Lessons learned should draw on both positive and negative experiences so as to improve their efficiency, and most importantly, benefits of our people in the present and in future.

18 COMMENTS

  1. Well advised Peter, it seems kaponya thugs are incharge of our foringe and immigration affairs ……sad.

    • First time am disagreeing with ganja man. This issue boarders on national security and such people come in as spies.

    • I agree with my Party President Peter Sinkamba, the most ECL should’ve done is to issue a statement denouncing the Cuban ambassador’s act. Listen Cuba has been a great friend to Zambia, this is not the diplomatic way of doing things, Cuba has assisted Zambia with hundreds of medical doctors, so many Zambians have gone to Cuba to study, even during the liberation struggle of Southern Africa Cuba was one of the few countries to assist Zambia in counterintelligence on the S.Rhodesian and South African attempts to distabilise the country. No this is no way to treat a nation like Cuba.

  2. The fact that some unwanted foreigners may end up in power in their countries in the future does not give them the right to interfere in the politics of other countries, I wonder if you would be saying what you are saying here had you being in power at this present moment.

  3. The question is why are the so called “Socialists” so bent on foreign attention? Is it because they know that they don’t have enough supporters from within the country?

    “Any leadership that teaches you to depend upon another race is a leadership that will enslave you.” — The Honorable Marcus Garvey

  4. After all that Cuba has done for Zambia without requesting anything in return, this is a sad development. Perhaps these are reactionary lackeys of Rupiah Banda and his old friend Savimbi at work. Sata was not this type, but his party has been hijacked

  5. You’re saying PF go outside attending meetings are those meetings organis3d by the opposition or the sitting governments. Bring out factual truths so we can understand these matters better not making umbrella statements that have no substance

    • I do not in anyway condone the Chinese. Most of you who are now the most strongest critics of the PF are the same ones who insulted those who told you to think twice. The same Sata who is now spoken of in glowing terms is the same one who hosted and entertained these Chinese after having promised to kick them out when he was in opposition.

  6. Hmmmmm, haikonaaa, stop ubututu, ganja man is right, you cant jst b deporting or denying entry to foreign nationals who are here to offer solidality to yo citizens, jst coz they arent here for government business, can u control yo scopo-donono. There is no soveranity bin jeopardized here, mwitusinga better apa Nooo, no spy things even, someone is jst cum to offer support, nothing more…kwati we dont hve foreign nationals comin attend political yet labeled national events…this has to stop, takalefuma aka iyoo……

  7. The mind-altering compounds in Cannabis sativa tend to impact a permanent lesion on the brains even after the smoker had stopped sniffing the drug 50 years thereafter.

  8. The corrupt scums ECL and PF are always afraid of their own shadows!

    This is what happens when your mind is corrupted with selfishness and evil – everybody seems to be an enemy and you are always scared of the unknown.

  9. Your small excellency Mr President Peter Sinkamba, I beg to differ with your example. Mr Sata wasn’t a Saint was he? This is the man under whom certain things costly to the nation today took place. The three euro bonds, the new districts and provinces, unprecedented street vending, the cadre-risation of our economy, the realisation of Fred Mmembe’s capitalist dreams while pretending to be a socialist (Post Couriers, contracts etc). Now I should not be saying these things, the man is dead and solutions to the numerous problems he bequeathed onto us must be found by ourselves the living.

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