Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Ever Condemned Public Order Act and the defamation of the president law now favoring UPND government

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By Venus N Msyani

Public Order Act and the defamation of the president law continue to damage achieved democracy in the country and the United Party for National Development (UPND) government seem to be okay with that. The reason is that both seem to favor president Hakainde Hichilema.

In a democratic society, peaceful protests are the fulfillment of freedom of expression. Nevertheless, Zambians are being denied the right to express themselves in front of president Hakainde Hichilema.
On February 20, police in riot gear stopped a march of protesting unemployed doctors. Not because they paused danger to the public, but because they were seeking an audience with the president.

On Thursday, March 3rd 2022, another protest was stopped by police in riot gear again. This time it was teachers marching to statehouse to seek an audience with president Hakainde.

A clear manifestation of the Public Order Bill 2019, a tool crafted by the previous Patriotic Front (PF) government to undermine freedom of expression and assembly.

Hesitating to amend the bill implies that the current United Party for National Development (UPND) government is benefiting from the public order act.

Stopping protesters to march to the statehouse to protest in front of president Hakainde appears to leave the UPND administration happy and it could be a reason why the president praised police on his Facebook on Police day. According to HH, in the last six months of his presidency, police have demonstrated professionalism in carrying out their duties.

Police are attending to peaceful protests in the country in riot gear. If that implies professionalism, the president is reading wrong books.

The same applies to the defamation of the president law. A report has emerged that police in Kafue have arrested a youth, Aaron Mwale Jr for allegedly insulting president Hakainde Hichilema and Kafue MP Miriam Chonya.
Definitely, the report has left UPND celebrating. If it is true, how would one expect the HH administration to get rid of the defamation of the president law!
Our integrity will be questioned if we join UPND in celebrating the arrest of Kafue youth Aaron Mwale Jr. We condemned defamation of the president arrests under PF. We must condemn defamation of the president arrests under UPND.

Under the article, The change Zambians voted for is not complete if the defamation of the president law stays the author predicted more defamation arrests coming. It is happening and your voice has the power to stop it.

Public Order Act and the defamation of the president law may not go if our voice does not get louder. The two now seem to serve the interest of the new dawn administration.

14 COMMENTS

    • August 12 is painful, start learning how to cure your bitterness, Every morning you just demonstrate your bitterness, it will choke you yourself misguided little soul

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  1. People who have known Hakala since childhood say that we have not seen the worst in Hakacinda.

    We are yet to the worst!!

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    • We are okay with seeing the worst, that is why we voted for him. Most of us Zambians are agreed that we would rather suffer under UPND than that lawlessness we saw under PF. No wonder you find that a simple shelter and a booth called a toll gate was costing as much as 4.3 million dollars one, translating into Seventy Eight Million Kwacha one (K78,000,000). Where on earth? All PF evil schemes were on a grand scale, un precedent

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  2. PF was the mother of all evil hence they are being kicked out. All these bad laws came with the mother of all evil, the PF

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  3. Vesta, seems you just got off the bus. These laws have been there since Independence. When Dipak Patel called Mwanawasa cabbage and The Post published it, Dipak and M’membe were arrested for defamation of the President.

    Public Order Act has been used obviously for public order but sometimes abused by the ruling party

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  4. No wonder its always important to change the bad laws when you have chance to. The PF had all the time change some of these bad laws but they put a blind eye to it cause they thought they will rule forever. Now out of government they are complaining. UPND should learn something, Power never lasts forever.
    For defamation of the President, one should use the common sense in airing out there grievances by using appropriate words to communicate. Insults wont take you anywhere. They are plenty of words to use but one chooses insults so don’t complain when the law visits you. Always remember that where ones freedom ends the other one starts.

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  5. As long as it’s a black Zambian in charge this law will never be repealed. Mmembe, Tembo, Kalaba, Saboi etc can condemn it while in Opposition but once they cross that line, they act as if it never existed.

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  6. If you know you fell for upnds lie and voted them in then you are a moon-yellow who deserves all the suffering your decision brings. Here I am my life hasn’t changed I am even earning more than I did whilst govt. So who us f00iish between us

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  7. WE HAVE A LONG ROAD TO TRAVEL WITH SUFFERING
    BUT WE HAVE TO BEAR THE PAIN IN RIDDING ZAMBIA OF ALL THE ILLS PF CAUSED

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  8. Too much waisting time bla bla bla bla……….

    Zambia will take a long long time if ever to fully develop its full potential or reach standards of Asian giants……..

    Always politicking………

    There is never a time everyone says let’s work………

  9. One of the main reasons why the Public Order Act and the defamation of the president law CAN remain in place, is basically due to such rantings by this author, its misleading to suggest that DEMOCRACY is when any JIM and JACK, can one day wake up with a hangover is let to go protest at the state-house. Not even in the biggest democratic countries, do you see people going to protest anyhow at WHITE HOUSE, or 10 Downing Street or PMO India. I dont see how those laws will be completely be scrapped off, maybe some modification/update. ZAMBIAN TRADITIONAL laws also demand that you respect elders or people above you, does that amount to colonial rule? Are we advocating to scrap those rules too?

  10. Nothing wrong with POA and Defamation laws. No need to change anything. If u want to protest follow procedures. If you don’t like your president keep it 2 yourself or better use jargon to express your grievances like Sean Tembo

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