ANB-BIA SUPPLEMENT

The Constitution is any country’s basic and fundamental law. Zambia is now embarked on yet another constitutional review path, so a wide consultation is imperative

Within Zambia, today, there exists an intellectual clique that would like to bulldoze the entire population into determining the country s destiny, by forcing through the adoption of the Constitution by a Constituent Assembly. How representative it this method?

The Oasis Forum is a non-governmental organisation (NGO), comprising: The Law Association of Zambia (LAZ); the three main Christian Churches — the Zambia Episcopal Conference, the United Church of Zambia and the Zambia Evangelical Fellowship; the NGO Coordinating Committee; other civil society organisations.

What piques many Zambians, though, is that the Oasis Forum is funded by the European Union and the United States International Development Agency. Ordinary citizens feel they are being dictated to by the intellectuals, rather than consulted.

The Oasis Forum’s financial muscle, has enabled it to include a select group of educated Zambians in its ranks, who have been able to tour the various provinces in order to garner a consensus from selected targeted audiences.

Although the constitutional review has been described as a «noble cause», a random survey in Lusaka for instance, revealed a total ignorance by Zambians about the Oasis Forum, its objectives, its composition or whether it is given to consult the body politic sufficiently.

For instance, David Mwamba of Lusaka, says: «The Oasis Forum has good ideals but it is based on the hotel circuit clientele and not the ordinary Zambians living in townships and villages. Its make-up is defective because it only embraces the elite’s views, plus those of a few chiefs and influential members of society.»

However, the Oasis Forum feels it has a legitimate right to dictate terms to the State as to how the new constitution should be adopted. But this line of thought has irked President Levy Mwanawasa who criticised and described as «un-democratic and cheap», blackmail threats by some NGOs to boycott serving on the Constitutional Review Commission, if their suggested mode of adopting the Constitution is turned down. He has stated that the Constitution can only be altered by Parliament.

Constitutional Review Commission

Mwanawasa is scheduled to announce that members of the Constitutional Review Commission will be as widely representative as possible from Zambians from all walks of life. The Commissions’s main terms of reference are:

• To collect views by all practical means from the general public both in rural and urban areas, and from Zambians living abroad, on what type of constitution Zambia should enact, bearing in mind that the constitution should exalt and effectively entrench and promote legal and institution protection of fundamental human rights and stand the test of time.
• To recommend a system of government that will ensure that Zambia is governed in a manner that will promote the democratic principles of regular and fair elections, transparency and accountability, and that will guard against the re-emergence of a dictatorial form of government.
• To recommend appropriate arrangements for the entrenchment and protection of human rights, the rule of law and good governance.
• To examine and recommend elimination of provisions which perceived to be discriminatory in the constitution such as whether or not, traditional rulers should engage in active politics.
• To recommend provisions to ensure the competence, impartiality and independence of the Judiciary, and access of the public to justice.

On 12 February, the Legal Affairs Minister, George Kunda, officially launched a series of live radio and television debates on the constitutional review which has aroused great enthusiasm and interest nationwide. He said the essence of the debates is: «To consult and solicit views widely from Zambians of diverse political spectrum, including minority aspirations. All views will be incorporated into consolidated recommendations of a Constitution that can stand the test of time for many generations, without being altered every time a new government is elected into office».

The fact is, Zambia needs a Constitution which takes into consideration all the various viewpoints.

• Fred Chela, Zambia, February 2003 — © Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment