PF’S EXPECTATIONS FOR HH TO DELIVER PROMISES IS NONSENSE
The Candidates’ Comment
In the recent past, the former ruling party the Patriotic Front (PF) has been asking President Hakainde Hichilema to deliver his promise to the people, such as selling the Presidential jet, offering free education and many others things.
Of course Hakainde must fulfill his promises to the people. However true this is, Hakainde cannot deliver certain promises in the shortest period that PF wants him to. If one is honest with themselves, one can’t fail to tell that Hakainde is doing very well at the moment. Among the things he has done so far is restoring the rule of law. Just few months ago, one could be arrested by the Police and detained for even traffic offenses. People who committed many bondable offenses were kept in detention for weeks without the authorities even worrying or caring about it. Today, the Police are not keeping people in cells, including political opponents of Hakainde and his party. This did not happen from without. It was after Hakainde corrected the violation of people’s fundamental rights.
Again, freedom of expression was at the mercy of the PF members and its leaders. Not long ago, you could not say anything – however just and true they were – against elements in the PF administration. It was a crime to freely express yourself under the PF administration. Today, the people are free to express themselves. The media is operating in a much freer environment than it did when PF was in power. All this is because Hakainde did something about.
We know that the UPND is expected to deliver certain things but to expect them to deliver some of the things instantly is to be dishonest, by the PF and their cronies given that, when they themselves were in power, they failed to deliver the very things they want Hakainde to deliver today.
We are not here to stop people from expecting Hakainde to honor his promises. We also want to see the UPND administration honor its promises. However, as we expect this to happen, we must not expect things to happen at the blink of an eye or overnight. We know that one of the many problems which this country is facing is that the treasury is empty. The money which the PF left in the treasury is nothing worth talking about. How can one reasonably expect Hakainde’s administration to offer free education, when the money which he is supposed to be using was all stolen by all sorts of crooks in the previous administration? We all know the magnitude of plunder, theft that characterized this country in the previous seven years. The delivery of promises will only happen once our treasury’s liquidity is sorted out. Part of that entails raising money through all sorts of justifiable and right means and getting back the stolen monies by our investigative wings. This is not to say, Hakainde must rely solemnly on prosecuting crooks in order to get back the money. Of course, while there must be other ways of raising the money, we must support Hakainde in his bid to ensure that crooks who took part in plundering tax payers’ monies are made to pay and brought to book. We know that these crooks are by party affiliation members and associates of the former ruling party. Therefore, the PF has no moral right to even demand that Hakainde honors his campaign promises because they are the reason why some things can’t be honored. Let other credible people talk.