By 
Socialist Party (SP) leader Dr. Fred M’membe has accused President Hakainde Hichilema of desperately scheming to silence his critics in the country.
M’membe said Hichilema’s press conference at State House on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, was nothing but an ill-advised and emotional odyssey heading nowhere.
In a statement issued in Lusaka on Thursday, M’membe accused Hichilema of defending, validating, and justifying his administration’s numerous governance, political and economic misadventures.
He stated: “We wonder why and for what, really? If things are not going as planned or promised, which obviously is the case in point, Hichilema ought to realise that neither anger, targeting nor bullying of citizens or political competitors will work.”
M’membe advised the President to remain in charge of his emotions and displeasures if sound and less emotive decisions or pronouncements were to come forth.
“Let him know that his intentionally and emotionally filled outbursts are not helping but rather create a toxic environment,” he said.
M’membe claimed that Hichilema was charging the environment with his inability to recognise and improve on his evident weaknesses and failures.
“We are all human and, therefore, imperfect. He cannot be a know-it-all. He definitely must stop looking at criticism or disapproval as hatred or aversion deserving the ultimate punishment,” he demanded.
M’membe said threats of unleashing the army and ordering arrests, detentions and imprisonment would not work.
“In fact, that is not only reckless talk but also primitive, barbaric and colonial style of governance, which has led many leaders in history to commit indescribable atrocities just to feed their ego and obsession with power,” he stated.
Mmembe said altering the law with the aim of satisfying a specific group of the population was nothing but lawlessness and “political disorder borne out of an insecure, obsessed and divisive leadership.”
He stated that laws were not amended from an emotive and paranoid premise but to promote justice, fairness and social order for all regardless of color, race, ethnicity and political affiliation.
“In any case, what will be the point of Hichilema amending the law on tribal hate speech when they have failed to enforce the existing laws reasonably and equitably?
“We have said it before that for Hichilema, it seems that practicing tribalism is not wrong, but pointing it out is a crime of hate speech,” M’membe wondered.
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