LAUNCH ADDRESS ON THE OPENING OF THE NEW NAREP HEADQUARTERS LET COOL HEADS PREVAIL: PUT PEOPLE FIRST Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome you to the official opening of the new National Restoration Party headquarters. I believe that it is no coincidence that we happen to be launching our new offices at a time of great turmoil in our nation. This launch has involved several weeks of planning and we could not have predicted the national events that would engulf our nation and that are taking place now. In the midst of high commodity prices, industrial tensions, unnecessary wastage of national resources on a bloated administration with engineered by-elections and ever increasing political tensions, it has never been more obvious that our country needs a new type of leadership. We need a new leadership mindset in our homes, our workplaces, our schools, our churches, and indeed in our politics. Zambia needs true patriots, people who understand that a country’s development is more important than political domination. Our country needs people who will steer us away from the path of no direction and towards a path that will bring prosperity for all. Zambia needs a political consensus that is built on values and a compelling vision for development that places at its very centre, the nation’s most precious resource: its people. The future of our nation’s politics lies in a Party like NAREP. A Party that is prepared to offer hope and guidance to a nation that needs leaders who will put people first. Leaders who will not sacrifice development on the altar of political expedience. Leaders who will do everything in their power to alleviate the suffering of the nation by being an example of the sacrifice that they expect from others. As a Party, and in keeping with our tradition of always being constructive in our criticism and speaking without fear, favour or insulting and abusive language, we categorically reject the manner in which the removal of subsidies on fuel, maize and agricultural inputs has been handled by the PF administration. For those in the PF administration who believe that subsidies on maize procurements have only benefitted the millers and the well-to-do in society, we have news for you. 60 per cent of our population (over 8 million people) live in rural communities with limited or no access to electricity, decent roads, basic healthcare and clean water; close to 4 million people in cities and towns face these very same challenges with mothers queuing up from as early as 3 o’clock in the morning to line up at a communal tap to draw water. People who live in conditions that could never be considered fit for human habitation. These are the people who feel most the effects of high mealie meal prices. These are the citizens who have to pay more as a result of the removal of fuel subsidies. These are the Zambians who feel the greatest impact when the cost of goods begins to rise. To the PF administration, we ask you to remember this whenever you fly your helicopters and drive your vehicles at taxpayers expense around the country to preside over yet another engineered by-election. We ask you to spare a thought for our marketeers, bus drivers, street vendors, farmers. We ask you to spare a thought for all the women who are breaking their backs trying to make ends meet, all the young men wandering from street to street, from bar to bar hoping to get a small piece of economic action from whatever opportunity will enable them to put food on their table just for that day. We ask you to show restraint and a tireless heart of leadership and release the young university students picked up for showing their concern for those affected by your sudden decision to abruptly end the long-standing subsidies on food, fuel and farming. To the nation, we say: ask yourselves why this sudden removal of three different subsidies in one go? If indeed these actions had been planned, why were they not referred to in the president’s opening address to parliament? Why were they not referred to in last October’s budget address of the Finance Minister? Were the subsidies removed in order to carry the cost of the bloated civil service, or to pay out on overpriced government contracts that have been single-sourced under the PF administration? Or perhaps the subsidies have been removed in order to pay for the engineered by-elections that have been justified as being constitutional? Maybe they were removed to cover the cost of the unplanned creation of new districts along with the constant hiring, firing and reshuffling of government officials? Nearly 40 per cent of our national budget will go towards paying for a bloated civil service and political administration. Can we really say with our hand on our hearts that we have a caring government when a permanent secretary can be hired on a Friday and be fired before a week has gone by? Can we really be serious in our quest for development when we keep appointing more than one deputy ministers to nearly every ministry? Each of the following ministries has 3 deputy ministers: • Ministry of Agriculture • Ministry of Commerce • Ministry of Home Affairs • Ministry of Local Government and Housing • Ministry of Transport, Works, Supply and Communication Ask yourselves: Why? Why should each minister and deputy minister get an automatic pay rise when the fuel subsidy is removed while the rest of the country’s suffering masses have to pay more for their transport, goods and services? 4 more by-elections will be conducted due to the resignation of sitting MP’s and defection to the Patriotic Front. Ask yourselves: Why? The recently appointed permanent secretary for Luapula Province, Mr. Ben Phiri was unceremoniously fired after being ceremoniously appointed only 6 days earlier. Ask yourselves: Why? Was it because he was heard listening to that catchy song “Bufi” that so eloquently captures the pain of our time? These questions need answers, not stock-in-trade responses about “development this” and “development that”. We have always believed that the best way to deal with the clear need to remove the unsustainable subsidies is the following: • Demonstrate leadership by avoiding all unnecessary expenditures through reduction of the civil service, cabinet and deputy ministers, rejection of defecting members of parliament and sudden creation of unplanned districts • Clean up the oil procurement process in order to avoid unnecessary costs and the over pricing that causes high pump prices • Reassess the amount o f taxes charged on fuel which takes up a major portion of the retail price • Engage with all stakeholders from all sectors and explain how the subsidy savings will be applied with a clear plan that sets our policy priorities • Avoid removing all subsidies in one go and stagger the reductions over a period of at least 6 months so that the impact is minimised • Address other areas in which the cost of living and doing business can be reduced • Guide the nation through the process of change with regular reminders of government priority areas and keep a scorecard of how the savings are being applied. This is not rocket science, this is leadership. This is not politics, this is simply what the country yearns for. This is what NAREP stands for and what our symbol, our motto and our new offices represent: a heart for the people. I ask you to join me now in celebrating the official opening of our new headquarters. We, as a Party ask you to be a part of the change you need to see in our country. We ask you all to GET INVOLVED NOW!! I thank you all and may God’s grace be with you. Elias C. Chipimo NAREP President 18 May 2013
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 19:16:36 +0000
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