The following statement was circulated by FODEP:
The absence and deafening silence by the Republican President HE Mr. Michael Chilufya Sata since coming from the UN meeting in New York is creating a lot of anxieties among electorate and the citizens in general ahead of the Jubilee Day Commemorations.
The Republican President who is also PF party leader has remained conspicuously absent from public eye despite the many challenges facing Zambians which include high mealie-meal prices, PF intra-violence and impending labour unrest due to imposed wage and employment freeze. Even his Facebook page has remained active of late where the public used to extract news items posted from time to time and extracted by various media outlets.
This is a clear demonstration of lack of electoral and democratic accountability on the party of the President in particular and government in general. It will be good that the President becomes more visible to the electorate to avert future negative perceptions about politicians’ behavior once elected.
His absence from public eye is also raising questions on whether he will be able to actively participate in the Jubilee Celebrations since he has been visibly invisible and unheard for weeks now. This is not good for any elected leader to hide from his/her electorates and raises the questions of whether elected leaders respect and value the principle of accountability to the electorates.
This attitude if left unchecked has the potential to affect MPs and councilors’ work attitudes towards their electorates.
Already, because of this kind of attitude from the highest office, Zambians are now seeing an increased number of absentee MPs and councilors who have either neglected their constituencies and wards or occasionally visit them.
Further the continued absence of the President from public eye and public duty raises the question on who is supervising his ministers and whether in his absence his ministers cannot abuse public resources.
Disappointingly, the entire government system has not really helped the electorate to understand why their elected President who they elected overwhelming on 20th September 2011 has decided to hide his face from them for such a long time. This may have a telling effect to politicians ahead of the 2016 general elections.
The only good thing, however, from the President conspicuous inactiveness, has been reduced creation of unbudgeted for districts, appointment and disappointment of public officers and ministers; and reduced swearing in ceremonies at State House and reshuffles which has saved the country huge sums of taxpayers’ money in paying off those who are disappointed and those settling in after being appointed. To some extent it has brought about portfolio stability in government circles.
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