JCTR Bulletin 2nd Quarter 2011

Three months ago, the constitution making-process in Zambia came to another halt when the proposed Constitution Bill did not get the two-thirds endorsement it required to pass in Parliament. This was an inauspicious development for the constitution-making process in Zambia, perhaps signalling yet another failure by the country to come up with a just and enduring constitution. Various reasons were given for the rejection of the proposed Constitution. Many people were unsatisfied by both the process and the contents of the Draft Constitution. Submissions that had been made by the public and by civil society organisations on issues of critical concern such as electoral regulations and the inclusion of economic, social and cultural rights in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights were not incorporated into the Draft by the National Constitution Commission. As such, people felt they had not been listened to. People and civil society organisations in Zambia have long expressed their wish to see policy changes in both the political and economic sectors. Examples of some of these advocacy issues are media laws and practices, the windfall tax, investment laws and employment-related policies. The Government has mostly been irresponsive to these reasonable demands meant to improve the livelihood of citizens. Such irresponsiveness erodes public confidence in Government, which will soon be tested in the forthcoming national elections. Furthermore, the irresponsiveness puts into perspective the dictatorial tendencies of the leaders who masquerade as champions of democracy. It highlights the difference between real democracy and semblances of democracy.