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What Are Zambia's Benefits From Liberation Wars?

The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
DOCUMENT
April 9, 2004
Posted to the web April 9, 2004

IT is in the interest of Zambia, and we stand to gain as leaders. It means that
as a prerequisite we should invest in effective diplomatic training to improve
the capacity at the Institute of the Diplomatic Studies.
Sir, these are essential ingredients in ensuring that the tradition that of
effective diplomacy abroad is enhanced.
Further, I would like to state that we have sewn a good seed for many years.
It is about time we begun to harvest from what we have sown. I am concerned
that the seed that we have sown in the DRC, in particular, by our own very
active participation in the DRC peace process, maybe in vain if we do not stay
in this particular matter. It is therefore, important that we stay in the DRC
peace process up to the end.
Equally, I see the need for us to examine closely opening up consular
facilities in Angola following the attainment of peace. Our colleagues in
Angola have an office in Mongu therefore, we can benefit from opening an office
close or near the border with Angola where people could have easier access than
going to Rwanda.
We also need to benefit from our involvement in the peace process in Angola as
equally as we should benefit from our engagement in the DRC.
Mr Chairman, many a time we have lost out when we have been front liners for so
many years and when its time to share dividends, we are left out.
Diplomacy is about national interest. We need to keep that in mind all the time
and make sure that there has to be Zambia's national interest at heart each
time we are engaged in these areas.
Mr Chairman, I am concerned about some facilities in some missions abroad. They
are terribly dilapidated. For instance the Zambian houses in Angola and Rwanda.
They are in bad shape. I hope that the hon. Minister of Finance and National
Planning stretches his hand a little further even within the prevailing
circumstances of HIPC. We need to project ourselves more constructively and
more positively by looking at Zambia houses in Angola, Mozambique and Rwanda.
Even the house in New York needs to be completed
Sir, I know His Excellency has worked very hard with your ministry to try and
raise some funds to improve that house, but more needs to be done. We need to
improve Lancaster House in London. It is falling apart, therefore, it needs to
be renovated so that we maintain our good face in London.
Sir, the situation in Japan when at one time at our mission there was a poster
saying that it was closed because Zambia had failed to pay rentals. That is not
what we need to see in our missions.
Sir, I hope that the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning appreciates
that foreign policy is critical to our trade policy and it is also critical to
attracting investment.
In the context where we have cut down expenses of our Head of State, our Vice-
President and all our ministries, it is important that we invest a little more
in allowing our foreign missions to do a lot more to attract investment in our
country.
Sir, we have able men and women supported by professional staff in various
departments, particularly, in the economic department and our foreign missions.
We stand to gain a lot more given our current circumstances. So, it is not
wasted expenditure. It is a positive investment and I hope that my colleagues
in the Ministry of Finance and National Planning will lend an ear to this plea
from a former servant of the State.
Thank you, Sir.
Hon. Members: Hear, hear!
Mr Mukwakwa (Zambezi East): Mr Chairman, in debating the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, I stand here as one of the Members of Parliament who comes from a
constituency which shares a border with a country which has been in conflict
for a very long time.
Sir, when the liberation war started in Angola, the first war front to be
opened was through Zambezi District. After that, another front had to be opened
in Mwinilunga and another front was opened in the Western Province.
Sir, the tendency now is that our government is not putting a lot of pressure
on the Angolan Government to, at least, acknowledge and put back into Zambia
what it lost when helping the Angolans to attain their independence.
Sir, at the moment, not all the land mines have been cleared in the Western
Province, Mwinilunga and Zambezi.
Mr Chairman, delegations come into the country to discuss these issues. The
issues are discussed at national level between our Government and our
ministries. That is good enough because there are the ones who carry the
mandate for the country.
However, Sir, we as hon. Members of Parliament are the ones who are in touch
with the people and we appreciate the problems they face between this country
and Angola.
Mr Chairman, at times, we tend to be too kind and I have no apologies to make.
We have helped these countries for too long, but there are not reciprocating.
Hon. Members: Hear, hear!
Mr Mukwakwa: Mr Chairman, taking aside diplomacy, let us not allow other
countries to take advantage of us. They have taken advantage of this country
for too long. There have been complaints from people in the North-Western
Province, I am not quite sure about Western Province, with regard to trading in
Angola.
The fee they are charging for visas is too high. For them it does not matter
because they have got a lot of dollars in the form of currency.
Sir, why should we always be sacrificing for other people's benefits? Yet after
they get independent, they treat us like they have never lived in this country,
they treat Zambians like they have never fed them.
We have lost many people through land mines and we have lost many people
through the action taken by our colleagues who do not want to live in peace
amongst themselves. Therefore, we plead with our Government that when they
discuss some of these issues with their colleagues, it is better to engage the
Members of Parliament and the local people, through the chiefs, who understand
these issues better because they live with the people along the borders.
Mr Chairman, the other issue I wish to debate is that of investors. As a
country, we tend to worship investors a lot. I am not saying that we do not
need their investment, but we should look at the history of this country. Sir,
in 1991 for instance, when we opened our doors too widely without putting in
controls, that marked the escalation of drug trafficking in this country. I am
not saying drug trafficking was not there in the First Republic, but in 1991,
there was an increase in drug trafficking because we opened up too much. So,
this time, we have to be very careful with the investors we are inviting to
come to this country.
We need to scrutinise these investors.
Sir, there is already a problem in Equatorial Guinea simply because some of the
investors who feel that their interests are threatened, now want to overthrow
the Government.
Mr Chairman, the problem we do not understand what they say amongst them. So,
it incumbent upon this Government to put in measures to ensure that we have
Zambians who are also able to understand what these people discuss.
Hon. Member: Hear, hear!
Mr Mukwakwa: There have been situations, Mr Chairman, in the past where when a
government is about to make take some measures, some of them have already known
about it.
They move out of Lusaka and congregate in Kitwe or Ndola, all of them together
speaking the same language.
We, as the indigenous people do not know what they are planning against the
Government. So, Mr Chairman, let us preserve this country for the future
generations and not only for ourselves.
Thank you, Sir.
Mr Nakalonga (Chikankata): Mr Chairman, I thank you for this opportunity.
Sir, I will begin my debate with the issue of liberation wars. Zambia suffered
a lot because of these wars. Unfortunately, we have never made a deliberate
move to try and ask for compensation.
I am using the simple term "compensation". It is not out of this world to do
stock taking of what we lost during the struggle in the region. I think that it
is time the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance and National
Planning, and indeed, the civil society sat down and made a claim of what we
lost. We would not have been in the state we are now if there were no
liberation wars.
So, we request the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as they travel around, to ask
from those countries we supported in their liberation wars, what benefits are
there.
For example, countries like South Africa, made an economical gain out of Zambia
instead. It is time that we asked for economic assistance from that country.
Mr Kakoma: Hear, hear!
Mr Nakalonga: South Africa is a rich country which is known as ì a European
country in Africaî, as they put it, and so, they have got the money that they
can give us instead of donating a house to one NGO there. We want the
assistance from South Africa, as they are doing it to other countries, to come
to Zambia.
We want to see the fruits of our contribution to their liberation. It is not
only the money that people should recognise, but also what we suffered as a
country must be recognised and we should be compensated for that.
The provinces that have border problems are Eastern, Lusaka, Southern,
Southern, Western, North-Western and now we have got a problem in Luapula. When
we host these foreign nationals, it should not only be on humanitarian grounds,
or protocols, but I think we should look at what we can get out of this
assistance.
Mr Chairman, someone mentioned about investors, one factor we should understand
as a country or as Zambians is that these investors know a lot about Zambia.
When an investor comes to Zambia, he has got all the data already. We have got
a lot of researches that have been conducted in this country.
One can have all the information about Zambia whilst in New York or London or
Paris before they get here.
So, when they come here, they are simply coming to confirm what they have read
or what they have seen on adverts. Let us not be so sympathetic with these
people who come here. We must scrutinise them and not pretend.
On the issue of laws in trying to accommodate investors, we should not go too
far with them.
All these laws you make for investors to ask for Foreign Direct Investment
(FDI) is merely the icing on the cake. They already know and have seen that
cake in Zambia. Once they know what they want to get from this country, they
will come. If they want something to be done, they will ask you to help them.
Let us not bend far too much, otherwise we shall be losing a lot of money in
the form of concessions we give to these investors. Therefore, we should not
pretend that they do not know about Zambia. In fact they know more than we do
in terms of minerals.
That is why we heard the stories of petroleum in Chama whose results are not
known up to now. It is a question of being prudent in giving prospecting or
investment licenses. We may amend these laws, but I can bet you, they already
know what they want from this country.
Mr Chairman, this goes to the quality of ambassadors and the linkage between
our missions and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We are supposed to be doing
some newsletters in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this had started at one
point, which should go out to ambassadors to be selling our Zambia.
They should not just sit in their offices, it does not help us at all. We
should send ambassadors and their assistants and other supporting staff, who
know all about Zambia and not cadres because we have no money to waste. We are
a poor country. The trend might be reducing but we still have many more out
there that are doing nothing except being compensated.
Soon we shall be like the Zimbabwean situation where the freedom fighters will
be asking for something simply because they helped you campaign, therefore you
want to keep them out there.
It is the quality and the training for high commissioners we are looking for.
Missions should not be damping grounds by sending tired old men. We need
professionals to go out there. Foreign Service is indeed a very valuable
service and not for retired and tired persons. A retired person is tired, we
may need his wisdom but we can use them locally.
There is work here. I am trying to avoid the issue of nepotism. Let us not send
relatives or any other person, but it must be professionals who can do
something there.
For instance, we have got economic attaches' intelligence in the military, who
are not tired people, who can go on missions. These heads must be looked at.
Unfortunately the trend is continuing even under the "new dealers". You have
sent retired people. People who retired some twenty years ago and you are
resuscitating them to go there. Honestly speaking, if there is a person we can
give credit to, is Dr Kaunda with regards to training of people. Manpower is
enough. Some people have run away simply because you have ignored them.
Even the economic refugees out there can become ambassadors to help Zambia.
Mr Chairman, the under-funding of our missions is an embarrassing situation.
Because of that, in some countries, the ambassadors do not even want to see
their nationals.
Sometimes when you visit a country you just feel good passing through your
embassy, but when you get there, the staff pull their faces because they think
each time you pass through a mission, you are there to ask for something, and
yet, that is not the case.
It is the work of our intelligence to see who is going out. Those who are
stranded are a different group. If people are going on business, it is
important that they pay a courtesy call on their mission. However, because of
financial problems, the officers in these missions do not welcome Zambians
because they think that, maybe, they are stranded and they may start asking for
money to help solve their problems. That is not good, and to avoid that, we
should only have embassies which we can fund adequately.
Mr Chairman, if we cannot fund them, we should not open them. We should start
to close some because there is accreditation. One embassy can cater for five or
six countries.
Sir, this is why we trouble our President by making him travel everywhere. If
these people are good quality people, they can do the work which our President,
Vice-President or Ministers do when they travel.
I thank you, Sir.
Dr Machungwa (Luapula): Mr Chairman, I thank you for giving me the opportunity
to contribute to this very important vote.
Mr Chairman, I will try to be brief. I wish to begin by saying that the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs is our window to the world where we can show how
good or how bad we are.
It helps us to keep in touch with the world, to bring in needed support and
resources and political support when we are being pressured or invaded or in
problems.
We need to sell Zambia in general and for this reason, Sir, it is extremely
important that we have some of the best people in the country to go out and
sell our country, Zambia. I know that hon.
Ministers from various ministries within their portfolios make trips abroad to
seek assistance or to go and sell Zambia, but they cannot be there all the
time.
It is, therefore, important that the people who are permanently there are able
to do the job so that even as the ministers go there, most of the work would
have been done.
Mr Chairman, in this regard, it is important to note that we try to train our
diplomats. We have the Institute for Diplomacy and International Studies based
at the National Institute for Public Administration (NIPA) which has been
training officers for quite some time now.
Most of the people who go there are graduates although we get some people from
high schools with some experience to go through the training.
What is a little disappointing is that often, after they have completed their
training and have gained some experience, these people are kept languishing at
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and do not get a chance to go and work. Some of
these people specialise in trade, others may have a leaning towards
immigration, others towards agriculture or some other field.
Sir, however, the practice is that we send people with very little background
leaving those who have been trained. Sometimes we send people who do not even
have the capacity to perform at the level that we expect. These people are
usually sent express.
Money or no money, they must go, and they go. Now this is not very good
because, really, it is not just a question of giving people jobs, we should
give people jobs who, in turn, are going to bring something to the country.
If we train an officer and invest so much in that officer, we should send them
abroad so that we reap from them because they are an investment to the country.
However, Sir, if we send just anyone because they have some connections, then
we are not doing this country a service.
Mr Chairman, Zambia has invested a lot in diplomacy and international
relations. We spent a lot of our resources assisting our neighbours to liberate
themselves. Even now, we are hosting refugees, but we have not been very good
at reaping where we sowed.
Like one of my colleagues said, we need to be a little more aggressive. You
see, when we look at the countries in the region on which we spent millions and
billions of dollars to liberate, some of them just pay Zambia lip-service by
saying, "Yes you helped to liberate us."
But when we talk issues of trade, and I wish Hon. Patel was here because once
we were trying to negotiate with a country to the south on fair trade and told
them that the taxes they were levying on our goods should be more or less
reciprocal to what we were levying on their goods.
They were keeping our goods out by imposing very high taxes on them, and yet
these are people we helped liberate.
Mr Chairman, we should be a little more aggressive to a point where we are
almost demanding reparations saying that we had put in a lot of work and they
must try to work with us. I know that there are some good neighbours out there.
I do not want to single out certain countries, but some have been very bad
neighbours despite what we put in to liberate them.
Mr Chairman, the issue that my colleague, Hon. Dr Kalumba, brought up is also
very important. We invested in helping to bring peace to the Democratic
Republic of Congo, but it is unfortunate that we have sat with our hands folded
in the last few years and we have not followed it up.
We have let other countries who were far away to be the key makers and masters
so that in spite of all the problems, our efforts to broker for peace and keep
refugees here and even get invaded sometimes, we are not getting anything.
I think the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should work towards us keeping engaged
and involved so that we can continue to reap something out of our labour.
Mr Chairman, one other issue I would like to mention is that when we allocate
funds to various missions, this must somehow reflect what we get from those
missions.
There are some countries that have, day in day out, supported Zambia strongly
and I am glad one of my colleagues mentioned Japan. That is one country which
has supported us and one would hope that we make sure that we put in a little
bit more in those countries that support us, so that even the service we give
to those countries is commensurate with the help that we get.
Some of the missions are for public relations and I think we should put our
money where our mouth is.
Sir, let me end with the point that we have many Zambians who live abroad and
some of these people are experts in their own fields and they are holding very
high profile positions in some of the countries. Now, it would help if the hon.
Minister of Foreign Affairs tried to engage these people in helping in some way
and not to belittle them.
Mr Chairman, if you look, for example, at Israel, the Jews, wherever they are,
are always supporting Israel.
Today, nobody can touch Israel because wherever the Jews are, they advocate for
Israel.
What we want is that when we get a chance to have Zambians working in
international organisations or doing business anywhere in the world, they feel
proud that they are Zambians. They should be made to feel proud that they have
attained, achieved and can hold those positions.
I think it is not right for us to begin making them feel like they are
criminals and failures who have run away from home.
We should, as Government, encourage citizens to be in those countries after
all, the era of Europeans coming to live in Africa, work there, get some wealth
and go back has now come to an end. It is time for Africa also to go there and
earn some foreign exchange and send it to their families if they can or even
come and invest in Zambia.
I think we should be proud of our citizens who are out in those countries and
are doing very well. I hope that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will try to
encourage these people to keep in touch, invest in their country and defend and
protect the interests of Zambia wherever they are.
I thank you, Sir.
Mr Shumina (Mangango): Mr Chairman, I totally support the vote on the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs. Actually, if I had my way, I would have allocated more
money to this vote because, in the global world, part of the strategy of
creating a positive impression on a Government, a people and a nation is
through external affairs.
I hope that in next yearís Budget, we shall see more funds going to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Chairman, may I take this opportunity to thank
the hon.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and his counterparts in the Ministry of Home
Affairs and the Deputy Minister at State House.
When we hosted the Great Lakes Parliamentary Forum on Peace which is a
voluntary organisation for Members of Parliament, our colleagues from Burundi,
Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya were very happy to see the backbench easily make
appointments with the ministers and interact with them.
We hope that this will continue because as a Quasi-Parliamentary Organisation,
our role is to facilitate what our Government is doing.
Sir, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and its counterpart ministry, the Ministry of Home Affairs, on
the Zambia Initiative. You have worked very hard and we can see the results in
Kaoma, Shangombo and Senanga districts.
We just hope that this project will be extended to our brothers and sisters in
Mporokoso, Chiengi and Zambezi districts where there are refugees also.
Having said this, Sir, I would like to quickly refer to some of the issues that
I thought we should look at seriously. The first one is the issue of Foreign
Affairs and Tourism.
I would like to have a situation where each time we visit our missions abroad,
there is proper data on tourism and the ability of Zambians to host tourists.
So, we hope that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will work hand in hand with
the line ministries to ensure that our colleagues abroad market our country
positively.
Mr Chairman, I would like to urge the hon. Minister and his colleagues in the
ministry to facilitate a bill to make the necessary amendments so that the
National Assembly can ratify protocols.
I believe that this is paramount because when Members of Parliament go to
various international fora, many a time, we rely on the Research Department and
there is no clear link between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Clerk's
Office. Continued on page 7

   

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