Post+to+keep+providing+for+varying+ideologies,+Malido



=Post to keep providing platform for varying ideologies – Malido=


 * By Larry Moonze**

Post, Friday March 31, 2006
THE Press Freedom Committee of The Post chairman Webster Malido has said his committee would continue providing a platform for Zambians to listen to different ideas.

During a farewell dinner for South African Communist Party general secretary Dr Blade Nzimande at Lusaka's Intercontinental Hotel on Wednesday, Malido said people should not be cheated that the world only had one outlook.

"As we have stated in the past, on our part as The Post, we shall not be cheated that ideologies are dead; that the world we live in only has one outlook," Malido said. "We shall not be cheated because we know that there are many outlooks.

And Comrade Blade Nzimande has demonstrated throughout the last three days that there are many outlooks to life. And this is why as the Press Freedom Committee of The Post, and indeed as The Post, we shall continue providing a platform for our people to listen to different ideas; we shall continue to expose our people to different outlooks, not just the ideology of capitalism that has become predominant in the post-Soviet era. We feel that our people should be given the opportunity to listen to and to seek new ideas, so that they can rearrange their lives, if necessary."

Malido said The Post believed that alternatives and solutions to problems would not come without discourse.

"We have to continually engage ourselves in a discursive manner if we are to find alternatives. And that is the very reason that custodians of other ideologies such as capitalism are also spending billions of dollars, in terms of seminars and conferences, on projecting the capitalist outlook as the only viable and valid alternative to human survival," he said. "And we are convinced that if as the media we do not take serious steps to give a platform for alternative views, for alternative ideas, we shall forever be moving backwards into colonialism, of course a colonialism of a different form - neo-liberal imperialism.

This is why The Post, through its PFC is undertaking these initiatives and utilising whatever resources, be it financial or human, to ensure that our people have a chance to listen to other views.

"We have a duty to give the people a chance to listen to other opinions so that they can also form their own opinions and decide and determine their own course. We also have the duty to help break the unnecessary myths or stigmas around certain ideas and outlooks.

"As we are in the business of news, our business is news, views, opinions, ideas and information about what is happening in the world.

"We have been all over the world. We interact with the media the world over. And this experience has invariably given us the position that we have to give a chance to help generate and nurture alternative ideas," he said.

He said it was for that reason that The Post has made the choice to move even into other continents.

"We shall be moving to other continents and bring people with different experiences and ideas so that they can come and share with our people," he said. "This way, we are sure that we will help deepen the process of symbiotic and beneficial intellectual exchange and therefore equip our people with alternatives that are much more valuable to their lives."

Malido reassured that The Post would continue its journalistic role in the service of mankind.

"We remain resolved to maintain our editorial independence, not only from newsmakers or media owners, but also from international forces," he said.

Malido said Dr Nzimande's invitation was just but the beginning of a long and sustained process of interaction at regional and international levels.

He urged Dr Nzimande not to backslide in the area of internationalism, because he actually had a duty not only to be accountable to the peoples of South Africa but also to the rest of the international community.

Veteran politician Simon Zukas said Dr Nzimande's visit reminded him of the liberation struggle.

Zukas said it was unfortunate that 41 years after independence, Zambia's political dimension had reduced to that of "who should sit in State House".

He said the SACP played a role not only in military struggle but also negotiating the settlement agreement.

"Our political alliances here are only electoral pacts without ideology," Zukas said. "I hope we will come out of this state."

Zukas said all of Zambia's political parties were populists who said what people wanted to hear.

He said the difference was the question of commitment.

Zukas said the essence of a communist was that of commitment.

"This we had here in the time of independence struggle in 1950 or 1951. No one at that time was bargaining for rewards," he said.

Zukas said he had heard complaints that freedom fighters were not looked after.

"That is belittling them, they did not fight for rewards," Zukas said.

He said he agreed with Dr Nzimande's observation that growth did not necessarily result in development.

But Zukas cautioned that development would not take place without growth.

He said globalisation was not a far away factor that impinged the affairs of economies in the southern African region.

Zukas said Zambia recorded the closure of three factories soon after liberalising her economy in the early 1990s due to subsidised trade regime from practised by South Africa,

He said unfortunately the trend had continued even under an African National Congress administration in South Africa.

Zukas told Dr Nzimande about the pullout of Spoornet from the consortium running the railway system in Zambia. He said Spoornet was a component of the South African government.

"Play your part in development of south, central African region as a whole," Zukas asked Dr Nzimande. "If you don't your joblessness will continue through regional immigration."

And Dr Nzimande said his three days visit to Zambia courtesy of the PFC was a very moving trip which reminded him of where Zambians and South Africans came from.

He said his visit was professionally organised and a very comfortable trip.


 * From: http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=8287**

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