Dora’s finger gesture still haunts her

mail.co.zm” class=”f”>Zambia Daily Mail by Online Editor on 6/21/13

By CLAVER MUTINTA
THE finger gesture Petauke member of Parliament Dora Siliya made in the House in March has come to haunt her yet again.
On Thursday, the Mwansabombwe legislator Rogers Mwewa raised a point of order while Ms Siliya was on the floor and asked whether she was in order to debate national issues without apologising for her past “insult” that riled Parliament.
Mr Mwewa, who is also deputy minister of Agriculture, asked the Speaker whether “the honourable member was in order to debate on the floor without apologising for her insult.”
The point of order was noted by deputy chairperson of Committees Chifumu Banda who allowed Ms Siliya to continue debating as she argued that in future, ordinary Zambian tax-payers must endorse foreign borrowing.
“When it comes to paying back foreign debt, every tax-payer is involved and yet they are not actively involved in the borrowing process which is done at Cabinet level,” she said.
Ms Siliya divided opinion not only in the House in March but in the country when her finger gesture went viral as former President Rupiah Banda’s immunity was stripped to pave way for a criminal probe, a development she was not happy with.
The issue of the gesture, seen as crude and rude by many within and outside the House, is expected to be tabled during this sitting of Parliament for a ruling from the Speaker.