Maravi

Chiluba and his well-wishers

Chiluba and his well-wishers
By Editor
Monday May 14, 2007 [04:00]

Reading the London High Court judgment on how Frederick Chiluba stole or abused public funds, one becomes more and more convinced that Zambian politics more than ever before needs people with high credibility and integrity. We are more convinced that those who join the politics of our country must be conscious of their specific and proper roles in the political community.

We have no doubt that politics will continue to be a very important undertaking because the government is the instrument by which people cooperate together in order to achieve the common good; an authority is needed to guide the energies of all towards the common good.

What really counts in the world is conscientiousness, and those who are in political leadership or who want to join politics should be most particular about being conscientious.

We hail from all corners of our country and have joined together for a common objective - to govern ourselves in a manner that is beneficial to all of us, and not just to one person or a small group of people. The resources of our country do not belong to one individual, regardless of the political office he or she occupies; they belong to all of us and are for all of us to enjoy. Therefore, every effort should be made to ensure that the common resources of this country benefit every citizen. But to achieve this calls for very high levels of honesty and integrity in the management of public resources.

It calls for all our people, especially those in leadership positions or in public service, to avoid corruption at all costs. And those who pay bribes should realise or be made to realise that they are facilitating and perpetuating an already dysfunctional system. As it has been stated several times before, corruption destroys the social structures and everything possible should be done to eradicate it and promote transparency, accountability and honesty in the nation.

It is not hatred alone which is contrary to the laws of charity but also indifference to the welfare of our neighbour. Involving ourselves in corruption, tolerating or abating corruption is being indifferent to the welfare of our neighbours, especially the poor of our country. As we see it, loving thy neighbour means practicing solidarity; it means fighting injustices and abuses against them. Stealing or abusing public funds is an injustice and an abuse of the poor and other citizens who depend on government services provided with such funds.

Corruption is selfishness. When people only think of themselves, there is a big problem in the nation because they will start to act against public interest. This is what Chiluba and his friends did - they started to abuse public funds, spending millions of dollars on designer clothes when their fellow citizens were dying as a result of a critical shortage of medicines in our hospitals.

Chiluba, in his failed attempt to defend himself against the London High Court judgment, claimed that some of the money that went into the Zamtrop Account was his personal money from friends and other well- wishers. This may sound true, but it is not; it is a lie, a falsehood, a fraud.

To come to the truth, all that one needs to look at is who these friends and well-wishers are or were. They all had dubious or corrupt dealings with the Zambian government. One such well-wisher is Ramcoz - the company run by those crooks who looted Luanshya, got huge sums of money from the then state owned Zambia National Commercial Bank and fled. These are Chiluba's well-wishers! These are Chiluba's friends!

When one critically analyses their activities in Zambia, it is clear that they were in league with Chiluba to steal or to rob the Zambian people. And that they did with and through Chiluba. Whatever money Chiluba is claiming to have come from them as gifts or donations is nothing but his cut of the loot. The same thing can be said about money coming from his Belgium-based friends, from those Congolese crooks. All this was money stolen by Chiluba in collusion with them.

What Chiluba did, and what he claims to be donations or gifts, is not different from what some of our corrupt civil servants do: Corruptly awarding contracts to their friends and then afterwards receiving gifts or all sorts of favours from them. This is like a director in a government ministry or department helping a road contractor to secure a contract and then afterwards receiving a 'gift' from him. What type of friendship is this? What type of well-wishers or friends are these?

This is nothing but corruption, theft or banditry. We join in challenging Chiluba to disclose to the nation who these well-wishers who had put money for him in the Zamtrop Account are and we will tell him why each one of them did so. We will show him what the consideration for that 'gift' was. There is no descent cent or penny which Chiluba put into the Zamtrop Account. It was all money stolen from the coffers of the Zambian government which Chiluba and his so-called friends or well-wishers were laundering.

The money Chiluba claims to have been legitimate earnings from travel allowances which he used to buy cars and pay for his children's stay in the UK was also money stolen from the Zambian taxpayer. This is why he used his lawyers in London to launder it. But today these lawyers, like him, have been disgraced and are in hot soup. This judgment also affects them because recoveries will be made from them by the Zambian government. This is the beauty of this judgment because it is not only going to be enforced in Zambia and against Zambians but also against other nationals in other countries or the world over.

There is no hiding place against this judgment as long as money or assets belonging to the defendants are traced or located anywhere in the world. In short, this judgment is not strictly an English court judgment, it is effectively a world judgment. And for this reason, the Attorney General of the Republic of Zambia deserves credit for the initiative. This also explains why Chiluba and his tandem of thieves are so afraid of, are so bitter with, this judgment. If it were an academic judgment, Chiluba wouldn't be bothered, he would be joking about it and mocking everyone connected to it. The truth is he knows that his game is over.

They thought they were clever; that by using Intelligence accounts and channels no one would question or make them account for this money. Chiluba says he does not recognise this judgment, fine - so what? Does it really matter whether a thief accepts or recognises a judgment or does not at all? Does that really affect the enforceability of any court judgment? If thieves and other criminals would only be punished or made to account for only judgments they accept or recognise, no one would go to prison or would be made to pay damages.

This matter is now beyond Chiluba. He had his day in the London High Court. And contrary to his lies, he had legal representation there, their defence was only abandoned when they realised that they were cornered and had no proper defence at all. That was the only time they resorted to truancy.

As for Chiluba's benefits, the Zambian people and their political representatives do not need to wait for anything to halt their flow. Have we forgotten how in 1991 Chiluba stopped the then modest - by any standards - retirement benefits that were accorded to the political leaders of the Kaunda government? Parliament simply repealed that Act and these leaders lost all that they had worked for all their lives.

The same should be done, must be done, shall be done to Chiluba because the Zambian taxpayer cannot be forced to continue paying a pension to someone who has robbed him, who has stolen millions of dollars or billions of kwacha from public coffers. The argument that the current law has no provision for stopping Chiluba's pension doesn't make sense, and is not right; it is an evasion.

It will not be difficult for Chiluba to look after himself, he still has a lot of money that has not been traced and moreover those friends of his, those well-wishers of his are still there to give him even more millions of dollars than they had put in the Zamtrop Account because now their friend may need it more than he did at that time. If not, what type of friends are these who can abandon a friend in his hour of greatest need?

Labels: CHILUBA, CORRUPTION, COURTS, EDITORIAL

posted by MrK @ 4:58 AM