Chiluba is caught in his web of deception

Chiluba is caught in his web of deception
By Editor
Sunday May 27, 2007 [04:00]

Things must be called by their right names. A person who steals is a thief. There is no other better description of him. A person whose behaviour is similar to that of a monkey in a maize field should be described as such. There is no libel or slander in such a description. And this doesn't mean one is speaking ill or harshly of such a person. We should analyse, censure, criticise seriously all these things.

Hakainde Hichilema's comparison of Chiluba's corruption and thefts as president of the Republic and the custodian of its resources to that of giving a monkey to be in charge of a maize field is very correct analogue.

Chiluba's behaviour was indeed that of a monkey in a maize field. How can one correctly describe the behaviour of Chiluba and his attitude towards public finances if not by comparing it with that of a monkey in a maize field? If you give a monkey the task of guarding a maize field, don't expect to harvest anything because the field will be left bare, save for stalks. And this is what Chiluba did to the treasury of this country; he abused it.

His 10 years in power was a long picnic, an endless feast on public resources. Chiluba bought himself all sorts of things - designer suits, shirts, shoes - using taxpayers' money; he even used public money to buy love, to purchase women, among other things. These are not fabrications or exaggerations, they are facts. We could explain them in detail but in doing so we may risk being cited for contempt of court because some of these matters are still subjects of court proceedings.

It is amazing that Chiluba has the energy to threaten Hakainde with litigation but has none to legally defend himself when there are court proceedings against him. He seems ready to take Hakainde to court but he is not ready to go to court himself in matters where the people of Zambia have taken him to court.

When court time nears, he becomes very unwell, he is flown to South Africa or he collapses and is admitted for observation in the University Teaching Hospital. This being the case, how is he going to sue Hakainde? And moreover, this would be one of the most baseless libel or slander cases. We say this because no person in this world can fail to prove that Chiluba is a thief and his behaviour is that of a monkey given to guard a maize field. One cannot libel a thief by referring to him as a thief.

If he wants to take Hakainde to court over likening him to a monkey in a maize field, he should take us first because we have said worse things about him than Hakainde has done. We challenge him to do this and we hope he will be willing to swallow the bait. Anyway Chiluba knows us. He is in the situation he is in because of trying to play silly games with us. If he does, we will not give him the leverage the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions has given him.

It will be a great opportunity for us to try him on the other things that the state seems to be reluctant to bring against him. If he goes ahead with his threats to sue, we would request Hakainde to get us joined as co-defendants because we are the ones who published the story.

We cannot think of a more contemptible man - our power of imagination fails us to bring into our minds' eyes a more despicable man - than the man who steals from his poor country which he had been entrusted to govern. Chiluba is a man as low and as mean as we can picture.

We pledge to Zambia our love, and we pledge to those who try to abuse it our hate. And we hold it a civic duty and a Christian thing to hate evil, to hate untruth, to hate theft of public funds, and, hating them to strive to eradicate them. There must be no neutral ground to serve as a refuge for lawbreakers, for thieves, and especially for lawbreakers of great wealth, who have stolen huge sums of public funds, who can hire the vulpine legal cunning which will teach them how to avoid all jurisdictions. It is still more impatience of the impotence which makes it possible for selfishness and for legal cunning, hired by thieves, to bring national activities to a deadlock.

It's unwise for a man in Chiluba's position to start threatening others. The only person Chiluba can threaten with success is a fellow thief, one who ate with him. It can only be a question of those living in glasshouses being advised not to throw stones.

But we are wondering why Chiluba is trying to single out Hakainde for suing. There are so many people, including ourselves, who have called him a thief and other worse things but he is not threatening to sue them. Why? What makes him feel Hakainde can be threatened, is vulnerable or can successfully be sued where others cannot?

The truth is that Chiluba has been cornered and he must just throw his arms in the air and surrender or at best plead for mercy. He has conned his way for too long. Everything has got a time and his time has come; his crimes, deception, crookedness and lies have now caught up with him. There is no need to pretend that he is innocent and never stole anything from the Zambian people. The evidence against him is insurmountable; what was brought up in the London High Court is nothing but the tip of an iceberg.

The abuses of Chiluba go far beyond the Zamtrop Account and the BK facility. Chiluba stole and abused far more than what was brought up in the London High Court and what he is being prosecuted for in other courts. However, we do appreciate that litigating against him for everything that he stole will be practically impossible and a prudent approach is that which the Zambian government has taken - that is to deal with the simplest or the least complicated of his thefts. Even this has not proved easy because the network was big.

There are great lessons to learn from Chiluba's dishonesty and betrayal. Oh, what a web we weave for ourselves when we start to practise deception, banditry and crookedness against our own people! Chiluba is caught in his web of deception.