An incredible case of self-destruction
An incredible case of self-destructionBy Editor
Wednesday May 16, 2007 [04:00]
Honest political leaders make a nation great; crooked and dishonest leaders are a disgrace to any nation. But this does not mean that honest leaders don't make mistakes. However, it is not difficult to distinguish mistakes made by an honest leader from those of a crook. This is the way to look at the leadership of Dr Kenneth Kaunda and that of Frederick Chiluba.
Dr Kaunda made many mistakes but they were honest mistakes by an honest man. They were not in any way schemes designed to defraud the people of Zambia. Chiluba's schemes were not a product of oversight, they were not mistakes; they were well calculated conspiracies designed to defraud this country and its people. And it is this principle that comes out strongly and distinguishes the London High Court judgment on Chiluba.
Dr Kaunda can never be said to have stolen anything while it cannot be denied that here and there he might have made very costly mistakes. Dr Kaunda is not a rich man; he is actually a poor man and his wealth in this world can easily fit in the two or four pockets of his safari suit.
We say this with confidence because from 1998 Dr Kaunda has been very close to our newspaper and he now writes a column every week for us; he is actually one of us - he is part of the staff of The Post. If Dr Kaunda was hiding millions of stolen dollars anywhere in the world, we would know about it and our relationship with him would come to an end. We would not hesitate to expose and denounce his crimes or thefts.
But this is a decent man who we have come to love and respect and we say this with pride and dignity; we are proud to be counted among his close friends.
Dr Kaunda is a person with infinite confidence and faith in humanity. He is a living example; he has set an example of honesty and integrity in public life. He is a person with a great spirit of self-sacrifice, with a truly spartan nature, capable of any kind of self-denial. We could say his entire 83 years on this planet has been an example in every sphere.
He is a person of absolute moral integrity, of unshakably firm principles, a complete revolutionary who looks toward the future, toward the humanity of the future, and who above all stresses human values, humanity's moral values. And above all he practices selflessness, renunciation, self-denial. None of these words we have used about Dr Kaunda involve the slightest exaggeration, the slightest overestimation.
They simply describe a man we know. Others who know him have their own view of him. But Dr Kaunda doesn't live for history although he has already earned his place in it, he is a highly respected figure all over the world; he doesn't live for honours or glory. Like every other true revolutionary, like every other thorough-going revolutionary, he knows that " all the glory of the world fits into a kernel of corn".
Revolutionaries do not struggle for honour or glory, or to occupy a place in history. Dr Kaunda occupies and will always occupy a great place in the history of our country, in the history of our region, in the history of our continent, in the history of our Third World because this is not important to him, because he has always been absolutely selfless. And because of this, his life has become an epic, his life has become an example.
If today we were to ask each Zambian father or mother to describe what they would like or want their sons to be like - either to be like Dr Kaunda or Chiluba, we have no doubt they would like their sons to be like KK.
How wonderful it would be if we were to succeed in making this model a reality in the generations to come so that in the future we would have generations like KK! From generations of people like KK, a better society will arise! And just as he identified with the cause of the Mozambicans, the Angolans, the Zimbabweans, the Namibians, the South Africans, the Palestinians so KK's name and figure are viewed with tremendous respect, admiration and affection in our region, on our continent and beyond.
KK has therefore become a gigantic figure, and so he is. But nobody's imagination, nobody's fantasy, nobody's self-interest created this. This was not KK's aim, this was not what he sought or seeks. But because of his life, his selflessness, his honesty, his nobility, his altruism, he has become what he is today - a hero, a model, the grand commander of our country.
This is the image Chiluba thinks he can destroy with wild allegations and lies piled on top of another. It is a fact that Chiluba stole and he is a thief; it is equally a fact that Dr Kaunda has not stolen anything from anyone. Chiluba must be choking with envy to see the prestige KK enjoys after all the attempts to bring him down, to marginalise him and totally erase him from the minds of our people. What KK's example shows us is that it is better to have a little, honestly earned, than to have a large wealth, dishonestly gained.
It's true that people bring about their own downfall by their evil deeds, but good people are protected by their integrity.
With the enforcement of the London High Court judgment, Chiluba will soon learn that the more easily you get your wealth, the sooner you will lose it. The harder it is to earn, the more you will have. Wise men will gain an honourable reputation, but stupid men will only add to their own disgrace. This is the lesson we learn from Chiluba's dishonesty, thefts and corruption.
Chiluba will never succeed in his desperate attempts to dent KK's reputation. He tried to do that during his ten years in office and failed miserably. What makes Chiluba think that he can now succeed in what he failed to do at the height of his power, his popularity? Anyway, stupid people always think they are right; they don't listen to advice, they never realise that when you tell the truth, justice is done, but lies lead to injustice.
A lie has a short life, but truth lives on forever. Honest people hate lies, but the words of wicked people are shameful and disgraceful. People who can't be trusted are destroyed by their own dishonesty. Righteousness rescues the honest man, but someone who can't be trusted is trapped by his own greed. Let us not follow the example of the wicked. Let's never let ourselves think that we are wiser than we are - political engineers with infinite wisdom; let's simply refuse to do wrong. If we do, it will be like good medicine healing our wounds and easing our pains.
Let's stay away from thieves. They can't wait to steal. They are always ready to steal. It does no good to spread a net when the bird you want to catch is watching, but crooked men, liars like Chiluba are setting a trap in which they will be caught. Banditry always claims the life of the bandit - this is what happens to anyone who lives by stealing, by dishonest means. But stupid people have no respect for wisdom and refuse to learn. Chiluba has never wanted advice or paid any attention when he was corrected.
So then, he is today getting what he deserves. Stupid people are destroyed by their own lack of concern. Chiluba's hour has come and he has no hiding place - nothing will save him from this impending Armageddon; not even Michael Sata's political support can save him. Chiluba is an incredible case of self-destruction; of what greed, selfishness and vanity can do to an individual.
Labels: CHILUBA, EDITORIAL, KENNETH KAUNDA
posted by MrK @ 4:45 AM
9 Comments:
Although I have no sympathy for Chiluba and his thieving ways, I am finding the Post's excessive fixation on Chiluba rather monotonous. How can you write editorials on the same person for a week or more and not affect someone's attention span? I read all three major daily papers and I have have found the editorials of the other papers (even though I have scant regard for their editorial stance) to have more variety than the Post during the past one week.
Not all these editorials are written by Fred M'membe, and it shows.
I remember feeling the same when they were piling onto Michael Sata during the 2006 elections.
MrK,
Is it possible for you to post some business stories from the POST as well?
The Panel
You are right about the POST editorials being rather monotonous. Just digressing slightly, does anyone rememeber KK saying Chiluba was a thief who stole ten kwacha from a widow and this was desrcibed as sour grapes on KK's part. Well guess what? "The hens have come home to roost."
My immediate concern is all the praise being heaped on our Levy especially given the fact that his stance on other corruption cases such as that of Dr. Bulaya was rather questionable to say the least.
How about the POST now focusing on other individuals / organisations because if we wait for the ACC it will never happen as they are too busy keeping Katete corruption free. We are not sure when they will discover the big cities of Zambia such as LUSAKA, KITWE and NDOLA
" does anyone rememeber KK saying Chiluba was a thief who stole ten kwacha from a widow and this was desrcibed as sour grapes on KK's part. Well guess what? "The hens have come home to roost." "
Chiluba is a petty thief. What his case has also revealed, is the absence of checks and balances on the power of the presidency.
KK had a lot to do with that, for very good reasons (like being on an undeclared war footing with apartheid South Africa), but nevertheless, when he left power in 1991, he left behind a government, in which an awful lot of power was concentrated in the hands of the president.
This hasn't changed yet. We should see much more power in the hands of parliament, and more independence in case of the civil service.
No president should be able to secretly sell the nation's assets ever again, which means parliament has a huge oversight role to play. The civil service has a huge advisory role to play as well.
And I say we have to get the mines back, no matter what. It will be interesting to know if the sale of the mines under Chiluba was as corrupt as his dealings with the Vulture Fund.
" Is it possible for you to post some business stories from the POST as well? The Panel "
Thanks for the heads up. There are a lot of things going on in the mining sector.
I think the POst in their efforts to make Chiluba look bad have got carried away.
Anyone who was born under KK knows how he persecuted his enemies.
As for his moral values - its only now we hear Kaunda is a Christian. The man used to have magicians from India to safe guard state house.
You have to be blind to see that KK's salary did not pay for all the things he enjoyed as well. Infact KK also stole am sure, but he stole "conservatively" because he was not in a rush.
There's a lesson here: Having smaller terms of office without good institutions in place creates a pervese incentive for people to steal. If Chiluba was a life President he probably would have stolen slowly...and therefore the overall impact of his plunder would have been less.
But of course no one wants a life President.
Kaunda left behind universal education, universal healthcare, and infrastructure like Indeni.
So what did Chiluba or Mwanawasa invest in?
Yes Kaunda left behind a lot of positives, but actually for the period that he ruled, I think it is safe to say his achievements where modest at best.
I am not a Zambian economic historian (do we know any by the way?) but from what I have read we moved from a lender at the time of independence to a borrower by 1980....we wasted a lot of resources under KK...
Also you can only judge people on the resources entrusted to them. I think LPM probably is slighly ahead of KK on a year by year comparison :)
On FTJ, I think he had the right ideas, but poor executed. His years will be remembered as truly missed opportunity. Its an interested question of what would have happened has FTJ taken forward a limited set of reforms.
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