Put pressure on Chiluba
Put pressure on ChilubaBy Editor
Friday May 18, 2007 [04:00]
It is very important to pay a lot of attention to the backgrounds of people we elect as our leaders. In 1991, UNIP had accused Frederick Chiluba of having stolen some money as a trade union leader. We didn’t want to listen to anything negative about Chiluba at that time. Everything was dismissed as propaganda from UNIP.
Even now, we don’t want to listen to anything negative or critical of the politicians we support. And those who attempt to do so are accused of having all sorts of agendas and harbouring hatred. We are glad that Hakainde Hichilema now accepts this approach following the London High Court judgment on Chiluba and his tandem of thieves.
But when questions were being raised last year for Hakainde to explain how as liquidator of Lima Bank he allegedly sold himself this bank’s house in Kabulonga in which he now lives, he didn’t take kindly to it. Yet people wanted to get to the bottom of his character, of how he treats his fiduciary duties.
This was important because if he could sell to himself assets of a company in which he was liquidator, that may raise questions about what he might do as president of the Republic with assets of the nation entrusted to him. Hakainde has not explained this issue up to now, the issue of Lima Bank house. We are not in any way trying to insinuate anything or victimise him, but we are merely following his advice to the Zambian people.
We are not saying we should do it now, we can wait because right now we have a lot of work to make Chiluba account for and bring back what he stole; we have to see to it that the London High Court judgment is enforced to the letter without respite. Hakainde can explain this issue at his own time but in the meantime, he should join the rest of our people in ensuring that Caesar gets what belongs to him from the thieves.
We truly need to know our leaders, especially those vying for very high political offices. We agree with Hakainde that Chiluba’s thefts are disgraceful and horrifying. And if the nation can help it, this should be the last time we have a thief for a president. And to achieve this, it will require a strong critical spirit on the part of our people.
Of course it cannot be ignored that bloodthirsty people hate anyone who is honest and criticises them or exposes the crimes of their league, but righteous people will protect the life of such a person. Good always prevails over evil. When an intelligent man brings a lawsuit against a fool, the fool only laughs and becomes loud and abusive (Proverbs 29:9).
We shouldn’t be envious of thieves like Chiluba, and we shouldn’t try to make friends with him because causing trouble is all they ever think about. If you love your life, stay away from the traps that catch the wicked along the way. It is a disgrace to be greedy; poor people are better than thieves and liars.
It is good that most of our politicians have joined our people to denounce Chiluba’s thefts. This is good because it will help the nation set new ethical standards.
And as Hakainde has correctly observed, the London High Court judgment must sound warning bells to all our people to be very careful in choosing their leaders because we cannot continue to have monkeys in charge of our maize fields. They will eat all the maize and leave nothing for the people. Fire tests gold and silver; a person’s reputation can also be tested through what he says or what he does.
Abuse of public resources and thefts of the Chiluba type will only stop when we have intelligent, honest and humble leaders who see politics as a vocation to serve the people and not as a tool to self-enrichment. No one deserves to be a leader unless they love this country and all its people more than themselves.
We say this because if Chiluba had any bit of love for this country and its people, he wouldn’t have done even a tiny fraction of what he did; he wouldn’t have stolen and abused so much public resources when over 80 per cent of our people are wallowing in abject poverty. No one, unless he is a kleptomaniac or he is sick in the head, steals from the people he loves.
We need political leaders who are concerned with justice in the nation because in this way, the nation will be strong. When a leader is only concerned with the money that goes into his pocket, he becomes a danger to the nation and may ruin his country.
We should strive as far as possible to make our politics an area of great importance for promoting justice, peace, development and community among all our people; a way of building up our nation for the common good.
We also welcome the position taken by Benny Tetamashimba and his colleagues in the MMD to put pressure and ensure that Chiluba owns up. There is no way the Zambian people should be forced to build a house for a person whose dishonesty and thefts have left them impoverished. There are definitely many ways in which this can be achieved or implemented. The only thing that the Zambian people can construct for Chiluba is a prison.
We welcome the advice by Tetamashimba to journalists. We see no reason why journalists should not write about the thefts of politicians when they are in government. And the state media is notorious for this. For ten years, they never brought even a word critical of Chiluba; they never attempted in any way to criticise or correct him. They have continued to do the same with Levy Mwanawasa and his ministers.
They can’t tell us that we were the only ones who were able to see Chiluba’s transgressions and iniquities. For over six years, they have never criticised or questioned anything Levy has said or done. Again, are we the only ones with special eyes to see the wrongs of our rulers? This type of journalism does not help the nation; it is useless journalism if it can be called journalism at all.
And since Tetamashimba is in government, he should help the state-owned media to get out of this bad practice which is of no benefit to the nation because they can play a far much better role than they are currently doing. But this can only be possible if more independence and autonomy is given to state media organisations. As things stand today, this is not possible because of interference from those in government.
Labels: CHILUBA, EDITORIAL, HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, UNIP
posted by MrK @ 4:55 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home