A thief is a thief
A thief is a thiefBy Editor
Tuesday June 26, 2007 [04:00]
It is not right to favour thieves and keep those they have robbed from receiving justice. Some people ruin themselves by their own stupid actions and then blame others for it. A fool doesn’t care whether he understands a thing or not; all he wants to do is show how smart he is.
There is nowhere in the world where thieves are respected, adored or glorified, unless that society or community is very sick. So when someone starts to glorify a thief, starts to seek respect and honour for a thief then one starts to wonder what type of a person he is. Even a child shows what he is by what he does; you can tell if he is honest and good.
As we have stated before, every creature prefers its own kind, and people are no different. Just as animals of the same species flock together, so people keep company with people like them. A thief has no more in common with an honest person than a wolf has with a lamb. A thief has no more in common with an honest man than a hyena has with a dog. Thieves have nothing but scorn for the honest. But we know that when a thief has stolen a huge treasure, he will not be short of friends. When he stumbles, his friends will steady him, but if a poor man falls, his friends will have nothing to do with him. And there will be many who will be ready to defend such a thief, to cover-up for him and explain away all the things around him. This is what we are seeing in the case of Frederick Chiluba and his tandem of thieves.
This newspaper will never join those who sing praises for thieves and oppressors of the weak. We pride ourselves in defending anyone who needs defence and providing a voice to the voiceless. We have our strong opinion but we do not allow them to silence any legitimate voice. No newspaper has given more coverage to Chiluba than we have. We have allowed him to put across his views, his side of the story in an unfettered way. Even his unjustified defenders have found space on our pages to insult us. We have not stopped them from expressing their opinion even though Chiluba on many occasions had us caged for expressing ours.
The crimes that Chiluba has committed were not committed against this newspaper and its editor; they were committed against the Zambian people. Chiluba has human rights which we encourage him to exercise but so do the Zambian people. They gave him a mandate to govern but he used it to rape them and murder their children. When our children were dying in hospitals because there was no medicine, Chiluba was taking the money that could have saved these lives to buy suits and his now famous platform shoes; to fete girlfriends and abuse some of his government colleagues. How many brilliant careers has Chiluba’s kleptocracy destroyed?
Those that feel a ‘noble’ push to defend Chiluba should think of the lives he has destroyed. We have nothing personal against him. Our only crime is that we were one of the earliest people to see through his actions and denounce them before anyone else did. We saw the destruction that Chiluba’s behaviour was causing the nation. He produced an army of desperate people who could do nothing for themselves except to wait for handouts from him. Hard work was no longer honourable, the whole nation was reduced to a heap of ruined favour seekers.
Our other sin was our refusal to compromise our standards and principles regardless of the pressure that was put on us. We received countless threats and we still continue to receive them. We have lived under constant threats of arrest and harassment but we will not change our position, a thief is a thief. If one found someone stealing his cattle, he wouldn’t need to wait for a court of law to tell him that the person he has brought to court is a thief before he himself can refer to him as a thief, a cattle rustler. Again, a thief is a thief whether he is taken to court or not, as long as one can show that this person stole. That is all that is needed to call someone a thief.
No amount of political machinations will help Chiluba and his tandem of thieves. He might pride himself as a political manipulator and dribbler but in this case he has dribbled himself, he has been caught pants down. The dribbler has scored in his own goal.
It should not be forgotten that this newspaper and its editor were dragged before a court of law for calling Chiluba a thief when he was still in power. We were acquitted, the record will speak for itself. And we have continued to challenge Chiluba to take us to court for calling him a thief if he feels offended. We have earned the right to call him a thief. He hunted us down like thieves. Chiluba even had us advertised in the state-owned and government-controlled Zambia Daily Mail newspaper as wanted people for calling him a thief. He had his policemen violate our privacy.
Chiluba’s policemen fired gunshots at our homes without even minding that there were children in the houses who could be terrified. What rights did we have? With all the torture and harassment we suffered from this man, when the tide turned on him and he no longer controlled the state media and could only relate to a small irregular newspaper, we gave him all the coverage he needed. We allowed him to be heard, we gave him the rights he never gave others. We don’t know what favours those that are defending him owe him; but one thing is clear, they have no legs to stand on. To suggest that we are calling Chiluba a thief unfairly is to be dishonest and to ignore plain evidence. A full judgment has been delivered and registered in our courts of law which clearly shows that he is a thief.
Chiluba has had all the opportunity to defend himself but has chosen to play politics. He has clearly demonstrated a lack of willingness to go to court. How else will his side be heard if he runs away from going to court? His innocence cannot be established through press conferences or statements by himself or his agents. But we understand why he can’t go to court and is more willing to play politics or politicise the whole matter. How else can he explain these wrongdoings if not by cheap political propaganda, sometimes using political mercenaries?
And some of the people defending Chiluba really, are they the type of people one can call to prove his innocence? Peter Machungwa! How can Machungwa prove anyone’s innocence? The David Lewanika tribunal report is there to show Machungwa’s role in the theft of K2 billion from government coffers. There are many decent people, many honest people, many patriotic Zambians who have not defended Chiluba. If as seems to be the case, the people defending Chiluba are doing so on tribal basis, on the basis that he is a fellow tribesman, it will not help them because Chiluba did not steal for the tribe, he stole for himself.
If the money Chiluba had stolen was used to develop Luapula, this region would be a paradise today and there would not be so many poor people in that area. It is strange that people who are elected to defend the population and further their interest can bunch themselves to defend such a dangerous criminal. The man whose insatiable appetites for all sorts of things led him to compromise the interest of the nation. A lot of things Chiluba did ended up with a criminal slant. Anyway, it is good that these members of parliament have come out in the open and told the electorate what that stand for. They are prepared to defend wrong and sugar-coat evil acts. This is the same impudence that we fought under Chiluba.
And what type of a culture are they trying to establish in our country where if a Bemba politician from Kasama steals, then Chitimukulu and all the Bemba members of parliament should come and defend that thief! And if a Ngoni politician steals, the Mpezeni should come up and defend his wrongdoing! If the same should apply to all our politicians, what type of a country are we going to have? There is need sometimes to think carefully on the repercussions of the things we do or say.
We invite all our people to avoid corruption at all costs and condemn it whenever and wherever they see it. Corruption destroys the social structures. We all have a duty to promote transparency, accountability and honesty in society. Corruption is a sin and has drastic evil effects; it robs our nation of scarce resources. When we condemn it, when we despise it, it is not out of hatred for any individual, it is purely out of hatred for corruption in itself. But if it means us going for an individual who is perpetrating it, if it means us denouncing those engaged in it or defending it, we will do so.
And on the question of respect, it should always be borne in mind that respect is always earned. And respect is earned by conducting oneself well. A thief doesn’t deserve much respect, if any. We shouldn’t forget that even our Lord Jesus Christ denounced kings or rulers who were engaged in wrongdoing. He made very strong charges against the Pharisees and He called Herod a fox. We will follow His teachings to the letter and call leaders who do what Chiluba did foxes, jackals, rats or even monkeys. How can these members of parliament really explain their defence of Chiluba’s wrongdoings and their attacks on those who have helped to make him account for his thefts?
It’s very clear that there is a lot of desperation in their camp and they can see that the game is nearing the end and whose ending is clearly written on the wall. This is why they want to turn what is clearly a legal issue into a political or tribal issue. They won’t succeed, Chiluba will be nailed to the cross for his thefts, he will be made to pay back what he stole. No amount of press conferences or statements from desperate characters will save him from the impending Armageddon.
They can insult us and accuse us of all sorts of things, it won’t work, it won’t help Chiluba. Moreover, it’s not us who sent him to steal. If Chiluba had listened to our advice against corruption when he was in office, he wouldn’t be in this situation today. And where were these characters when Chiluba was stealing public funds? And if they are so sure that he is innocent, why didn’t they advise him to defend himself? To parrot Chiluba’s anti-imperialist rhetoric is nonsense.
Where were they when Chiluba was mortgaging Zambia to imperialist interests by systematically and ruthlessly disempowering our people? The one who used to eat, drink and sleep imperialist sponsored structural adjustment programme and thought the British were foolish for not privatising all their state owned enterprises and laughed at them for being too slow. This is the man who was happy to privatise Zambian state enterprises by selling them to British state enterprises (Commonwealth Development Corporation).
This is the irrationality of our new found anti-imperialist! Kaunda built Zambia into a strong anti-imperialist bulwark, Chiluba dismantled all that and delivered it into the jaws of imperialism. Now Chiluba and his tandem of thieves want to lecture us about imperialism! What type of foolishness is this? Anyway, desperate people do desperate things. It is said that a drowning man can try to hang on to a straw to avoid drowning.
Labels: CHILUBA, EDITORIAL, PF
posted by MrK @ 3:36 AM
3 Comments:
What a well thought out editorial! Kawalala ni Kawalala or should i say, "A monkey is a monkey." Shame to those people who voted for a monkey to be in charge of a maize field.
Reality
"In our local language we say, imfumu ni mfula iloka ponse (which literary means that a chief is like rain which falls anywhere)," Chishimba said.
"Therefore, culture demands that he speaks for all upon taking notice of any injustices in the systems within the chiefdom and wherever his subjects may be. The second Republican president of Zambia Dr. F.J.T. Chiluba is the subject of His Royal Highness like any other person of the soil."
Comment...
Those shallow-minded people should know that Ka Chiluba stole from the Zambian people which include serious minded people from Luapula. He looted the State coffers when he was a republican president not under Mwata's Kingdom. Further, The Post is a legitimate voice for Zambians. The Mwata should be wise enough not to insult our intelligence. If he needs our respect then he must learn from the Chitimukulu and the Litunga; to avoid passing inflammable comments on serious issues. Sometimes you could earn respect by keeping quiet.
Ba mwata and all those shallow-minded manions should try to keep away from issues they don't understand.It's kind of bad and irrational to just be opening ya mouths(bicks) just because they're openable and speak myriads of trash,that tend to insult tha genuis of tha Zambian folks.
Ba mwata's behavuour shows why Luapula is kind of the poorest province whilst his palace shines like some "paradise on earth".May be he should also be investigated.
PF MPs and all of you other manions...........can you've some self respect,please?If it's too hard for you to respect yourselves,then you feelers should somehow try hard to respect others(the Zambian people) because your cheap stoneage politics don't have a place in our morden Zambia......can someone call for a by-election,please!
Ba mwata and all those trying to defend ka chiluba........you suck and ya freaks should should kiss the asses of the 11 million!
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