Maravi

Zambians deserve respect

Zambians deserve respect
By Editor
Saturday June 02, 2007 [04:00]

Whenever good triumphs over evil, there is cause to be happy. This is so because people generally want to live in a good society, in a society free of evil. Corruption is an evil. Stealing public funds is a criminal act in all nations of the world. Even in countries where corruption is the order of the day, stealing public funds is still considered a crime. In a country like ours where corruption was almost institutionalised under the 10 years of Frederick Chiluba’s presidency, dishonesty in public life will not be easy to eradicate. And the Zambian people understand this. It is also a fact that is understood by the international community, by countries that have been providing us with economic assistance.

This may explain why after the London High Court judgment was delivered and it was established that Chiluba defrauded the Republic of Zambia of million of dollars, many Zambians celebrated and the international community took turns to congratulate President Levy Mwanawasa, the government of the Republic of Zambia and the Zambian people for this victory.

The only people who were unhappy were Chiluba, his co-defendants and the vultures they were eating with or those who in one way or another were their employees. This is understandable. When evil is defeated, the righteous. rejoice while the devil mourns.

It is in this light that British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s congratulatory message to our President and our people over the London High Court judgment should be seen and received. This is truly a historic victory for our country and our people. Zambians have every right to judiciously struggle and recover all that was stolen from them by Chiluba and his tandem of thieves. Chiluba is a thief and the evidence has always been there for everyone who is not blinded by greed, vanity or selfishness to see.

The evidence of Chiluba’s corruption was there long before any court proceedings were commenced against him in London or elsewhere. What the London judgment did was merely to confirm that which was there before. There is no lawyer, no law, no politician, no politics that will save Chiluba from being found by any independent tribunal that he actually stole, that he is a thief.

The best, any lawyer, any politician can do in his or her attempt to save Chiluba, is to first accept that the man stole, that he defrauded the Republic of Zambia of millions of dollars, and then seek to mitigate or ask for mercy, for forgiveness from the people whose trust he has betrayed. Any other legal or political gymnastics will not do; will be nothing but exercises in futility. It doesn’t matter how intelligent or eloquent the lawyer or the politician may be, nothing will save Chiluba from his impending doom – which in fact has already arrived; his Armageddon has come, it is here.

Of course, Chiluba doesn’t have the humility that honest people who do wrong things have. This being the case no one should expect Chiluba to apologise to show remorse.
Chiluba’s thefts were not a product of oversight nor was it unconscious; it was deliberate and conscious. The little man, from very humble origins, simply allowed himself to be blinded by ambition, greed, vanity and an unbridled taste for very expensive clothes and women.

He stole to buy clothes and to spend on women. Chiluba felt he had to impress those he came in contact with through expensive clothes. This is a man who never hesitated to buy houses for his married girlfriend. As a result of this, Chiluba created a series of problems for himself and the nation. He introduced a culture of abuse, of stealing public resources with impunity – a culture of Nchekelako. This culture became very entrenched and it is today threatening to cripple public services.

So when a poor country like ours takes upon its shoulders a job like the one we have taken upon our shoulders as a nation to uproot corruption, to stop impunity, that nation deserves the respect, support and admiration of all. The congratulatory messages we have received from Prime Minister Blair and others should spur us into more and more action against corruption; it should make us more and more intolerant of abuse of public resources.
The way we have handled the Chiluba corruption has taught us that if we know what to do and if we conduct ourselves well, it doesn’t matter that we are a poor country, we will achieve a lot and make ourselves respected the world over.

We had no doubt that we would triumph over Chiluba’s evil, his corruption, because victory always goes to those whose cause is right, to those who know how to uphold their rightful cause, and know how to fight for their rightful cause. We can be sure that if we do what we have to do, we will triumph over evil, banditry and plunder. No amount of intimidation legal or otherwise will stop us.

No amount of contempt of court applications against us will stop us from exposing evil and denouncing it. After all Chiluba is in court today, Chiluba has been found to have defrauded the Republic of Zambia of millions of dollars because of our work, our courage and resilience. If we had chicken hearts, we would have been intimidated a long time ago and Chiluba and his friends would today be enjoying their loot undisturbed.

Anyway it doesn’t matter what anyone does to us today. How many times were we denounced and condemned over our criticism of Chiluba and the crimes of his league? Today time has absolved us and we are proud to have helped our country bring Chiluba to account for his corruption. As a result of our work and sacrifice, our country is today increasing its international prestige and receiving congratulatory messages from all sorts of governments and leaders.

This is the spirit the nation needs. As we delve deeper into the issue of the constitution review process we should not forget that corruption is not just about stealing money; it is also abuse of power. No one should be allowed to abuse power. Arrogance and lack of humility by a person holding public office is corruption. And this type of corruption should be fought without respite.

It doesn’t need much explanation to demonstrate that Levy Mwanawasa is behaving in a corrupt manner over the constitution review process.

Levy spent billions of taxpayers money on the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) against the wishes of many Zambians. And when the CRC, after years of touring the whole country and a lot of hard work, handed to him their findings and recommendations as per the terms of reference that he had given them, Levy doesn’t seem to have any interest in their work.

It would seem, according to his conduct and utterances, the expenditure on the CRC was wasted money. Should Levy be allowed to go scot-free over wasting such huge amounts of money? What is the difference between this wastefulness and the stealing or other abuse of public funds?

It is either Levy fully accounts for the money he spent on the CRC and pays it back from his own pocket or he is dealt with in the same manner we deal with all those who abuse public funds. There should be no room for impunity in this country.

Labels: CHILUBA, EDITORIAL, TONY BLAIR

posted by MrK @ 4:40 AM