Kunda will choke himself with envy
Kunda will choke himself with envyBy Editor
Tuesday September 18, 2007 [04:00]
If there is anything that can be said to be an affront to the intelligence of the Zambian people, it is George Kunda’s attempt to smear The Post with filth of being in league with Frederick Chiluba. It seems Kunda is so blinded by hatred for our newspaper that he is not even able to comprehend what we write.
It was only last week that we questioned in an editorial comment the decision by the Oasis Forum to invite Chiluba to their consultative conference. We made it very clear in that editorial comment that the problems which we are facing with the constitution today emanate from Chiluba and there is no good reason for the Oasis Forum to be in the company of Chiluba over the constitution review process.
We know that Kunda will never forgive us for exposing the hollowness of his decision to grant a nolle prosequi to Kashiwa Bulaya. He will also not forgive us for the initiatives we took to ensure that his decision to stop the London High Court proceedings failed.
If it had been left to Kunda, the case involving Chiluba and his friends in the London High Court would have been dropped. But, like in the Bulaya case, the London High Court judgment proved him wrong.
When people say that Kunda has been misadvising Levy Mwanawasa, they have a point. Here is a man who is accusing us of working with Chiluba out of hatred for Levy without any facts. If anything, the facts available point in the opposite direction. Who in this country can today claim to be a more ardent critic of Chiluba than ourselves? We don’t hate Chiluba.
And we don’t hate Levy. What we hate are wrong practices, wrongdoings. We were taught that there was a constant struggle between good and evil, and that evil had to be punished. Well, we are not going to say that we share that belief.
We were taught that those who committed crimes and were responsible for injustice, evil and all other things that we are today fighting against would be punished in hell.
Could that be interpreted as an expression of hatred? We have never felt personal hatred for individuals. It is not that we love our enemies. We don’t, we haven’t gotten that far.
We understand why they are enemies. We understand how many factors predetermine their becoming enemies. What is more, Jesus tells us that we must love our enemies – He doesn’t say we must not have enemies – and there is no greater love for a person who is doing wrong than to prevent him from continuing to do wrong.
It appears that agreeing with everything Kunda is doing is divine, but disagreeing is a crime or hatred against Levy.
The citizens must belong to them or be condemned. Kunda is not ashamed to attribute enmity where it may not exist. Kunda has no regard whatsoever for the patriotism we have demonstrated over the last 16 years. Probably he will do so if Fred M’membe happens to die.
Kunda cannot differentiate between an enemy of Levy and a critic. It seems what Kunda wants to see in this country are uncritical people.
For Kunda criticism per se doesn’t exist. All criticism is an expression of hate, not pure disagreement. When one looks at Kunda’s reactions to criticism and disagreement, an impression is given that to criticise is to condemn or curse in the biblical fashion.
It seems, as far as Kunda is concerned, their MMD government does not make mistakes. And whatever problems they encounter and however self-created they may be, they will eventually be blamed on their perceived political enemies.
This type of self-righteousness is truly embarrassing. It is quite true that acceptance of criticism implies the highest respect for human ideal, and that its denial suggests a conscious or unconscious lack of humanity on our part.
What we are trying to say is that Kunda and his friends should learn to take pride in their critics, whatever their political outlook or affiliation. We say this because a society without critics is a human hell where leaders indulge their anarchical instincts without moral compaction.
The other embarrassing thing about Kunda is his lack of civility. There was no need for Kunda to try and attack Professor Michelo Hansungule in the manner he did. He just displayed jealousy for this man’s intellectual standing and achievements.
One doesn’t need to be a practicing lawyer to be on top of constitution-making processes. Moreover, if Kunda wants to criticise others, especially as a political leader, he should do so with truth, honour and integrity.
If we wanted to react to his wanton attacks on us in a similar way, we would reduce Kunda to sawdust; we would totally undress him – and we are very capable of doing so. But we feel this is not necessary because we can make our points without totally destroying him.
Our country has very few thinkers of the Prof Hansungule type. History always tells us the greatest nations respected their thinkers.
True, tyrants all over the world and throughout history have always been terrified of men of ideas, but ultimately more tolerant societies parted ways with their politicians and endorsed the contributions of their geniuses.
Despite all the omens our politicians, especially those in government, relying on the might and resources at their disposal, believe in themselves and the uprightness of their vision only. Yet history tells us that the greatest epochs in mankind’s weary journey are characterised, not by subjugation of the intellect nor downgrading of thinkers and critics.
What is distinctly lacking among our politicians is a culture of tolerance and humility which places the humanity of others before self and accepts that all citizens have a right to participate in the shaping of their destiny directly without fear of reprisal.
In our view, this fear arises from fear of being undermined by honest criticism. Anyone who dares challenge our demi-gods is a subvert, a man of hate. We are condemning ourselves to eternal backwardness.
And because of this anti-intellectual culture, people lose the habit of thinking and exchanging creative views and thoughts. People have no real interest in the future nation – only the present owes them.
Worse still, those in government attempt to hold the common citizens to ransom by insisting that since they are the only elected representatives of the people, they alone have the monopoly of wisdom, of knowing what is good for the people or what the people want and they alone have the sacred right to rule an make laws. End of debate. The rest is fear, silence and bewilderment.
It will not be wrong for us to say Kunda has a serious ego problem, and he thinks everyone suffers from this and is in competition with him. For what? We don’t have a problem of ego, we are not tortured by that problem.
That is something we don’t feel we have the right to concern ourselves about. It is as if you were to fight a battle without seeking to achieve a goal – as if we have been struggling all these years, over a decade and half not to defend our country’s integrity, our people’s right to progress and a better life but to chalk up a great ego for ourselves. Is any person’s ego worth all this?
When we remember all the battles – the tremendous battles – we have fought over the last 16 years and the efforts and sacrifices we asked our staff to make, trying to make our country a more just, humane and fair nation, it’s clear that we couldn’t have been thinking about our own merits, personal glory or ego even for a second at the cost of the sacrifices made by so many people.
For us, it doesn’t seem honest to ask for an atom of sacrifice from others for the purposes of having that sacrifice result in the glory, in buttressing the ego of one person. We think human beings should never draw away from the honest goal they seek and let themselves be influenced by ego. If you had an opportunity to come in close contact with history and analyse these matters, you will realise that humans tend to make a fool of themselves if they think too much about their ego.
This is because if you have the true measure of the power of people as individuals, you know it’s so fragile and such a small thing that it really doesn’t make sense to magnify the role of any individual, no matter how intelligent, brilliant or able they may be.
There have been many able, intelligent, meritorious figures in the course of history. If you are unassuming and have a clear understanding of the worth of the people and of yourself, you can’t behave the way Kunda is behaving, you can’t pay so much attention to your ego. We maintain a lot of vigilance over this and we have been very self-critical.
Every day we examine everything we did the previous day, checking to see whether it was correct or not, whether or not we allowed ourselves to be carried away, whether or not pride had anything to do with it, and we have learnt how to behave.
We welcome Levy’s withdrawal of Kunda’s statement, his attack on us. Although it is not a categorical apology, we accept it. We don’t enjoy confrontations with anyone; we have a lot of things to do and we would rather spend time trying to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our work. We just hope our leaders can pay a bit of attention to the need for humility in public life.
Kunda’s attempt to smear us with his filth will not make us stink, he is just wasting his time – he can’t bring us down.
Kunda will not succeed in tarnishing our image by trying to associate us with the scum of Zambian politics, with thieves and crooks we have been tenaciously fighting for the last 16 years. It will be very foolish for anyone to think they can succeed in doing so. Kunda will just choke himself with envy as we continue to score new laurels.
Labels: EDITORIAL, GEORGE KUNDA, THE POST
posted by MrK @ 7:38 AM
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