Celebrate the ruling!

Celebrate the ruling!
By Editor
Monday February 18, 2008 [03:00]

The Zambian people have every right to celebrate High Court deputy registrar Jones Chinyama’s finding Frederick Chiluba with a case to answer on all the six counts of theft he is facing. And it is not up to Chiluba to tell them when to celebrate. When a dangerous criminal is arrested, people have every right to celebrate. They don’t need to wait for that dangerous criminal to be convicted.

What Chiluba is forgetting is that Emily Sikazwe and others in the civil society campaigned and demonstrated for the removal of his presidential immunity to pave way for his arrest, prosecution and possibly conviction on theft and corruption charges.

When his immunity was removed by Parliament, Emily and others celebrated. And they had every reason to do so.

There was no need for them to wait until Chiluba was convicted. Yes, comments that would prejudice the proceedings of this case should be avoided because they are not only unfair, unjust to the proceedings but they may also attract contempt of court charges.

Commenting on deputy registrar Chinyama’s ruling is not per se contempt of court. People are free, within certain limits, to comment on any court ruling. And so far, there is nothing Emily or Transparency International Zambia executive director Goodwell Lungu have said that can be interpreted as contempt of court. Saying that the court ruling has vindicated the people who called Chiluba a thief cannot be said to be contemptuous.

After all, these same people are the ones who pushed President Levy Mwanawasa and Parliament to remove Chiluba’s presidential immunity so that he can be prosecuted for thefts. And those prosecuting Chiluba believe and have so submitted to this same court that Chiluba is a thief.

Yes, Chiluba is yet to be convicted and before this is done, there is a presumption of him being innocent until proven guilty. And no one is saying that the court has found him guilty.

What the court said was that in its considered view, there exists at this stage of the proceedings evidence which a reasonable tribunal might convict on, assuming that there is no further evidence.

Therefore, as far as this stage of the proceedings is concerned, there was sufficient evidence adduced by the prosecutor to establish a prima facie case that Chiluba stole public funds.

And this removes any claim by Chiluba that he is being maliciously prosecuted for political reasons. Isn’t this something those who campaigned for his prosecution should have reason to celebrate? Isn’t this something that can boost the fight against corruption?

Clearly, Chiluba typifies the man who in this life consistently refuses to see aught that is lofty, and fixes his eyes with solemn intentness only on that which is vile and debasing. Now, it is very necessary that we should not flinch from seeing what is vile and debasing. We should war with tendencies like these towards evil.

There should be relentless attack, of course within the confines of the law, upon every evil man and every evil practice.

We hail a benefactor everyone who with merciless severity makes such attack, provided always that they remember that their attacks are of use only if they are absolutely truthful.

We say this because a liar is no whit better than a thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander, he may be worse than most thieves.

Whenever an evil man is assailed, found with a case to answer or even convicted, we should celebrate. However, we know that the soul of every scoundrel is saddened whenever an evil man is assailed.

There must be unsparing attack on every politician who betrays his trust and steals public money.

We feel there should be no rest in the endless war against the forces of evil. The only thing we can ask our people is that they conduct this war with sanity as well as with resolution. So far, this war has been conducted with great sanity and resolution.

We should be proud that the rule of law has been strictly followed in our people’s efforts to bring those who stole public funds to book. In other countries where the rule of law is less followed, Chiluba and his friends would have been executed. But they have in every case been accorded the full due process of the law.

Even armed with the London High Court judgment, the Zambian people have still shown a lot of restraint, patience and maturity. They have allowed Chiluba and his friends to freely stretch the judicial process to delay the registration of the London High Court judgment and buy time. This is how things should be.

Following the rule of law and respecting the due process of the law takes time to conclude matters and those who do not have the patience can despair and resort to arbitrariness. Under no circumstances should we be tempted to go this way.

Let us allow Chiluba and his friends to enjoy the full protection of the law and stretch the due process of the law to the utmost. Cases may seem to be taking too long but the rewards for exercising patience and restraint will be much higher.

There will always be higher benefits in sticking to or abiding by the rule of law. Chiluba and his friends may appear to be clever today, may succeed here and there in delaying matters but eventually their day of reckoning will come and that day is near.

So far, we can confidently say our courts have handled these corruption cases with very high standards of independence and probity.

And whoever is convicted at the end of the day will not be able to complain of unfair treatment. This is something also the Zambian people should have every reason to feel proud about and celebrate.

Moreover, why shouldn’t our people celebrate Chiluba’s being found with a case to answer when if it were the opposite, if he had been found with no case to answer, he and his friends would be celebrating?

Why would he be allowed to celebrate the same ruling when it is favourable to him while the people are not allowed to celebrate when the ruling is in their favour? It is said that what is good for the goose is good for the gander! Let’s celebrate Chiluba’s being found with a case to answer! It may be partial victory but it is victory nevertheless.