Those calling me names will be crushed – Chiluba
Those calling me names will be crushed – ChilubaWritten by Chibaula Silwamba
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 9:47:44 AM
FORMER president Frederick Chiluba has charged that people insulting and calling him names will be crushed because he is anointed by God and stands on a rock that can never be broken.
And chief government spokesperson Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha has said President Rupiah Banda is a young Christian who has been thrown to the highest position and should be supported by all Christians so that the Lord can help him lead the country well.
Addressing Christians on Monday at the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Lusaka during the 17th anniversary celebrations of Zambia as a Christian nation, Chiluba said he would be watching those insulting him getting crushed.
“When I declared Zambia as a Christian nation, I made a covenant with God, I am anointed, He protects me…they say Chiluba achite ifi! Chiluba achite ifi but I am still clean. Touch not the anointed…the Lord will crush you,” Chiluba said. “You can stand, you can insult me, you can call me names. I don't care because I stand on a rock which can never break and it falls on you, it will crush you and I will be watching you getting crushed.”
Chiluba also revealed that he and Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda encountered intellectual and religious arrogance when he was declaring Zambia as a Christian nation 17 years ago.
“It was not easy,” he said.
Chiluba said he may not have even understood very well what he was doing when declaring Zambia as a Christian nation, but that he now understood better what he did because he covenanted the country with God.
“Zambia is a Christian nation and will remain so forever,” he said.
Chiluba said Zambia was cursed when it voted for the isolation of Israel during the United Nations (UN) summit in the early 1970s. He said he sought for forgiveness for being one of the people that attended the UN summit that made a resolution to isolate Israel.
Chiluba said God preserved him to become Republican president to change the wrong political decision to isolate Israel. He said after he declared Zambia as a Christian nation, the country renewed its links with Israel.
“When we made that wrong choice, we paid dearly for that. May God forgive me for voting for the isolation of Israel,” said Chiluba as he tried to shed tears.
Chiluba also said it was important for leaders in government, including the President, to know God and do things according to His will.
He also urged Zambians not to fear the world economic recession.
“Let us look up to Him,” said Chiluba in prayer. “He will not allow you His children to lose jobs because of this recession. We are not accepting the recession, in the name of Jesus Christ! We will not accept the recession!”
And Lt Gen Shikapwasha asked Christians to support President Banda so that he could lead the country well.
“Immediately he [Rupiah] became the Vice-President of the Republic of Zambia, the Lord lifted me up to go to him and to bring Christ to him and lead him to the Lord,” Lt Gen Shikapwasha said.
He also said the overall position of the government was to maintain Zambia as a Christian nation.
“On making 29th December a holiday, yes indeed the government must consider to gazette 29th December as a public holiday: [The date when Zambia was declared a Christian],” assured Lt Gen Shikapwasha, who is also a Reverend.
And Dr Catherine Mukuka of Watchers Over God's Nation Church in her prayer said Chiluba was being persecuted for declaring Zambia as a Christian nation.
“We thank You Lord for Your grace on his life,” prayed Dr Mukuka.
And speaking when he featured on Matters at Hand programme on Muvi TV in Lusaka on Monday night, Chiluba's spokesperson Emmanuel Mwamba said the Task Force on Corruption and The Post were blowing out of proportion the London High Court judgment on Chiluba's shoes and clothes.
“Why do they choose to do certain things in a propaganda manner? If you really have a good case, you don't have to tell lies or hide facts or tell half truths,” Mwamba said.
“That was the point of the president [Chiluba] not that he wanted to engage himself in a fight with either The Post or the Task Force on Corruption. But the point was that propaganda on the onset of this case has been at the forefront than facts and truths.”
He said Chiluba had always argued, even during the time of late president Levy Mwanawasa, that the Task Force on Corruption was an illegal institution.
“We have state institutions that can handle anything. Why get an illegal body, you even appoint some chairman who does some funny role?” he asked. “The trouble starts with the Task Force on Corruption, the chairman and his officer because they are illegal; they survive by discretion of the goodwill of the President.”
However, Mwamba said the fight against corruption was very important and nobody should denigrate it in any way.
“Corruption is very costly to the country,” Mwamba said.
He also said Chiluba never struck any deal with President Banda and Patriotic Front president Michael Sata before the October 30 elections seeking discontinuation of his corruption cases.
“I am not aware of any deal that he [Chiluba] cut with either president Michael Sata or President Rupiah Banda,” he said. “A quick solution out of this would not have done Dr Chiluba a good favour if, for example, he discontinued these matters.”
Mwamba said it was wrong for people to create an impression that Chiluba's preoccupation was to steal when he was president.
“To show that his preoccupation was just like stealing…you see…it's a total lie,” Mwamba said.
Mwamba also demanded a thorough audit of the Task Force on Corruption.
Labels: CHILUBA, CORRUPTION
posted by MrK @ 9:48 AM
1 Comments:
I wish to comment on Lieutenant-General Ronnie Shikapwasha’s insinuation that the Zambian government must consider gazetting 29th December as a public holiday to commemorate the day Zambia was declared as a Christian Nation.
Rather than seeking to gazette religious holidays, the government’s role in religious matters should revolve around recognizing and safeguarding each and every societal member’s freedom of worship, the freedom to choose one’s religion, the right to seek to be heard in governmental decision-making, and to articulate one’s demands on the national government and other public institutions.
At the same time, government leaders need to enact legislation against the following in a deliberate effort to forestall the potential disruption of public order and socio-economic activities by cliques of fanatics from any of our country’s religious denominations:
(a) The use of public funds by the government to set up a church or mosque, and/or to provide any form of support to any given religious group, institution or activity;
(b) Official participation by government leaders in the affairs of any given religious group or institution, or official participation by any given religious leader or group in political or governmental affairs;
(c) The use of a religious platform by any individual or group of individuals to form a political party;
(d) The use of a religious platform by any individual to seek a leadership position in any of the three branches of government -- that is, the legislature, the judiciary and the executive; and
(e) Inclusion of denominational religious subjects -- Buddhist, Bahaist, Islamic, Christian, Jewish, or otherwise -- in the curricula of public-funded schools.
In countries where government leaders have not provided for these safeguards mainly due to lack of foresight, violent clashes among religious groups in their quest to dominate the political sphere, and to impose their religious laws on the citizenry, have become exceedingly difficult to contain.
The precarious problem currently facing Algeria, Nigeria, the Sudan, Afghanistan, and a host of other countries around the world which are beleaguered by religious conflicts should serve as a clear warning to each and every peace-loving Zambian to refrain from creating a similar situation that will dog our beloved country in perpetuity.
We should not be blinded by our having had no serious religious conflicts so far. But as our country’s population and the membership of each religious denomination swells, we would be shortsighted not to anticipate and make an effort to forestall the occurrence of such conflicts.
As it is often said, prevention is better than cure! Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad summed up the perilous nature of religious conflicts in his address to the World Evangelical Fellowship in May 2001 thus: "Once started, religious ... [conflicts have] a tendency to go on and on, [and] to become permanent feuds."
It is high time Zambian leaders started devoting their time on finding ways and means of raising productivity in commerce and industry, creating jobs for the jobless, and reducing the unprecedented levels of poverty in our midst. The 25th December holiday representing the birth of our Savior is enough!
We need to avoid creating a precedent whereby non-Christian leaders will eventually start demanding to have their special days gazetted as public holidays. After all, they pay taxes, too, and government leaders should cater for their needs and expectations, too!
In all, I am confident that religious institutions will continue to provide the moral and spiritual direction to our nation in an era that has been high-jacked by unprecedented violence and moral decay. At the community level, we all expect the different religious denominations in our country to function as eternal beacons and unrelenting guardians of morality.
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