Maravi

Corruption cannot be fought with lies

Corruption cannot be fought with lies
Written by Editor

It is very uncomfortable for us to write about ourselves, to defend ourselves.We are much more comfortable defending others and defending just causes and ideas than defending ourselves. We believe in helping others, in fighting for others even if nobody helps us, even if nobody fights for us.

It is simply a moral duty, a matter of principle, even an ideological duty. To contribute to others even if others have done nothing for us. To us, this is what solidarity means.

We believe that a sense of justice, dignity, self-respect, respect for others, and love for your fellow human beings has a great deal to do with one’s happiness as have moral principles; the feeling of being free, equal, and respected and taking part in the battle for the progress of our country, the world we live in; and working like beavers, shoulder to shoulder with the rest of our people. This is what we believe in.

We have never, and we will never put or place ourselves above any fellow citizen or above the laws of this country, even those we totally don’t agree with. And so we think and have always thought that whatever the individual merits of any person, he cannot be above other citizens and the law; no one, whatever aptitudes they may be said to have, will ever be superior to the collective capacity.

George Kunda is insinuating that we who write about crime think we are above the law. This is a very stupid insinuation. George knows that our knowledge of the law makes this a ridiculous insinuation. No one is above the law. And there are so many examples of this. If Dr Kenneth Kaunda could be arrested and detained on trumped-up charges by Chiluba, who are we to think we are above the law? If Chiluba himself is today in court about to conclude his defence on corruption charges, who are we to think we are above the law? It seems George has stopped thinking. His hatred for us is blinding him to many things, even to simple logic.

And it is for this reason that we have made it clear that if anyone believes or thinks we have been involved in any wrongdoing, we have stolen any money from any institution, let the law take its course. George and his friends have continued to this very day to insinuate that through our investment in Zambian Airways, we have been involved in complicated financial crime, we have robbed public institutions of money.

Our response to all this has never been to try and place ourselves above other citizens or the laws of this country. We have called for investigations by all competent institutions. We even welcome the investigations that George and his friends have initiated using the police, the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Drug Enforcement Commission.

And if at the end of the day George and his friends and the law enforcement agencies under their control feel they want to take us to court, we have no problem with that. We say this because no matter what propaganda they try to mount against us today, the truth will eventually be established at the end of the day. It may take long but it will be established. This is not a matter they can manage to successfully manipulate to suit their designs.

But we know one thing for sure, that George and his friends are not interested in the eventual establishment of the truth about all these allegations and insinuations they are making against us. Their main preoccupation is the immediate political advantage they can gain from such malicious and false accusations against us. We have no doubt whatsoever that at the end of the day, their lies against us will dry up. But it is their hope that this may give them an opportunity to destroy us before the truth comes out or before the truth is established. They have stated so themselves. Rupiah Banda was on record last week telling the nation about this. They are not ashamed to say this publicly. They have made their goals very clear that they want to see The Post closed.

But there is one thing that they need to learn. And that is the strength of truth. They need to learn the fact that no matter how hard its adversary – falsehood – may try to overwhelm it, truth refuses to yield.

In all the cases where we have accused people of corruption, we were not in any way motivated by malice, hatred or simply a desire to humiliate them. And this is why today, every individual we have accused of corruption has either been convicted or has been found with a case to answer. Lies, malice, hatred have never been part of our work. Truly, occasionally – like everyone else – we have gotten our facts wrong and we have mentioned people’s names in connection with wrongdoing. In such cases, we have never hesitated to apologise and correct things. And our record on issues of accusing people of corruption is there – legal or otherwise – for George and his friends to see and learn something from it.

Every citizen of this country has a duty to join the fight against corruption but they should do so truthfully because if they don’t, they will seriously damage the whole fight against corruption. There are, in the body politic, economic and social, many and grave evils, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them. There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil person, whether politician or businessman, every evil practice, whether in politics, in business, or in social life. We hail everyone who with merciless severity makes such attack, provided always that he in his tongue remembers that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful. The liar is no whit better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of defamation, he may be worse than most thieves. It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest man, or even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth. An epidemic of indiscriminate assault upon character does not good, but very great harm. The soul of a scoundrel is gladdened whenever an honest man is assailed, or even when a scoundrel is untruthfully assailed.

Our plea is, not for immunity to but for the most unsparing exposure of the politician who betrays his trust, of the big businessman who engages himself in corrupt ways. There should be a resolute effort to hound every such person out of the position he has disgraced. Expose the crime, and hunt down the criminal; but remember that even in the case of crime, if it is attacked in sensational, lurid, and untruthful fashion, the attack may do more damage to the public mind than the crime itself. It is because we feel there should be no rest in the endless war against the forces of evil that we ask that the war be conducted with sanity as well as with resolution. If we don’t follow this, our engagement in fighting corruption will be useless, will be simply a mock engagement. If the whole picture is recklessly and untruthfully painted black, there remains no hue whereby to single out the rascals for distinction from their fellows. Such painting finally induces a kind of moral colour-blindness; and people affected by it come to the conclusion that no man is really black, and no man really white, but they are all gray. In other words, they neither believe in truth of the attack, nor in the honesty of the man who is attacked; they grow as suspicious of the accusation as of the offence; it becomes well-nigh hopeless to stir them either to wrath against wrong-doing or to enthusiasm for what is right; and such a mental attitude in the public gives hope to every knave, and is the despair of honest people.

We say all this because of what we see as a very dangerous path Rupiah, George and their friends have embarked on. The other day, Rupiah was accusing former finance minister Ng’andu Magande of corruption in his dealings with Zambian Airways. And for the last few days, George has been doing the same to us. And a few weeks ago, Dora Siliya was on us accusing us even of being bitter with her because she denied us a licence to run a fourth mobile phone service. Dora knew very well when she was telling these lies that at no time was she in a position to give or deny anyone a licence to run the fourth cell phone service. She knew very well that sometime last year, the Communications Authority had put up adverts in the media calling for applications for a fourth cell phone provider. She also knows very well that before this process could be concluded, there was litigation by Enoch Kavindele and Vodacom Zambia Limited that stopped the whole process because they claimed the fourth licence had already been given to them. Kavindele won in the High Court and the state appealed in the Supreme Court. And these matters are there for anyone to check. This being the case, how can we be against Dora for denying us a licence? Which licence did Dora ever award to anyone to provide a cell phone service that we should hate her for? Clearly, Dora’s intention was simply to accuse us of corruption without any basis. But for what reason? It is for the same reason that Rupiah and George are accusing us of stealing money. And it requires very little intelligence – if a little is all one has - to realise that these people are out to no good; they are not telling and seeking the truth. They are simply liars out to malign us in their attempt to stop us from exposing the crimes of their league.

George yesterday was saying that he wants to put it on record that the government shall intensify the fight against corruption, the fight against blackmail, the fight against sophisticated crime, the fight against financial crime. But this same George and this same government have kept quiet over the corruption case of Jeff Kaande and some MMD cadres who were stealing government money by inflating their bills. This should be telling us something. And that is: these characters are not interested in fighting corruption. What they are interested in is silencing The Post and dealing a deadly blow on those who question their dealings, those who criticise them.

But what they should learn is that the truth always wins in the end. What they don’t know is that there is no better tactic, no better strategy than fighting with clean hands, fighting with the truth. We say this because these are the only weapons that inspire confidence, that inspire faith, that inspire security and that inspire dignity. And these are the weapons we have been using to expose corruption and get those involved prosecuted and convicted. And our record on this score is near 100 per cent. It speaks for itself. Lies and manipulation don’t take anyone far. And as we have said before, manipulators have never deserved anybody’s respect, nor been successful anywhere. They may temporarily be seen to be successful but their victory doesn’t last long. Manipulators are like little sailboats that go with the wind and the waves. Manipulation is synonymous with opportunism. Manipulation doesn’t have substance; it doesn’t have roots. Nobody respects a manipulator. They may do so in a very short term, but it doesn’t last long. We think everything – respect, relationships, serious analysis, and understanding – is possible among people who are honest with themselves and with others.

Again, we reiterate that we are not opposed in any way, and we welcome investigations into the affairs of Zambian Airways, and if anyone committed a crime in this connection, the law should take its course. What we are opposed to is an attempt by people who very well know the truth to malign us. If they have got all the evidence against us, why are they wasting time on unnecessary investigations? Why not just arrest and prosecute us? The truth is Rupiah, George and their friends know very well that we have done nothing wrong; they don’t have any evidence of wrong-doing by us. These are not people who are patient when it comes to dealing with us. They simply don’t have patience. If they had any little evidence of wrongdoing by us, the matter would have been in court a long time ago. These are not people who can wait. They don’t know what waiting means. You can see from the way some of them want to quickly amass wealth before they even settle in their new offices. These people don’t know what patience means because they live in perpetual despair, in perpetual anguish, in perpetual lying, in the most ridiculous and infantile way.

If we have done any wrong, if we have stolen anything, let them show the people of this country what we have stolen and from whom we have stolen it. The truth is they will never come up with one ngwee or one cent that has been stolen by us. Soon you will see their story change from that of stealing, racketeering, money laundering to something else against us. They are fishing hoping they will catch something against us. But they have put their pans and pots on the fire and they have cooked their nshima waiting for the relish. Things don’t work that way in life.

Labels: FRED M'MEMBE, GEORGE KUNDA, MUTEMBO NCHITO, THE POST

posted by MrK @ 9:50 PM