Maravi

Do the right thing

Do the right thing
Written by Editor

It is The Post that brought to the attention of the public Dora Siliya’s breach of the Constitution in the manner that she dealt with the deal of RP Capital Partners Limited. And the Law Association of Zambia agreed with us that it was wrong for Dora to deal with the issue of RP Capital in the manner she had done.

Dora had stubbornly and pompously ignored the advice of the Attorney General. The Law Association of Zambia categorically stated that the advice of the Attorney General was mandatory and could not be ignored by Dora, or any other minister for that matter, with impunity.

We have always maintained that whatever we do and whatever is done on behalf of the people should be done in an honest and selfless manner. We have stated before that there are, in the body politic, economic and social, many grave ills, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them.

And that 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 have also stated that we hail as benefactors every person who with merciless severity makes such attack, provided that he in his turn 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 slander, he may be worse than most thieves.

It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest person, or even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad person with untruth. An epidemic of indiscriminate assault upon character does not good, but very great harm. The soul of every scoundrel is gladdened whenever an honest person is assailed, or even when a scoundrel is untruthfully assailed.

We have also gone on further to say that our plea is, not for immunity to but for the most unsparing exposure of every politician who betrays his or her trust. There should be a resolute effort to hound every such person out of the position he or she 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 than the crime itself. It is because we feel that there should be no rest in the endless war against the forces of evil that we ask that this war be conducted with sanity as well as with resolution. This has been our message in the fight against corruption and abuse of power or public office.

It was in this spirit that we brought to the public attention the issue of RP Capital, and connected to it that of Selex. But what was the reaction of the President and the Vice-President of our Republic to this honest and humble exposure of Dora’s dealings? We were denounced by Rupiah Banda and George Kunda and called all sorts of names.

We take no pride in exposing crime and other abuses. It saddens us to see the leaders of our people abuse public trust and engage in criminal and dishonest activities. We will be a million times happier to live in a country where there are no exposes of wrongdoing by those in leadership positions, a country where there are no stories in the newspapers of ministers abusing their offices, of the President and the Vice-President defending wrong doing, telling lies.

This is the world we dream about, this is the type of country we yearn for. And we believe it is our duty to struggle for such a country, for such a world. It is not possible to build such a country on lies, on malice against other people, especially those in leadership positions.

What we are seeing today is not the Zambia we dream about. It is the Zambia of our nightmares. We cannot understand how people can say Dora has been cleared when the tribunal has told the nation that she breached the supreme law of the land – the Constitution. A minister, who on behalf of all of us, has a responsibility to make decisions that advance our collective interests has tried to do so by breaching the Constitution.

It is not only the Constitution that Dora breached. The tribunal seems to agree that Dora has breached section 75 of the public procurement Act, which creates an offence. But also the tribunal goes on to state that a commission of that offence does not amount to breach under Parliamentary and Ministerial Code of Conduct Act in its present form. But this is still a breach of the law. So Dora has not only breached the Constitution, she has also breached another act of Parliament.

And this same tribunal also made it very clear that this breach by Dora of the Constitution, if it was carried out by the President – by Rupiah himself – he would be impeached.

It will be very difficult for our people to understand and appreciate why someone who breaches the Constitution, the supreme law of the land, the highest law of our country goes scot-free, but one who breaches a smaller law, a sub-law or subordinate law is punished.

It will also be very difficult to see how Dora will get away with the tribunal’s finding that she breached the Constitution when every member of parliament, every minister and every person in this country who holds a constitutional office takes oath to uphold and defend the Constitution at all times.

The tribunal also observed that allowing breach of the Constitution and the laws made there under by government ministers and officials contaminates the government as it sends wrong signals to the general citizenry. This is a very important observation which Rupiah should not take lightly. If government ministers can breach the Constitution and still keep their constitutional offices, then there is no rule of law this country or this government can talk about.

There is no one who occupies a constitutional office in this country who is allowed to breach the Constitution and still hold his constitutional office. Even a lawyer in this country cannot breach the Constitution and continue to practice law. This is because every lawyer in this country has taken oath, as an officer of the court, to uphold and defend the Constitution at all times. This is the same oath that Dora has taken as a member of parliament and as a Cabinet minister. And this is the same oath and obligation that Rupiah has taken as a head of state.

The issue that Rupiah has to deal with in deciding how to implement, or rather how to act on, the findings of the tribunal is a straightforward one: is he going to uphold the oath he has made to defend the Constitution or is he going to ignore it? We say this because there is no way Rupiah will be upholding the Constitution by protecting and defending those that breach it.

And in this respect, we find the decision of the tribunal not to recommend the removal of Dora from Parliament very strange. We feel the tribunal has not been very fair with Rupiah on this score. The tribunal has ducked its responsibility to recommend the removal of Dora from Parliament. Equally, the tribunal has failed to defend the upholding of the Constitution by Dora.

Dora has taken oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. And the tribunal knows this very well. The tribunal also knows very well that the Constitution is a much higher law – the supreme law of the land, the law on which all other laws depend and are subordinate to – but goes on to say it cannot recommend the removal of Dora from her parliamentary seat because she has not violated the Parliamentary and Ministerial Code of Conduct Act but has only breached the Constitution, as if this was a small law, something subordinate to the Parliamentary and Ministerial Code of Conduct Act.

The tribunal suggests that Dora did not breach the Code of Conduct Act supposedly because according to them, there is no evidence that she got a benefit. But no one will deny that RP Capital got a benefit by receiving an award of a US $2 million contract in breach of the tender processes. On the face of it, Dora did not only breach the Constitution, she also breached the Parliamentary and Ministerial Code of Conduct Act.

Anyway, we cannot claim to know the law more than the tribunal, we just know a little. However, we find this to be a classical case of wrong conclusions from correct premises.

As we said earlier, the tribunal simply ducked the responsibility of being the ones to say that Dora should no longer be a member of parliament. This is coming against a background where the President and the Vice-President publicly stated that Dora had done nothing wrong.

But this is not the end of this matter. Of course, a lot of responsibility – as it should be – has been put on Rupiah’s shoulders to deal with this matter in the way it should have been dealt with. If it is not concluded in the way it should have been, it will come to haunt all those involved in it once again. We see no reason why those involved in it, the complainants should not push it through the High Court under judicial review.

We hope Rupiah will save himself and the judiciary further embarrassment over this issue and do the right thing. Lies, propaganda, scheming, deceit and all sorts of falsehoods will not clear this issue away. The only thing that will put this issue permanently to rest is doing the right thing.

Labels: DORA SILIYA, PRIVATISATION, RP CAPITAL PARTNERS

posted by MrK @ 3:54 PM