Maravi

Judged by kangaroos

Judged by kangaroos
Written by Editor

The Zambian people may not rank high among the most militant people in the world, but they have a very high sense of justice when they are made to understand things, when their hearts are moved.

This is a useful reminder that all people, even the most seemingly cold-blooded, have a core of decency, and that if their hearts are touched, they are capable of opposing, standing up to injustice.

The mercenaries, political or otherwise, we are today seeing in our country, are not necessarily evil people; their inhumanity has been foisted upon them by an inhuman system. They behave like that because they are rewarded for being mercenaries. Mostly, these are poor, unemployed youths or failed businessmen struggling to earn a living.

And this desperation usually pushes them to hire themselves out for dirty political jobs. And those with money, those with political power like Rupiah Banda and his friends will always find some to hire, to speak for them, to denounce those they don’t like, their political opponents.

Some of us don’t have much to give in terms of money and appointments. Money and appointments in this country are under the control of Rupiah and his friends. But this doesn’t bother us. We have enough decent poor people to fight on our side. And these have been our true friends and allies. We have never needed money or power to earn their support. It is said that there is little to be said in favour of poverty, but it was often an incubator of true friendship.

Many people appear to befriend you when you are in control of resources and power is in your hands, but precious few will do the same when you are poor, when you are out of power or you are powerless. If wealth and power are magnets, poverty and powerlessness are a kind of repellant. Yet poverty and powerlessness often bring out the true generosity in others. We are seeing this today. It is not the wealthy, the politically powerful that have come to our defence. It is humble politicians, clergymen and the most ordinary of our people.

Those with political power or near it have been quiet. They don’t want to lose their privileges for supporting us. Those with business contracts don’t want to lose them for indentifying with us. But privately, all these people have been saying they know we are innocent, they know we have not stolen anything as Rupiah claims, they say it’s all politics. But this is just in privacy. They can’t say this in public. And the most decent of them have chosen to remain quiet on the issue. That’s probably why it’s only Rupiah and shameless political opportunists like George Kunda, Dora Siliya who have been attacking us publicly. The rest are silent. Why? It’s simply because they know we have done nothing wrong; it’s all dirty politics.

Corruption and truth are incompatible. Corrupt people don’t like the truth; they don’t like even to hear it. And today the Police, Drug Enforcement Commission and Anti-Corruption Commission officers Rupiah sent to try and find cases of theft, money laundering and racketeering against us have difficulties going back to him to tell him they found nothing. We have no doubt that even Inspector General of Police Francis Kabonde knows very well, has been briefed, that they have found nothing wrong that we have done. But he too doesn’t know how to break that type of news to Rupiah because he doesn’t believe his boss wants to hear the truth about this matter.

If you are honest, truly honest, you won’t be corrupted, you won’t fail to tell the truth. If you are unassuming and have a clear understanding of the worth of people and of yourself, you won’t be corrupted. We have maintained eternal vigilance about this throughout the 18 years of this newspaper’s existence, and we have been very self-critical. We have always examined everything we have done, checking to see whether it was correct or not, whether or not we let ourselves be carried away, whether or not pride had anything to do with it, and we think we have learnt to control ourselves. We think this has helped us remain the same as always, ever since this newspaper was launched.

There is need to be honest and truthful in life, especially in public life, in politics. And the political leaders who fail to see the need for honesty and truthfulness will one day have to answer for it. We hope they will accept their responsibility. They must always choose honest and truthful ways and not head for Calvary.

We think we have been struggling uphill long enough. We have suffered not only the torment of Calvary but also that of Sisyphus, who had to keep pushing a boulder up a hill and every time he was about to reach the top, it would roll back down, and he would have to start all over again. Our situation is worse than Calvary because Calvary was climbed quickly; we have been climbing our hill for a long time, and we keep on having to start over. Calvary is preferable to Sisyphus’ torment, and if we have had our Calvary, we should also have a resurrection.

What we want is to find a dignified end to the lies, the smear and false accusations that Rupiah and his friends have subjected us to. But whenever we seek a more fair, just and objective way of dealing with their claims, accusations against us, what happens is that they always try to prevent that from happening so that we remain with our Calvary – and not even a Calvary, but with the agonising torture of pushing the boulder up a never-ending hill. But it’s clear that one day, as we are starting to witness, the people of Zambia will ask them to bring this issue to a fair and just ending. And they will have to find a dignified ending to this whole issue. And we would prefer an orderly ending to their lies.

As Bishop John Mambo has correctly observed, we have been charged, tried and convicted by Rupiah without a hearing. Rupiah accused us of stealing US $30 million through Zambian Airways from state institutions and that we used that money to buy and build mansions, strange cars and aeroplanes. And that he was going to ensure that we pay back this money to the government so that he can use it to build schools and hospitals. This is what Rupiah told the nation. Clearly, Rupiah was not merely raising an allegation against us. He was confidently publicly sentencing us. The issue of us being investigated by the Police, DEC and ACC was merely an afterthought that arose out of the need to legally, and not just politically, nail us to the cross. The investigations were not about establishing the truth. They were about validating Rupiah’s judgment against us. Is this the way leaders of a country that claims to be Christian, that seeks to adhere to the rule of law should behave?

The truth is the investigators have failed to validate Rupiah’s judgment against us. And the only thing that remains is for them to gather the moral and professional courage to tell him so – that we have done nothing wrong. That’s the only thing remaining for them to do. But this will not be an easy thing for them to do. They would rather drag us to court if this was an easy option for them. But it isn’t. What are they going to say in court as arresting officers, as investigators? They are in a near catch-22.

We want this matter to end in court. And we hope they will be decent enough to give us the opportunity to clear our names in court, by answering every allegation, every claim, every charge they have made against us. We again beg them to arrest us so that we can also have a fair hearing before a tribunal where propaganda and lies have no place, where only truth reigns.

That’s the way we see things. That is our stand on this issue. And we say this with confidence because we have done nothing wrong. Yes, we have made many mistakes and we make many mistakes every day, but none of them can be said to be criminal. We are proud of being honest, proud of having the public spirit and the honesty to discuss our errors publicly.

We believe that consistently practiced political honesty is a road that leads a politician’s mind and will to fairness, justice and humaneness.

And what we are seeing today in our country is what happens when a corrupt and arrogant clique is able to take over the ruling party, destroy, humiliate and crush the best members and impose its will on an entire nation.

The facts that are emerging about us stealing US $30 million speak for themselves; they are convincing facts which explain the falsity of the charges levelled against us by Rupiah. And there is no way Rupiah and his friends are going to manage to conceal or permanently distort the truth about this issue. The truth will always prevail over falsehoods. What they should start doing is to look for ways to embrace the truth about this whole issue and abandon their lies, their falsehoods. Trying to send us to Calvary on lies, on false charges won’t do. They may manage to get us there but our resurrection will definitely come, and come to haunt them.

Again, we are grateful to all our friends, all our fellow citizens who are every day braving it to speak for us and for justice. We don’t have much to give in return for this support. All we can assure them is that we will never do anything that will today or tomorrow embarrass them. And with all honesty and sincerity, we can assure them that we have not done any wrong and no one will find any crime in the way we related with or to Zambian Airways. And not even the best fabricator, concocter will manage to come up with a charge against us that will stand in any honest court.

Labels: RUPIAH BANDA, THE POST

posted by MrK @ 3:14 PM