‘Not normal, no morals’

‘Not normal, no morals’
Written by Editor

Reason and judgement are very vital qualities for a leader. It is unreasonable, it is poor judgement for Rupiah Banda to unjustifiably, and in a defamatory manner, attack fellow citizens. There is need for Rupiah to realise that he is not an emperor, a king or a chief of this country. He is simply a citizen who has the opportunity to occupy the office of president of the Republic of Zambia. And if he unjustifiably or falsely attacks a fellow citizen, that citizen has every right to hit back.

Rupiah, as President of the Republic of Zambia, enjoys immense immunities from personal prosecution for defamatory statements or other wrongs against fellow citizens. Rupiah has immunity from prosecution and as such, no legal claim can be brought against him. The only way a citizen can respond to attacks from him is to hit back in the same way.

On Saturday, Rupiah told the people of Mongu that Michael Sata was not normal and had no morals: “You smashed the head of the cobra, someone who is not normal, someone who has no morals, and someone who is not sufficiently educated to lead this country.”

How does Rupiah expect Sata to respond to all this? What will happen if Sata also questioned his sanity, morals and so on and so forth?

There is need for Rupiah to realise that people are respecting of those who respect them; people are loyal to those who are loyal to them; and people have faith in those who have faith in them.

There is no need to provoke the situation unnecessarily. For all his weaknesses and deficiencies, Sata has behaved sufficiently well since last year’s election. He had the ability to cause tension and sustain it in the nation. Sata has majority support in most of the major towns of our country, including the capital city, Lusaka. If he was bent on being destructive, he could have easily made this country ungovernable. But he has chosen the peaceful way to conduct politics. And this is the way things should be.

We cannot encourage narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose leaders are narrow in thought or in action. This is no time for pettiness and destructiveness, no time for ill-will. We have to build a noble mansion of a prosperous and peaceful Zambia where all her children may dwell. Our present and our future will not be one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfill the desires and aspirations of our people. And so our leaders have to labour and work, and work hard, to give reality to our people’s dreams. The service of Zambia means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of our leaders should be to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond them, but as long as there are tears and suffering, there will be no time for petty and empty politics. The future beckons them. Whither do they go and what shall be their endeavour? To bring happiness and opportunity to the common man, to the workers and poor people of Zambia; to fight and end poverty, ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman, to every boy and girl. They have hard work ahead.

In a country where only three per cent of the population have attained education of grade 12 and above, it doesn’t make sense for a leader to denounce the 97 per cent of our fellow citizens who do not have such education. To Rupiah, 97 per cent of our people who do not have this type of education count for nothing, they are not fit for anything other than to vote. They should never contest any leadership position. This would be understandable in a country which has had or has such opportunities for every citizen. Moreover, we have had many capable leaders in the world without very high levels of formal education. Ronald Reagan didn’t have the type of education Bill Clinton or Barack Obama have. But he was a great leader of that country. In Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai doesn’t have the education of Robert Mugabe but he is there as Prime Minister of that country. In South Africa, Jacob Zuma doesn’t have the education of Thabo Mbeki or Nelson Mandela but he is likely to be the president of that country at the end of this month. And even here, at the time Chiluba took over office, he had only one O’level which he got by correspondence. Dr Kenneth Kaunda didn’t also have much in terms of formal education, not because he was dull, it was simply a question of opportunities. In saying this, we are not in any way insinuating that education is not important. It is very important and it should be made available to every citizen. Our Constitution sets the qualifications for every public office in this country and academic or professional qualifications are not part of that. Therefore, let’s concentrate on giving our people the maximum opportunities for education so that in the end, every one of us who wants to have a degree gets one. In this way, no one will be discriminated against because every citizen would have had equal opportunities.

And it is difficult to understand where Rupiah is getting the time to waste on insulting and defaming fellow citizens.

A few weeks ago, Rupiah was on us, defaming us. He accused us of having pocketed US $30 million from state institutions without any shred of evidence whatsoever. It was only after he made this accusation that the Police, Drug Enforcement Commission and the Anti-Corruption Commission were instructed to investigate and come up with evidence of how we had stolen this US $30 million from state institutions. Rupiah knew very well when he was making such statements that he had no evidence of us stealing any money but he recklessly went ahead to defame us simply because he has immunity from prosecution, from any legal action in this country. This is abuse of power, of privilege; this is corruption on the part of Rupiah.

Rupiah is behaving as if he is an absolute monarch, an emperor, a king who can’t be insulted back when he attacks a subject. If Rupiah insults a fellow citizen, that citizen has the right to hit back. Zambia is not a monarchy with subjects. It is a republic with citizens. And the rights of citizens and subjects are different.

It seems attacking fellow citizens is the only discernible vision of Rupiah. The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet. Power is the ability to do good things for others, and not to abuse them because you have the protection, you have the immunity. It is said that justice begins at home. And leaders themselves must be the first to give witness. They cannot call others to virtues which they themselves do not make an effort to practice. It is for this reason that we ask our leaders to respect themselves and to be exemplary in their daily lives. They certainly cannot preach justice to others if they do not practice justice themselves.

Good governance will only occur when we have honest and humble leaders who see politics as a vocation to serve the people. They should be aware that the politics they are involved in is an area of great importance for promoting justice, peace, development and community among all. They should regard politics as a vocation, a way of building up society for the common good.

It is frightening when we hear Rupiah tell the people of Western Province that they are special because they voted for him. And it is equally frightening when we hear some traditional leaders of Western Province ask Rupiah: “But scratch our back because we have scratched yours. What is our return for the support that we gave you during last year’s election? When someone puts in an investment, they expect a return.”

It will be corruption for Rupiah to treat the people of Western Province in a special way because they voted for him. Western Province deserves special treatment as one of the least developed provinces of our country, not because the people of Western Province voted for Rupiah, but simply because every part of our country deserves to be developed and there has to be equitable development. The Barotse Royal Establishment doesn’t need to suck up to any politician – be it Rupiah, Sata, Hakainde, Miyanda – for the province to be given the development it deserves. If this will be the criteria for developing the various parts of our country, for the special treatment of the various regions of our country, then we are headed for very serious divisions. This may mark the beginning of serious regional politics in our country. We are in a multi-party dispensation and the way people vote should have nothing to do with allocation of national resources. It will be criminal for Rupiah to take national resources to any part of our country simply on account of the people of that area having voted for him. If this criterion is pushed forward, Rupiah will simply be telling the nation that Luapula, Northern, Copperbelt, Lusaka and Southern provinces have no special place in his scheme of things because they didn’t vote for him. Only Western, North Western and Eastern provinces have a special place in his heart because this is where they had overwhelmingly voted for him.

Again, we remind our readers and our people that reason and judgement are the most important qualities in a leader. A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. Hot heads and cold hearts have never solved anything.

Clearly, Rupiah is not setting or showing a good example in his conduct, reasoning and judgement. Example is not the main thing in influencing others, in leadership, it is the only thing. It is said that a good leader is like the best conductor – he reaches beyond the notes to reach the magic in the players.

There is need for Rupiah to put substance in his speeches. His talk is too empty and cheap. He is not showing leadership. All that we see every day is arrogance, pomposity and lack of humility. We have advised him before and we do so again today: the exercise of power must be the constant practice of self-limitation and modesty.