Judge Musonda and Dora

Judge Musonda and Dora
Written by Editor

It cannot be denied that a lot of effort was put in by our judicial process not to find Dora Siliya with any wrongdoing. The process to clear Dora of any wrong- doing did not start with the High Court judicial review. It started at the tribunal itself. So this decision by the High Court to totally absolve Dora will not surprise many Zambians – it may anger them but will certainly not come as a surprise to them.

The odds were very high for those who were trying to use our judicial process to make Dora account for her decisions and actions. But they did their best and their work could not be totally ignored, some pious concessions had to be made to save some dignity of all those who are involved in this process.

In the end, it started to appear like it was not Dora who was on trial but the judicial process itself. And this is the way it seems to have ended. The focus of attention doesn’t seem to be so much on Dora and what she did, or those who took her to the tribunal. It seems it has turned on our judicial process itself and its credibility. It is our judicial process that now seems to be on trial, to be a subject of questions.

The future will recognise this because, in future, people will know everything about what happened: what those who took Dora to the tribunal did and what their adversaries did, what goals they sought and what goals their adversaries sought, and who was right, who acted dishonestly in discharging public trust.

Moreover, there is need to realise that the people are the court of first indictment and the court of last resort.

However, we urge all to accept and respect the judgment of judge Phillip Musonda. It won’t do this country or anyone any good to act otherwise. Let Dora enjoy this judgment and probably go back to be minister again. This may be painful to swallow for those who took her to the tribunal. But that’s what civility entails. That’s what respect for the rule of law entails. So, we would ask all Zambians, whatever their positions on this issue, to guard against anarchy and all its ugly consequences. We believe we must always be mindful of this one thing, whatever the trials and the tests ahead. The ultimate strength of our country and our cause will lie not in judgments of this nature, but in the restraint, tolerance and civility of our people. This we believe very deeply.

A pattern is starting to appear where those who belong to this government receive more favourable treatment from our judicial process. They get away with more things than those who don’t belong to this government. It is even becoming easier for our lay people to guess the outcome of matters that are before our judicial process. This means the behaviour of our judicial system is becoming very predictable when it comes to matters of this nature. This is dangerous. This is undesirable. This may undermine our whole judicial process. And if this happens, we are finished as a nation. Even the winners before our judicial process will also join everybody else in being losers. We say this because this country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless it’s a good place for all of us to live in. The social furniture of our society is so complicated and fragile that it cannot support this type of thing.

We hope we are all learning something valuable from all this. If we are not learning anything from all this, then we have learnt nothing.

It’s clear that if those governing our country are to enjoy the respect of our people, they have to act up to different standards than they have been following in the last few months; they will need to turn their backs on this most ugly chapter. Things were getting out of hand – there were abuses, arrogance and insensitivity everywhere. People had stopped even attempting to cover up their wrongs. Government was being run like personal property.

Well, Dora has won and can go back to enjoy herself in the company of her friend Rupiah Banda. They may think they have deceived the people but they have simply ended up deceiving themselves. Today they may feel lords and masters of the universe but the day of reckoning will come. It is said that Dante divided his inferno into nine circles. He put the criminals in the seventh, the thieves in the eighth and the traitors in the ninth. Difficult dilemma the devils will be faced with, when they try to find an adequate spot for this person’s soul – if this person has a soul.

In every society, there are people of base instincts. And they go about in the guise of human beings, but they are monsters, only more or less restrained by discipline and social habit. It is said that if they are offered a drink from the river of blood, they will not be satisfied until they drink the river dry. It is said that in the nation, there must be a certain degree of honour just as there must be a certain amount of light. It is also said that when there are people without honour, there are always others who will bear in themselves the honour of many people. These are the people who are moved with indignation when public trust is abused, when public offices are abused and when people’s resources are stolen. These are the people who rise against those who steal human honour itself. And it is said in those people, thousands more are contained, an entire people is contained, human dignity is contained.

The future beckons to us. Wither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring opportunity to the poor of our country; to fight and end poverty, ignorance and disease; to build a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every Zambian. We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us until we make all the people of Zambia what destiny intended them to be. We cannot encourage narrow-mindedness, corruption, abuse of public institutions and trust, for no nation can be great whose people and leaders are narrow in thought or in action, or are corrupt in their decisions and actions.

As for Rupiah and his friends, especially Dora, we hope they have learnt something. We hope now they realise that this country belongs to all of us and not only to their clique or tandem. And they cannot do as they please. They have gotten their judgments the way they wanted them to be. They are in charge but they will not be in charge forever. There will be an end to all this.

It is clear that unless we put decent people in public offices, we won’t achieve much. We say this because integrity comes from human beings, rather than from laws and institutions.

We need leaders who are loyal to their people. And we can see from these judgments that loyalty is a sentiment, not a law. It rests on love, not on legal restraint where lawyers can be hired and the case is won. It is said that there must remain no neutral ground to serve as refuge for leaders who lack integrity and honour and who can use their wealth to break any law, who can hire the vulpine legal cunning which will help them to avoid being found wanting by our judicial process.

As for those who challenged Dora, they should not feel disheartened, they should not despair. Far better it is to dare mighty things even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. In this life, we get nothing save by effort.