Maravi

The choice is ours

COMMENT - It is clear to us that no matter what institutions we create and no matter what laws we come up with, unless we elect decent people to public office, good governance will continue to elude us, corruption, arrogance, intolerance and other evils will be the order of the day. - This is not clear to me at all. What is needed is a proper separation of the powers of state, and continuous oversight. Checks and balances. The 'good fellow hypothesis' cannot work especially because at some time, someone of ill will will be elected to higher office. It is then that checks and balances are required. Today, too much power is vested in the president. Where was the oversight on the decision to privatise ZAMTEL, or hire RP Capital Partners? Where were the extensive debates in parliament and the press? That is what is missing, not simply the character of those who have been elected. Where are the extensive policy discussions before the elections, between the candidates. Zambia should have a political tour, where the candidates face eachother in debate, across every of the 9 provinces. Let the people know what future they are voting for.

The choice is ours
Written by Editor

What Edith Nawakwi is seeing about Rupiah Banda today was there in the open during the presidential campaigns of last year. And many people who wanted to see it saw it. What Rupiah is saying and doing today is not new. It is something true to his character.

Edith and her friend Sakwiba Sikota could not see this when they were supporting Rupiah because they didn’t want to see it; they didn’t want to hear anything negative about Rupiah. For them Rupiah had to win the elections at all costs.

Wherever Rupiah went, nepotism, tribalism, regionalism and corruption were not very far. But Edith and Sakwiba couldn’t see this because they were blinded by other considerations, by the benefits of having a man they campaigned for in State House. Sakwiba, who had been a great friend of our newspaper for many years, even joined Rupiah and his minions in denouncing us. At least Edith didn’t do that.

Edith and Sakwiba’s support for Rupiah was not out of ignorance. They knew who Rupiah was and what he stood for. They heard what he was saying and saw what he was doing during the campaign but decided to turn a blind eye and close their minds to it. They saw how public resources were abused. They were being ferried in government helicopters as opposition leaders but they saw nothing wrong with it; they couldn’t see that this was abuse of public resources and corruption in itself.

However, it is good that Edith has realised that Rupiah is up to no good and today she is saying: “Rupiah has set himself on a path of self-destruction which will also have devastating consequences on the nation. We his friends are being abused that ‘your friend doesn’t listen’. He is on a very destructive path, and not only to himself but to the general group. He is not behaving like someone who is elderly. It is disappointing that an elderly man like Rupiah has literally failed to listen to advice on every national issue. You members of the press, I hope you will use a different language to advise him.”

This is what Edith is saying today. At least, unlike Sakwiba, she is able to say it. She has the courage to make criticism where it is due. As for Sakwiba, when he opens his mouth, it is very difficult to get what he is saying; one can’t know whether he is coming or going. We hope one day Sakwiba will pluck up enough courage and do what Edith has done. Well, we hope he is still not waiting for that appointment from Rupiah people have been talking about on the streets. As an opposition leader, Sakwiba has lost it; his respect is gone. Sakwiba today is a president of nothing, his party is finished and he is a deserted man. However, Sakwiba is still young. If he plucks up courage and does the right things, he has a chance to recover and see a reversal of political fortunes. But as things stand today, his only way out is to join the MMD and be adopted as its candidate for Livingstone in 2011.

As to Edith’s request to us in the press to advise Rupiah, using a different language, because them in politics have failed to advise him, we can only say we have done more than they have. If Rupiah can’t listen to them, it’s worse with us. At least Rupiah doesn’t see Edith as an enemy who should be completely destroyed. Rupiah sees us as his worst enemies and he is doing everything possible to obliterate us. This being the case, how can one expect him to listen to us?

If all have failed to advise Rupiah, we can only refer him to the Holy Bible, to Proverbs: “Do not go where evil men go. Do not follow the example of the wicked. Don’t do it! Keep away from evil! Refuse it and go on your way. Wicked people cannot sleep unless they have done something wrong. They lie awake unless they have hurt someone. Wickedness and violence are like food and drink to them. The road the righteous travel is like sunrise, getting brighter and brighter until daylight has come. The road of the wicked, however, is dark as night. They fall, but cannot see what they have tumbled over” (Proverbs 4:14-17).

We are further told: “Worthless, wicked people go around telling lies. They wink and make gestures to deceive you, all the while planning evil in their perverted minds, stirring trouble everywhere. Because of this, disaster will strike them without warning, and they will be fatally wounded” (Proverbs 6:12.15).

And in Proverbs 9:7-9 we are further reminded: “If you correct a conceited man, you will only be insulted. If you reprimand an evil man, you will only get hurt. Never correct a conceited man; he will hate you for it. But if you correct a wise man, he will respect you. Anything you say to a wise man will make him wiser. Whatever you tell a righteous man, he will add to his knowledge.”

Edith is right when she says Rupiah is on a very destructive path not only to himself but to all of us. We hope Rupiah won’t confuse Edith for an enemy the way he has done with us. The Bible says: “Sensible people accept good advice. People who talk foolishly will come to ruin. Honest people are safe and secure, but dishonest people will be caught. Someone who holds back the truth causes trouble, but one who openly criticises works for peace” (Proverbs 10:8-10).

Truly, wickedness doesn’t give security. Conceited people can never be wise, but intelligent people learn easily.

Edith says Rupiah doesn’t seem to know where he is going and at the moment, there is no direction. This is true. It is said that “those who are good travel a road that avoids evil; so watch where you are going – it may save your life”. Arrogance leads to destruction and downfall; “evil people look for ways to harm others; even their words burn with evil” (Proverbs 16:17). Truly, “some people ruin themselves by their own stupid actions…” (Proverbs 19:3).

We can go on quoting from the Bible to advise Rupiah and his minions. But we don’t think it is worth it because they will not listen to anybody. There are many people more qualified than us, many clergymen who have tried to advise him but as Edith says, the man doesn’t listen – he only listens to his inner demons.

But this is politics and there are immediate consequences for not listening, for being evil. But this is not the first time Zambians are encountering this type of behaviour from a president of the country. Under altered form, we war with the same tendencies towards evil that were evident in Frederick Chiluba’s time, and are helped by the same tendencies for good.

It is clear to us that no matter what institutions we create and no matter what laws we come up with, unless we elect decent people to public office, good governance will continue to elude us, corruption, arrogance, intolerance and other evils will be the order of the day. We say this because these things come from human beings, rather than from laws and institutions. In a nation, there must be a certain degree of honour in those who lead just as there must be a certain amount of light. But of course where there are men and women without honour, there are always others who bear in themselves the honour of many men and women. These are the men and women who rebel with great force against those who abuse others, that is to say, against those who steal human honour itself. In those men and women, thousands more are contained, an entire people is contained, human dignity is contained. It is understandable that honest men and women should be persecuted, harassed, humiliated in a country where the president is corrupt, intolerant, ruthless, vengeful and dishonest.

We hope one day we will turn our backs on this most ugly chapter and realise that if we are to live in the world and are to be regarded as a decent nation, decent people, we have to act up to different standards than the one that we have been following in the last nine or 10 months of Rupiah’s government.

Again, and as we have stated before, Rupiah and his minions should know that this country will not be a good place for them, or any of us, to live unless it’s a good place for all of us to live in. Lies about this and that will not help Rupiah. There is no mitigation for the violence that Rupiah and his thugs are meting out against our journalists. It is foolish for anyone to claim or insinuate that our journalists are being used to fight personal battles. Personal battles for who and against who? If Rupiah wants to know how we operate, let him come and see how our reporters are every day assigned to various assignments. We don’t operate in his world of narrow and cheap plotting every day where his only discernible preoccupation is to one day catch us wrong-footed, doing wrong things. We have a decent group of young men and women performing their duties as journalists with sufficient honour and integrity and they will never accept to be used in the manner Rupiah is using people. The Post doesn’t use hired mercenaries like Rupiah does. Here no one is rewarded for doing wrong things because in the first place, they will refuse to do wrong things. Whatever is done here is discussed thoroughly. Even the editor-in-chief at The Post is assigned what to do, what to write a comment on. Who has time to waste on personal battles with useless people? We have been doing this job for 18 years and Rupiah is the fourth President we are dealing with. What was personal in our criticism of Dr Kenneth Kaunda? What was personal in our exposure and criticism of Chiluba’s corruption and intolerance? What was personal in the way we went for Levy Mwanawasa when he got things wrong or did wrong things? What was personal in our strong denunciation of Levy over the Kashiwa Bulaya nolle prosequi? What is personal in us denouncing Rupiah’s tribalism and regionalism as exhibited in his campaign last year? What is wrong with us exposing and denouncing Rupiah’s electoral corruption and abuse of public resources? Rupiah should not hide his heinous deeds behind so-called personal battles because they are not there. What is there is wrongdoing on his part and that is what needs to be corrected. And it is not only us who are seeing that. Those who campaigned with him and for him last year are today complaining and are denouncing his practices, his ways of doing things. What is personal about that?

And moreover, no institution should expect to be free from the scrutiny of those who give it their loyalty and support, not to mention those who don’t. We say this because this sort of criticism, scrutiny can also act, and it should do so, as an effective engine for change of behaviour.

What Edith has said cannot be denied – Rupiah has set himself on a path of self-destruction which will also have devastating consequences on the nation. Let’s heed this warning from Edith and do something about it before we are destroyed as a nation. The choice is ours.

Labels: EDITH NAWAKWI, RUPIAH BANDA, SAKWIBA SIKOTA

posted by MrK @ 2:57 PM