Maravi

Judgment day is near

Judgment day is near
Written by Editor

WE have stated before that of all possible negative human attitudes, the one we hate most is disloyalty. Loyalty and firmness of principles are among the ones we value most. And we would say that the one we detest the most is betrayal of principles, and the one we most admire is loyalty to principles.

The Post, and the Press Freedom Committee of The Post of which Chansa Kabwela is chairperson, in addition to being our newspaper's news editor, has contributed greatly over the last 18 years to women organisations’ campaigns. Who in NGOCC can today deny The Post's selfless contribution to the realisation of the objectives and programmes of the women's organisation? And who in Women for Change can today deny The Post's contribution to the building and strengthening and to the popularising of this NGO's programmes and objectives?

And how does The Post commitment and contribution to these organisations and their programmes compare with that of Rupiah Banda?

Despite our efforts, our great contribution to these organisations, not even one day did we ask them to do anything for us, to defend us or extend any favour to us. We have never even asked them to take a certain political position or not to support this or that political cause, political party or politician. We have always known that there are elements within NGOCC and Women for Change that have been working to deliver these organisations to Rupiah, to make them campaign for him and support him in all sorts of ways. We have never questioned them or denounced them for doing so.

We respect people’s choices. But let them do whatever they are doing with Rupiah without trying to antagonise us because if they do - as they have done - we deserve the right to defend ourselves. We have always said when it comes to dealings with us, everyone should do what suits them and their immediate interests. We know some of them have a lot of problems and they need to be on good terms with those in power to survive. We don't have such problems.

We don't want anybody to have any difficulties on our account and moreover Rupiah has run out of ways to revenge against us, to make us suffer, to make things more difficult for us. We have always felt this is the best way to show our respect for our comrades and show our newspaper's sincere and selfless policy.

It won't do us any harm not to be supported by NGOCC or Women for Change. But it is totally unacceptable for them to be so treacherous and to allow these organisations that have been built by the efforts of so many good people to be hijacked by treacherous, opportunistic and selfish elements who want to use them to get some favours from Rupiah.

The NGOCC of today has lost it. It is not the NGOCC of Inonge Wina, Petronela Chisanga, Lucy Muyoyeta and other selfless and progressive women activists and leaders. These wise, selfless women took NGOCC to very high heights but the opportunists of today have brought it down.

We know that it's just a small band of opportunistic elements who are trying to deliver NGOCC and Women for Change to Rupiah. But why should we allow them to do so as if these organisations belong to them, as if other people have not made a contribution to the building and strengthening of these organisations? There is need to expose and isolate these opportunistic elements. We have spoken to many members of NGOCC, they are not happy with what is going on.

But we have asked them - why have they been quiet if they are not happy? Why have they allowed these elements to misrepresent them without challenging them? It will be interesting to see how the progressive elements within NGOCC and Women for Change will deal with the opportunists that are trying to hijack these organisations and use them to serve personal ends, leverage them to get favours from Rupiah.

And these elements can have the audacity to question our respect for women. Who has done more than The Post in this country over the last 18 years to promote and honour the contribution of our women? Isn't it Chansa's Press Freedom Committee that every year honours the contributions of our women? They shouldn't forget that this is the heroic Lucy Sichone's newspaper. Why did The Post win Lucy's respect? We leave it to them to answer.

We know what is behind this determination to stain the clean history of The Post, which has set an unprecedented example in terms of advancing the dignity of women, if not their aim of slandering our newspaper and its editors, undermining its moral authority and destroying it.

These people know very well that all these charges of pornography against us are a lie, a falsehood because they know what our norms are. Anyway we are used to their baseness. How can they survive if not with lies? How can they explain their treachery, their failure to deliver to women the basic things they need, if not with lies and calumny, trying to discredit those who challenge them and expose their inadequacies?

We are sure that the masses of our people will obey their instincts and not be swayed by the volume and intensity of that campaign Rupiah and his treacherous women are waging against The Post.

Meanwhile, we are not going to be demoralised or discouraged by this kind of campaign; we are not going to change. We are going to keep on applying the same policy and maintain our norms. What is important to us is having a clear conscience and the support of public opinion in our country.

We know that the heart of this confrontation is our determination to reiterate our editorial independence and to demand respect for our rights and the rights of the people. All this is now under attack by desperate opportunists who are bound to fail.

For us, it is a strict duty of justice and truth not to allow fundamental services to remain unprovided. How can we allow women to give birth in the open, at bus stations, on the street and yet claim to be very respectful to those women? And after that be courageous enough to accuse those who are trying to bring the plight of these women to the attention of their leaders - political, civic, religious and otherwise - of circulating pornography. Human life is a precious gift from God the source of all life. Every person, whether rich or poor, has an equal right to receive health care.

It is not hatred alone which is contrary to the laws of charity but also indifference to the suffering, to the welfare of our neighbour, our fellow citizen.

Rupiah and his treacherous women cannot call others to virtues which they themselves do not make an effort to practice. As we have stated before, one cannot claim to uphold the sanctity of life if they don't care about where and how a mother gives birth and about a mother and her child dying in childbirth. But it seems for these hypocrites the body of a woman is more important than her life and that of her baby.

This is probably why Edith Nawakwi is saying "we must look at Zambian women who are being treated like they have no brains". It is therefore important for the women's movement to decide whether to go with these treacherous women or to repudiate them and their deeds full of vanity. The choice is theirs and the judgment day is near.

Labels: CHANSA KABWELA, COURTS, EDITH NAWAKWI, NGOCC, PFC, THE POST, WFC

posted by MrK @ 3:31 PM