Maravi

Rupiah’s true colours

Rupiah’s true colours
Written by Editor

We are not surprised that Rupiah Banda is today defending Frederick Chiluba’s wrongs. There is nothing uncharacteristic about Rupiah’s behaviour on this matter. Rupiah is corrupt and therefore uncomfortable with fighting corruption. This is why Rupiah is defending Chiluba.

It is also not surprising that after being President for only nine months, Rupiah has lost touch with the people. Rupiah does not know what is important to them; he does not understand what they care about. This is why Rupiah can go to Luapula today and try to use Chiluba to gain political points.

There is almost no vice that could afflict a politician that Rupiah is not suffering from. You just need to name it. A good politician, a principled politician will always try to steer away from divisive politics. A politician with morals who is there to serve the interests of the people will respect their values and their aspirations. In fact, such a politician will work hard to improve and increase the aspirations of the people. But this is not the kind of politician that Rupiah is.

Rupiah is corrupt, is divisive, his consciousness is that of nepotism, tribalism and regionalism. Rupiah simply thinks because Chiluba comes from Luapula, then the people of this province will always support him, come what may. Even when he has done wrong things they will defend those wrongs. No. The people of Luapula don’t see things the way Rupiah sees them. They are not tribalistic. And they clearly demonstrated this last year when Chiluba went there with billions in his pocket or car boot to try and campaign for Rupiah. They chased him like a dog and embraced Michael Sata who doesn’t hail from there. This might have been difficult for Rupiah to understand. The people of Luapula are decent people; they are not thieves, they have not stolen from anyone. What Chiluba and his friends were stealing in Lusaka was not shared with them. The people of Luapula were not party to Chiluba’s wrongdoing, to his corruption. And because of this, they have no problems repudiating him. Their support for Chiluba and the MMD in the previous years was not based on tribalism. It was based on something else. They supported Chiluba for the same reasons the rest of the country supported him and the MMD. But for this narrow tribalist, this may seem very difficult to understand or appreciate because to him, everything starts and ends with nepotism, tribalism, regionalism and indeed corruption.

It is clear that Rupiah is worried about the things that he and his government are doing. It seems even he knows that some of the things are not entirely straight. This may be the reason why Rupiah wants to condone Chiluba’s crimes so that he can prepare a safe landing for himself.

Only yesterday, Rupiah announced that his government is going to sell 75 per cent of Zamtel, a transaction which has been embroiled in a lot of controversy. Rupiah has never denied that his son, Henry, was behind the coming of RP Capital Partners who Dora Siliya engaged to value Zamtel for a ridiculous fee of at least US $2 million against laid down tender procedures. There are still questions about the involvement of Rupiah’s family in the privatisation of Zamtel. What about the Food Reserve Agency transactions, to name but a few?

It seems Rupiah is so committed to doing wrong things that he finds it difficult to admit that Chiluba did wrong things. This is why today, he can defend Chiluba despite his government claiming to fight corruption. And all this is being done when his government has in its hands a London High Court judgment which his government has been trying to register in this country so that it can be executed against Chiluba. This matter is today before the Supreme Court. And one can probably understand why Chief Justice Ernest Sakala and Justice Peter Chitengi are under heavy attack by Chiluba’s co-conspirators.

It is only the other day that we said the people of Zambia know Rupiah’s true stance on fighting corruption; it is no stance at all. Rupiah has no intention to fight corruption. We know he will try to appear to be fighting corruption so as to please the donors. But his words and actions will reveal his true intentions.

And this old man is the worst liar we have ever seen in such a high position. Sometimes he even forgets what he has said and done. Today, Rupiah is saying the business of trying people on the radio, on the television, in the newspapers and rallies must stop because we are going to wreck this country. What is he talking about? Who has been trying people at rallies, on radio, television, newspapers and even State House press conferences? Isn’t it this same Rupiah? Has Rupiah forgotten that he has on numerous occasions tried us, found us guilty and sentenced us from State House press conferences? Has Rupiah forgotten that he has held rallies at State House to try and convict us? Just the other day, he told the nation that one day he will catch us. These were his words, not ours. This was after he tried and convicted us of pornography and called us all sorts of names – sick people, morbid, queer and so on and so forth. Not very long ago at similar State House rallies, this same dishonest old man, this same queer and morbid old man accused us of having pocketed US $30 million from state institutions and that we owned and we are building mansions, we were driving strange cars and owned aeroplanes as a result of stealing that money. He vowed to recover this money from us. This was Rupiah trying us at a rally, on radio, on television and in newspapers. This is Rupiah as a head of state fighting individuals. What is he today talking about?

We have always said that Rupiah is a danger to this country. He does not mean well. We say this because he does not seem to care about things that should be important to a man in his position. In less than a month from today, our courts will have to pass their judgment on Chiluba and yet Rupiah has no problems commenting on how Chiluba should be treated as he continues to pretend to fight corruption. Rupiah says Chiluba is a human being who deserves our respect. This is correct. We have no quarrel with it. But is Chiluba the only human being in this country? How many of our people are in prison today and how much care has Rupiah shown towards them? Who doesn’t know how bad our prison conditions are? Who doesn’t know that the conditions in which our prisoners are living are far below what any human should be expected to live in? What is special about Chiluba? Where in our laws does it say if someone is a former president, then equality before the law does not apply because they are above the law? There is nowhere in the laws of this country where it says a convicted former president should be treated differently from a fellow citizen who has never been president. What law is Rupiah applying in the case of Chiluba that does not apply to other citizens? What type of rule of law is this? This is what corruption does to the minds of people. It blinds them from the truth.

Anyway, in an unfortunate twist, Rupiah is doing something useful. He is allowing people to see him for who he truly is. We don’t have to spend too much time showing our people how corrupt their government is under Rupiah’s presidency.

There is almost nothing Rupiah will not do to gain cheap political points. This is why only the other weekend, he was patronising our brothers and sisters in the Southern Province trying to flatter them on tribal lines. He has done the same in the North Western Province. And now he has moved his show to Luapula. But let him not cheat himself. Our people are not foolish as he thinks. This business of underrating our people will soon prove very costly to him. Rupiah thinks that by going to Luapula to talk good about, and defend, Chiluba, he will buy the support of the people of this province against Sata. This is cheap. Things don’t work this way. The people of Luapula may be poor but they know what is good for them. And they have more sense of dignity than Rupiah thinks. Rupiah may be able to manipulate the courts and get favourable judgments for Chiluba, but he will not be able to deceive the people of Luapula with cheap tribal and regional politics and rhetoric to win their political support. Let him go ahead and do whatever he wants for Chiluba, but he shouldn’t cheat himself that he can fool the people of Luapula and indeed the whole nation about who Chiluba is. To Rupiah, Chiluba was a damn good president. To the people of Zambia, he is a reckless and corrupt man who plundered public coffers, who abused US $1 million of public funds to buy himself designer shoes, pyjamas, shirts and suits. How can such a reckless and corrupt fellow with no regard for public resources be a damn good president? The Zambian people know the extent of Chiluba’s intolerance. This is the man who arrested and locked up Dr Kenneth Kaunda on Christmas Day on trumped-up treason charges. This is the same man who vindictively and without any good reason ordered the arrest of Dean Mung’omba, Nakatindi Wina, Rajan Mahtani on purely trumped-up treason charges just to fix them, to show them where power lay. But to Rupiah, he is a damn good president. This simply goes to show what type of judgement Rupiah has and what his true character really is.

And for Rupiah to be commenting on Chiluba’s cases at this time simply shows how far the man can go to put pressure on our courts to secure a judgment that is favourable to Chiluba. Rupiah is simply telling our courts that whatever they do or decide, it will have little consequences on Chiluba because he will treat him differently; he will treat him as if he has not been convicted. And actually, this is the way Rupiah is treating Chiluba’s wife, Regina. Chiluba’s wife is being treated as if she is not a convicted criminal. That conviction has changed nothing for Regina. And Rupiah is telling the Zambian people this is the same way Chiluba will be treated.

We have warned before that by the time Rupiah leaves State House, very few of our state institutions will remain with some credibility. Already Rupiah’s politics are seriously denting the standing and credibility of our judiciary. The police has become Rupiah’s hunting dogs for his enemies. The credibility of the Anti Corruption Commission and the Drug Enforcement Commission is also being eroded by Rupiah very quickly because of the increasing frequency of his use of these institutions to deal with his enemies. These are the realities we have to face under Rupiah’s government. This is who Rupiah is and he can’t be anything else.

Labels: CHILUBA, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 3:55 AM