Maravi

Rupiah’s unbridled tyranny, intolerance, ruthlessness

Rupiah’s unbridled tyranny, intolerance, ruthlessness
Written by Editor

Standing up for the right things, for justice and fighting against wrongdoings is not an easy thing. Those who take this path should be prepared to meet hardships, to be inconvenienced, to be victimised. There has to be a willingness to make sacrifices for a loftier purpose. It is clear that Zambians are up against an intolerant, vengeful, ruthless, corrupt regime of Rupiah Banda.

However, if we have to make progress, we must follow the dictates of our conscience irrespective of the consequences which might overtake us for it. It seems there is no easy walk to justice. Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can we bring justice to our country.

After almost 18 years of a multi-party and political plural system, many would have expected our levels of political tolerance to be much higher. But it seems to be the usual case of after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

There are many reasons for one to think they could be more comfortable and live at peace if they did nothing that offends Rupiah and his friends. We don’t think there can be true peace in such an approach to life because true peace and personal security can only be found in a community where each individual lives in a manner or in a way that respects and enhances the lives of others.

We have no alternative, all of us as a people, but to resist and challenge Rupiah’s arrogance, intolerance, abuse of power and indeed corruption. If a person fights back, he or she is likely to get more respect than he or she would if she capitulated.

Rupiah’s behaviour over Tamala Kambikambi and Amos Chanda does not surprise us. This is how corrupt people behave. Where have you seen a corrupt person behave differently? To Rupiah, the fact that Tamala and Amos were doing a job connected to government meant that they had sold their souls, they had lost their right to side with justice. Corruption is giving something to someone expecting a favour in return. Rupiah and his friends gave jobs to Tamala and Amos and expected all sorts of favours from them; expected them to worship and glorify even their most heinous deeds.

It cannot be said that Rupiah and his friends did not know where Tamala was coming from. She is an activist, the chairperson of the Zambia National Women’s Lobby Group. Her calling is to champion and defend the rights of women. Whether or not a position she takes supports government should not determine how she behaves. Her constituency expects her to be honest. If government is right, she has every reason to say so. But when they are wrong, she equally has a duty to state her position truthfully and say they are wrong. But it is too much to expect an intolerant, ruthless, manipulative and corrupt government to respect the rights of Tamala to hold her own position. After all, as far as they are concerned, they have rewarded her; why should she hold a position contrary to what Rupiah wants?

It is clear that to work with Rupiah, one has to be a minion, an imbecile with no independent thought process. Any attempt to exercise independence of thought is crushed. We feel sorry for those who have to work with Rupiah daily. They are trapped. They can’t tell the emperor that he is naked or his jacket has been urinated on by a monkey unless he says so first himself.

To expect the Press Association of Zambia not to have a position on the case of Chansa Kabwela because its vice-president, Amos, works for African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is shortsighted at best and corrupt if looked at broadly. What Rupiah and his friends are saying is that they gave Amos a job at APRM, expecting that he would protect their narrow, selfish and corrupt interests at PAZA. This is unfortunate. This is what happens when people underrate others and they want to relate on the basis of patronage and eternal servitude.

Can it ever be fair to expect Amos to take a foolish stance on a professional matter just because he works at APRM? But this is how Rupiah operates. No wonder he thinks Frederick Chiluba was a damn good president. Who does not know how Chiluba used to operate and continues to operate? For Chiluba, no means was unjustifiable if it gave him the ability to control others. Journalists were a particular target of his. He tries to buy anyone that he could with jobs, cash and other favours. Weaklings gave in but many others defied him. This is the path that Rupiah is copying. Even his mode of campaigning is not different from what Chiluba used to do. There is no shame in parading pathetic individuals to support this or that cause in return for a few kwachas. Chiluba used to target chiefs and other influential members of our society to support some of his shameful programmes. Rupiah is no different.

What has happened to Tamala and Amos serves as a reminder that there are still some good people in our midst. People who will not sell their souls for a few pieces of silver. This also serves as a reminder that working with Rupiah is dependent on being prepared to do wrong things, take wrong stands and support criminal things. Those who are not ready to kowtow to his whims should expect to be kicked. But it is better to be kicked and retain one’s dignity, one’s soul than to support foolishness, corruption and injustice.

We hope that it is now clear to all our people that Rupiah does not mean well. He is in State House to serve his ego and nothing else. It should also be clear that Rupiah will stop at nothing to justify his wrongdoings. Any sensible person should by now realise that The Post did nothing wrong in relation to those pictures to be accused of pornography and all the other things that Rupiah said they had committed. We would be expecting too much to expect Rupiah to admit that The Post was right and he was wrong. This is okay; Rupiah does not have to admit defeat to us. We are not in a contest with him. We are simply doing our job in the best way we know. Rupiah should also do his job and not continue on the path that he is on right now. His anger at The Post, the hatred that he seems to carry is too dangerous. Anger is supposed to be a temporary feeling which one soon forgets, particularly if one is involved in positive activities and attitudes. It is not easy to remain bitter if one is busy with constructive things. At the rate Rupiah is going, he will commit some atrocities against us. His anger is not normal. When it comes to The Post, Rupiah doesn’t seem to think, to reason – he is led by senselessness. How many people is Rupiah going to injure just to try to fix The Post? What has Tamala done? What has Amos done? What is wrong with a position that Zambia National Women’s Lobby Group has taken on the issue of those pictures? What about PAZA? What is wrong with PAZA fighting for the freedom of the press? Isn’t this why they exist? It would have been immoral for Tamala and Amos to influence their organisations to keep quiet or act otherwise than they did while a ruthless and corrupt politician wants to criminalise noble journalistic activities.

Journalists do not exist to tell the public what they wish had happened. We are a mirror to society. We report what happens. We don’t manufacture news. The positions taken by Tamala and Amos and their respective organisations were not acts of charity arising out of their pity for Chansa and The Post, but an affirmation of their sense of justice, fairness and humaneness. They have come to accept that The Post reacted to facts that were before it. We did so in what we considered the best possible manner, given the gravity of the situation. To expect these people to condemn us just because Rupiah hates us is nonsense. These are not part of that type of people they always hire when they want to denounce someone. These are decent human beings with a sense of justice and honour in their hearts. These are people who are moved by the noble passions of love, friendship and human compassion. They are not those mercenaries they always hire to denounce us. If they want support on this issue, there are still many elements in our country who are hungry and are ready for hire. We have no doubt that when Tamala and Amos took the positions they took, they knew that they would be in trouble with Rupiah and his minions. But they chose to stand on what they believed to be right. They were prepared to sacrifice their own comfort to speak their minds. We salute them. We thank them for their courage.

We don’t know how our friends at NGOCC will deal with the case of Tamala. We say this because the Women’s Lobby Group of which Tamala is chairperson is an affiliate of NGOCC. And Tamala has been fired from her job for doing that which NGOCC has failed or has declined to do; to stand for what is right. Tamala and the Women’s Lobby Group supported that which NGOCC denounced. We hope those we spoke to in NGOCC will be honest enough to admit that we had warned them of things like these, of the consequences of the position they had taken. But like their friend Rupiah, they didn’t want to listen, they were not prepared to listen to anyone other than their inner demons. We hope sense will prevail and NGOCC will take a correct stand on this issue. This is a matter that should not go unchallenged. This is an act on which Rupiah should not be allowed to go scot-free with his usual impunity.

Anyway, this is what happens when values are lost, when principles are traded on the altar of political opportunism and expedience.

Labels: CADRES, MMD, RUPIAH BANDA, THE POST

posted by MrK @ 2:16 PM