Maravi

Another lie from Rupiah

Another lie from Rupiah
Written by Editor

Is Rupiah Banda lying when he says he never extended the mandate of the National Constitutional Conference for another 10 months from the expiry of its mandate? We ask this question because on Monday, Rupiah told the nation that he had never approved the extension of the NCC’s mandate by 10 months. And he said the NCC remained with only four months to conclude its work on the new constitution.

What are we to believe? Statutory Instrument number 52 of 2009 dated 13th August, 2009 apparently approved by Rupiah himself provided in Section 3 that “the duration of the conference is hereby extended for a further period of 10 months from the date of expiry of the period specified in Section 22 of the Act: provided that the period of 10 months shall not include public holidays and the time during which the National Assembly is sitting.” This Statutory Instrument is produced under what appears to be a Ministry of Justice reference. It is under a reference of, MOJ/SI/86/316.

When Rupiah told the nation about his four months, George Kunda was in the background nodding furiously, as though his head was about to fall off. The question is: why is Rupiah telling such a blatant lie? Who is pulling his strings? Could George’s furious nodding hold some explanations for what has gone wrong?

We say this because George has been known to mislead his bosses and never having the courage to admit that he has lied or misled them. More often than not, his bosses are left to bear the brunt of public criticism. We saw this with Levy Mwanawasa. Everybody knew that George was pulling the strings on a number of important issues. But he always let his boss be brutalised for mistakes that were squarely his.

Anyone who followed what happened in the Kashiwa Bulaya case knows that George was responsible for that criminal and rotten conspiracy to rob the Zambian people of justice. With his usual malice and brazen disregard for the interests of anybody other than himself, George was prepared to sacrifice his boss Levy and his professional colleagues Chalwe Mchenga and Sunday Nkonde. This is his style. George seems prepared to start huge problems but never takes a frontline position to face the temerity of his own decisions and actions. This is George.

Many people will agree with us that most of the controversy that preceded the commencement of the work of the NCC was due to George’s behaviour in the run-up to the same. George’s hegemonistic tendencies and snake-like behaviour made it very difficult for his boss Levy to reach any compromise or meaningful consensus with other people on this issue. In our view, George should be credited with responsibility for the actions of the Levy government that made it impossible for large sections of our civil society and the church to participate in the NCC. George knows no compromise; everything has to go his way. And George doesn’t know how to work with equals. He can only have one boss to whom he is a manipulative minion. And if he could manipulate Levy who was far much senior to him at the bar on legal issues, what more this tired old man who knows very little, if not nothing, about law?

It seems to us that George is responsible for the embarrassing position that Rupiah finds himself in. We can never be apologists for Rupiah. We know he has no problems misleading the nation when it suits him. After all he has lied before on a national platform. But the point is, Rupiah was with his Minister of Justice when he misled the nation, or to put it bluntly, lied to the nation that he had never approved a 10-month extension of the mandate of the NCC. Instead of remaining neutral or helping his boss somehow to quickly correct his wrong position, all George could do was nod furiously in agreement.

This is what happens when a president or a person in authority surrounds himself with minions. We have told Rupiah before that the kind of people he seems to favour are of no use to him. These are the types of people who will tell the emperor that his new clothes are good when he is actually naked. Nelson Mandela put it another way: “It is important to surround yourself [as a leader] with strong and independent personalities, who will tell you when you are getting old.”

In saying what we are saying, we have no sympathy for Rupiah. This is because the problems that he may be facing are ones that he has called upon himself. The minions that surround him give him the diet that they know he appreciates. It does not appear that Rupiah is prepared to accept the truth. This is the man who has decided that since moving to plot one, he has become infallible. With such an attitude, it is only a matter of time before such a person begins to embarrass themselves with lies they should never be telling if they had honest people to guide them.

It was only last week that Rupiah’s handlers announced that he was going to some Kulamba traditional ceremony with his wife, Thandiwe. Even when they were announcing this, they knew or ought to have known that Thandiwe was heading for some inexplicable safari in Malindi, Kenya. Why tell such lies? And no one has even bothered to apologise for deliberately misleading the public. Or was it a mistake and Thandiwe was mistaken for someone else?

When leaders begin to condone lies, then everybody should know that things are not well. They are always trying to hide something; they are not always truthful – they are liars. Why hide Thandiwe’s holiday? Who paid for it? Why did they pay for it? These are questions that people start asking when lies are being told to them.

The same questions can be asked about the NCC: why is Rupiah lying? What is he trying to hide? Who is benefitting from this lie? Indeed why was George nodding so furiously in agreement with something that he knew to be a lie?

The exemplary role of a president is of vital importance. The president should set an example in being honest. We say this because leaders are like seeds and the people are like soil. Wherever leaders go, they must tell the truth to the people, be believed, take root and blossom among them. Leaders should always tell the truth and face the world and brave the storm. Leaders should set an example in being far-sighted. We say this because if they are far-sighted, they will not tell lies because they will know that lies have short legs, don’t live long. Leaders must always go into the whys and wherefores of anything, use their own heads and carefully think over, whether or not it corresponds to reality and is really well-founded; on no account should they follow blindly or tell lies. Leaders must be ready at all times to stand for the truth because the truth is in the interest of people; they must be ready at all times to correct their mistakes, because mistakes are against the interest of the people. They must understand that the supreme test of the words and deeds of a leader is whether they conform to the highest interests of the overwhelming majority of the people.

But it seems to us that Rupiah is guided by only one wish: to retain power, and everything that stands in the way of this must be destroyed by any means. In pursuit of this, Rupiah is ready to lie and do so repeatedly without shame. This is not a recipe for governing well. You cannot run a government forever on lies, deceit, manipulation and calumny. It is said that if you try to be honest, you can be, and it will improve your character as handsome clothing improves your appearance. The habit of honesty comes to those who try to be honest.

Labels: NCC, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 3:54 PM