Maravi

Impudent Mulongoti’s reckless talk

Impudent Mulongoti’s reckless talk
Written by Editor

It is said that those whom the gods want to destroy, first they drive mad. There is something seriously wrong with Mike Mulongoti. There is something wrong with a person who spews the kind of rubbish Mulongoti was saying in Kasama without showing any signs of embarrassment in his speech. Transparency is a good thing in governance.

It is important for our people to know what their government is doing in their name. But shameless transparency, and a braggadocio approach, as George Mpombo would put it, to issues about which people should be ashamed, is what is called impudence with impunity.

Impudence is behaviour that shows a lack of respect for other people and a shameless boldness. This is what Mulongoti is doing - showing a shamelessness that badgers belief.

When Frederick Chiluba was acquitted we said his acquittal was wrong and looked like a political fix. We said then that the reasons would be known. It may take a day or two, a year or two or five, but the truth will be known.

We said this because on the day that Chiluba was acquitted, Rupiah Banda gave a speech in Kabwe, long before the reading of the 445 paged judgment was finished by Jones Chinyama, which showed that Rupiah knew the outcome before the case was concluded. There was also the behaviour of Jones Chinyama that has never been explained. He was supposed to give his judgment on Friday 14th August but did not. What is worse is that Chinyama never gave any reason for moving the judgment from Friday to Monday. In such a high- profile case Chinyama’s conduct raised more questions than it answered. We have no reason to doubt the integrity of the court.

But the little law that we have learnt has told us that when courts are dispensing justice, “justice must not only be done; it must be seen to be done.” To us this means that the court must not do anything that will allow the public to begin to question the fairness and even-handedness of the decisions that it makes. Jones Chinyama adjourned this matter in chambers in the absence of the state prosecutors. When the matter continued on Monday 17th Chinyama never explained his adjournment on Friday. He also did not explain why he saw Chiluba’s lawyers in the absence of the state prosecutors and decided to adjourn the matter to Monday.

These issues could be ignored if impudent people like Mulongoti did not raise the kinds of questions that their statements are raising. For anyone who has been following Chiluba’s acquittal closely Mulongoti’s talk although impudent throws a lot of light on this matter. It is because of the impunity with which Rupiah and his friends deal with other people that Mulongoti is able to make the kinds of statements he is making.

Even before anyone had a copy of the judgment and therefore able to study it Rupiah was thanking our people for accepting the acquittal of Chiluba. Which people accepted the acquittal of Chiluba? It is only people who seem to have had a prior knowledge of the decision like Rupiah who could accept the decision so quickly. This conduct rather than helping our people to accept the decision of the court made it clear that there was something wrong with the way the Chiluba case was concluded.

Impudent Mulongoti has done our people a favour. In his folly he has laid the matter very bare indeed. We all now know that Chiluba’s acquittal is a political scam. Mulongoti has said that even our courts are sensitive to the political situation in our country. According to him the courts cannot say to everyone ‘go to jail’. There is forgiveness and reconciliation. What is the meaning of this? What is Mulongoti telling us?

Mulongoti as a senior government minister and a close confidant of Rupiah who is now playing a successor role to the one the late Benny Tetamashimba used to play, knows what he is talking about. He is telling us that this case was not decided on the basis of the law and the evidence that was before the court. It was decided according to what was politically expedient – according to what the politicians wanted. Mulongoti’s ranting raises a lot of issues.

Mulongoti also says that: “At the end of the day there are two sides to the case, the legal side and the political side.”

Very serious issues have been raised on the judiciary by Mulongoti’s comments. A senior government minister has told the nation that our courts answer to political dictates. Where does this leave our courts? Mulongoti has been as clear as any politician can be in telling us that the independence of the judiciary is under attack. The politicians expect the courts to be sensitive to the politics of the day.

And accordingly the acquittal of Chiluba demonstrates the political sensitivity of our courts. With this kind of thinking in government, it is understandable why Rupiah and his minions are doing everything possible to ensure that the Chiluba judgment is not appealed. They have got their politically expedient judgment they do not want to risk having the matter go to a judge who may decide differently from what they want.

Rupiah and his minions tried to make all of us believe that they accept the rule of law. But their actions and now even their words are making it clear that they do not respect the rule of law. According to Mulongoti, even if Chiluba was jailed he could not have been locked up in Mukobeko prison. A special jail would have had to have been created. This demonstrates that for Mulongoti and the government, there are special prisoners and ordinary prisoners. Crime is only crime when lowly people commit it. People like Chiluba deserve special treatment.

Mulongoti was in government, under Chiluba when Dr Kaunda was locked up on tramped up charges by Chiluba. Where was Dr Kaunda incarcerated? It was at Mukobeko prison after having been held at Kamwala remand. This is what Chiluba did and the records are there. But today Mulongoti and his paymaster Rupiah have decided that because they think Chiluba is going to improve their political fortunes, they have to treat him differently. This has nothing to do with respecting the office of president. It has everything to do with dirty political deal making and political calculus gone wrong.

Today Mulongoti can tell us that the court heard about Chiluba having his money in a government account. According to him: “If we jail this person who has money in the same account as government what will be the implications? That is the argument the magistrate had which sounded very logical.” This is the kind of nonsense a government minister has no shame to tell the nation. How can a person keep all that money in a government account? Why a government account? Unless Mulongoti is telling us that he is doing similar deals at Ministry of Works and Supply, such talk is nonsense. Mulongoti was bragging a few weeks ago that he is a lawyer. What kind of lawyer is he?

We all know that deep down, Mulongoti does not believe the nonsense he is mouthing. He is engaged in the politics of benefits. Mulongoti has sold his soul to the highest bidder and for now this happens to be Rupiah. As long as what he is doing keeps him in good books with Rupiah he will do anything to keep things that way. We know that Mulongoti is a nominated member of parliament. He does not have a constituency. Mulongoti owes his job to Rupiah. We are not surprised therefore that Mulongoti is eager to show his boss how good he is by talking nonsense.

These are the kind of leaders our nation has today. They don’t have any loyalty to the people. Their loyalty is to their jobs and their stomachs. We say this because there is no way that a normal person can speak such nonsense and sleep at night. This is what happens when a government is reduced to serving one man - Rupiah -instead of serving the 12 million Zambians. This is also why we call the people that surround Rupiah minions. It is not to insult them; it is merely to describe what they do.

A minion as we have said before is an unimportant person in an organisation who has to obey orders without raising questions. This is the way that people like Mulongoti are behaving. They know the truth about what Chiluba has done to this country. They know it better than the average Zambian and yet with a straight face they can stand up and say this acquittal was right. They have no problem saying things which they do not believe as long as they please their boss.

Rupiah must know that there is a limit to which you can take people for granted. Many leaders have tried what he is trying and thought they had gotten away and ended up paying dearly. The same minions that are today worshipping him will be the first to throw political stones at him when they feel he is of no use to them. Mulongoti told the nation that he was Levy Mwanawasa’s right hand man. Look what is happening today. This is why it is always good to stand on principles. It does not matter who is with you or against you, you simply stand on what is right and draw satisfaction from doing the right thing. Mulongoti is an embarrassment.

Trying to justify their friendship with Chiluba with the nonsense they are speaking is not helping them. Shutting up might be better for them. They may have shoved Chiluba down our throats but shoving their hands down our throats will just cause us to vomit Chiluba together with them. This behaviour with Chiluba will cause our patient people to vomit Rupiah at the right time.

Labels: GEORGE MPOMBO, MIKE MULONGOTI

posted by MrK @ 3:59 PM