Let’s defend the rights of Chiluba’s supporters

Let’s defend the rights of Chiluba’s supporters
Written by Editor

The protest at the British High Commission in Lusaka by Richard Sakala’s brother, Edwin and his friends, Charles Kafumbo and Langton Sichone, deserved to be protected.And it was good that this protest was not stopped by the police or anyone else for that matter. We certainly do not share their views on the issues they were protesting about; we hold totally opposite views.

But we strongly believe that Edwin and his friends have every right to express themselves on any issue in this world and also have that right to come together and protest, demonstrate whenever they feel they need to do so. And this right we will always defend not only for Edwin and his friends but for all citizens of this country, and indeed for all human beings.

And it is important that we learn to defend issues of principle regardless of how much we detest those behind them. It is said that whoever is incapable of fighting for others will never be capable of fighting for himself. We have a collective duty to defend the rights of every citizen of this country. And by fulfilling that duty, we are not doing a favour to anyone but simply fulfilling a duty. And this is why we have always thought that if a man cannot sacrifice himself for others, he is incapable of sacrificing himself for anything; a person that cannot sacrifice himself or herself for others is incapable of sacrificing himself or herself for his or her own sake; a person that is not willing to fight for the rights of others will never be ready to fight for his or her own rights when they are threatened or violated.

And there is need to make it very clear that by defending the rights of Edwin and his friends, the rights of people whose views and positions we detest, does not mean in any way that we are sympathetic to their views. We are not. What we are sympathetic to is their right to hold the views they hold and to be able to come together and express them without any obstruction or hindrance from anyone. What matters to us is not the correctness of the position taken or the views being expressed but the right to hold those views and express them, whether they are palatable or unpalatable. All these rights would be a farce if they were merely confined to pleasant things, to correct positions or acceptable ideas of the general public or those in power. The freedom we are championing is one that protects unpopular and even incorrect positions. These are human rights, these are constitutional rights which do not have to be earned by taking what may be seen to be correct positions or acceptable views. And this is why we hold that the greatest right in the world is the right to be wrong, that in the exercise thereof, people have an inviolable right to express their unbridled thoughts on all topics and personalities, being liable only for the abuse of that right. Of course, we all know that the right to express oneself does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.

We all know that Richard Sakala, the brother of Edwin, was Frederick Chiluba’s press aide for 10 years and was involved in all sorts of corrupt activities that made him serve a jail sentence. So here is a case of a brother of a corrupt element coming to the service of his brother’s former boss. Anyway this point doesn’t need to be belaboured – they are simply defending their benefactors.

What worries us most is that when it comes to people who are supporting views held by those in power, the police is very accommodating. Edwin and his friends were allowed to go and demonstrate at the British High Commission because they support Rupiah Banda’s position, they are in tandem with the government policy on this score. By contrast, look at how this same police has criminalised the activities of civil society organisations that are protesting the corrupt manner in which Chiluba’s case of corruption has been handled or is being handled! People are being arrested for honking, an act that Zambians perform freely so often or so repeatedly every weekend when there is a wedding, matebeto, soccer matches and all sorts of things. Today simply because this honking is against a position government has taken, then it’s criminal. This is a criminal abuse of the powers of the police. There is a political issue here that has arisen from the corrupt manner in which Chiluba’s acquittal and withdrawal of the appeal against that judgment has been handled. There is no issue of a criminal nature here that needs policing. The police should allow the opposing political forces to slug it out politically and let those with a fair, just and humane cause carry the day. But what we see is an abuse of the police in defence of the criminal manner in which Rupiah and his friends have handled the Chiluba issue. The police, in this case, is being used to defend crime and not to fight crime. Protests in support of Chiluba are being tolerated, are not being hindered by the police in any way. But the same is not being done for those seeking justice against the abuse of our judicial process to let Chiluba go scot-free.

The issue of peace and order is neither here nor there in this matter. We say this because peace is the fruit of that right ordering of things with which the divine founder has invested human society and which must be actualised by people thirsting after an ever more perfect reign of justice. And if peace is to be established, the primary requisite is to eradicate the cause of dissention, the cause of all this honking and whistling.

It is important to maintain and strengthen democratic structures if we are to enjoy a peaceful and developing future. Arbitrariness and repressive measures have never guaranteed anyone peace or order. The pursuit of justice must be a fundamental norm of all our state institutions, of our police. This is why we have always said that our politics need people with credibility because their presence in the political arena can bring good, authentic values to the political process. The participation of our people in political life should be guided by noble values of respect for human dignity, human rights, common good, social justice, solidarity, integral development, social concern for the poor and non-violence in resolving conflicts.

It is because of a lack of such values in our political leadership that today we see an entire government spending disproportionate time and resources defending a thief, a lazo like Chiluba – all institutions of the state (the presidency, the Ministry of Justice, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the police and even our courts of law) are today defending Chiluba. How can this be possible in a country with values and standards, a country with special concern for the poor, for a thief who has stolen from the poor to be so well defended by the institutions of the poor and the resources of the poor?

Those who respect human rights realise that the roots of all human rights are to be found in the dignity that belongs to each human being. And the rights of all individuals and organisations and their practical implementation must be acknowledged, protected and fostered, together with the public duties binding all citizens.

The measures that the police are taking against those who are protesting Chiluba’s acquittal and the withdrawal by the government of an appeal against that acquittal will not bring peace and order in this country. We say this because such measures cannot give any society peace. Peace is the fruit of honesty, truth and solidarity and not the abuse of the repressive capacity of the police, manipulation of the judicial process to let corrupt friends go scot-free. Peace is the tranquility of order and not the abuse or manipulation of state institutions. And to guarantee peace and order, all are called to maturity, tolerance and responsibility.

What the police is doing, it’s double standards, amounts to corruption. And in serious societies, those responsible for all this would have to answer for it in the future.

And to us, the way the police and the government in general are behaving over the decision by civil society to honk and whistle over Chiluba’s questionable acquittal, in some way, shows that the government is conceding powerful mass support against what they have done.

Clearly, what all this shows us is that how the forces of democratic governance and a civil society interact is the challenge we face and have to work through as a continuing and dynamic process as we try to improve the governance of our country. There is an old saying that freedom and order are constantly in tension with one another in society. Order without freedom leads to totalitarianism. Freedom without order leads to anarchy. It is also said that societies recover more quickly and more healthily from too much freedom than they do from totalitarianism.

If all this sounds too abstract, let us then put it in simpler terms. We would hope that our police develops a greater professional integrity and responsibility and refuse to be abused in the political schemes of those in power. We would like to see the police being honest guardians of democracy and freedom in this country and respect, above all else, its own integrity as a social institution.