Maravi

Betrayal of the dead

Betrayal of the dead
By Editor
Sat 26 Dec. 2009, 04:00 CAT

LOYALTY is an important virtue. "A loyal friend is like a safe shelter; find one, and you will have found a treasure. Nothing else is as valuable; there is no way of putting a price on it. A loyal friend is like a medicine that keeps you in good health. A loyal friend will treat you as he does himself" (Sirach 6:14-17).

And accordingly we are advised: "Don't betray a friend for money. Don't betray a real friend for all the gold in the world. Don't think up lies to tell about your friends. Don't tell lies at all. It never does any good" (Sirach 7:12-18).

For a person to be called principled, they must at one point or another in their life exercise loyalty.

Principledness demands commitment. It is not easy to live a life of dedication to principles. This is because it does not always appear beneficial. More often than not, a principled life demands sacrifice and self-denial of things that many others consider as rights.

This is why principled people are not in the majority. But even amongst the unprincipled, loyalty is a virtue that is expected. It is expected that friends will defend friends.

Betrayal is an appalling social vice which almost everybody frowns upon. But loyalty is not possible without love. We say this because love is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and fairness.

It is also not possible to have loyalty without truth. Again, we say this because charity in truth is the principal driving force behind the loyalty a person has towards another and indeed to all humanity.

To defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life are therefore exactly an indispensable forms of loyalty. Loyalty, in fact, "rejoices in truth" (1Cor 13:6).

One of the most repugnant human experiences to witness is betrayal of loyalty of any kind. A friend betraying a friend, a husband betraying a wife and vice versa, or a parent betraying a child. It is always a sad thing to witness.

But it happens so often, so repeatedly. One form of betrayal which could rank the worst is the betrayal of somebody who is not there to defend themselves - betrayal of the dead.

One of the common fallacies that many of us suffer from is the belief that when we are gone, our friends will do what they would have done if we were there. We expect them to act in the best interest of our friendship.

But time and again, experience has shown that some people will be loyal to you only when it is convenient to them, only when you are there to give them something in return. This is the loyalty of George Kunda.

No one can deny that George was one of, if not the closest confidants and lieutenants of late Levy Mwanawasa. Levy did not have an easy presidency. He did not seem to have many people that he could trust. He had worries about a lot of people, even people that he worked with closely.

But George was not one of those people. One would not be wrong to say that Levy felt completely comfortable with George and trusted him completely.
Levy's relationship with George was not without its problems.

George caused Levy a lot of problems and drove him into a lot of disastrous political errors. Levy received a lot of public criticism and was viciously harangued by many people including ourselves for mistakes that were caused by George. But up to the time of his death, Levy remained loyal to George and kept him as a close confidant.

With the passing of Levy, his record, his failures and achievements have naturally come into public scrutiny. If ever Levy would have expected somebody to defend him, George Kunda and not George Mpombo would have been the person he would have expected to defend him. Life being what it is, it is Mpombo and not Kunda defending Levy today.

Hardly a word in defence of Levy has escaped Kunda's mouth. Kunda seems even to have serious problems mentioning Levy's name in public. What a shame, what a pity!

What a Judas Iscariot! It is said that "anyone can claim to be your friend, but some people are friends in name only. The grief caused when a close friendship turns sour is as bad as death. Some people will be your friend as long as things are going well but they will turn against you when trouble comes." (Sirach 37:1-4).

If all Kunda did was failing to defend Levy, he might be forgiven. But attacking Levy and his record in defence of their criminal schemes with Chalwe Mchenga goes beyond any level of morality.

Recently, Kunda in trying to defend Mchenga resorted to attacking the removal of Mukelabai Mukelabai from the office of DPP. According to Kunda, Mukelabai was hounded out of the office. Kunda was saying this ostensibly to attack The Post. But in truth what Kunda was saying was that his former boss, Levy hounded Mukelabai out of the office.

We say this because it was Levy who demanded the setting up of a tribunal to investigate Mukelabai for incompetence and breach of the Constitution. The Post supported that position but was not in any way able to remove Mukelabai from office. It was only Levy who could demand the constitution of a tribunal. And this he did. As a consequence of it, Mukelabai had to go. Kunda was at that time Levy's right hand man.

How can he today attack Levy's actions? Could Kunda say what he is saying today if Levy was alive?

This is the betrayal we are talking about. To try and ingratiate himself to Rupiah Banda and prove his value, Kunda is prepared to kick at Levy's record. This is something Levy would never have expected. But Kunda has decided to show his true colours by fighting his friend who is not able to defend himself.

There is a lesson in this. Those that govern should do their best to surround themselves with honest and principled people. People who will tell them the truth in every situation and not minions who tell them what they think they want to hear. Such people will betray at the slightest excuse.

Today we wonder what type of love George had for Levy. We say this because it's not possible to have loyalty to someone that you hate, that you don't truly love. If true religion rests on love, it is equally true that loyalty rests on love. Loyalty is a sentiment, not a law. It rests on love and on nothing else. Where there is no love, there can be no loyalty.

Today Rupiah may pride himself in the loyalty of George. But he should stop and think about George's loyalty to Levy. George had known Levy for many years but today he has so easily turned his back on him, on his memory and on his legacy. What will happen to Rupiah at the end of all this who George hardly knows?

George's behaviour shows that maybe his relationship with Levy was not based on truth.

He may have been showing Levy one side of himself while on the other side keeping his true feelings hidden. Now that Levy is not there, George feels comfortable to publicly express views that he could only have spoken in whispers before. George's attack on Levy is morally reprehensible and not expected of a person holding the office that he is.

A leader who does not have loyalty to his own comrades is a dangerous traitor who does not deserve trust from anybody.

George's behaviour also demonstrates how remarkable Levy's efforts were at fighting corruption. This is so because George has demonstrated that Levy was alone in fighting corruption. Even his closest confidant was against him. Levy's fight was a lonely one.

That he was able to do what he did demonstrates what we said when Levy was alive: there was something noble about Levy. George has demonstrated how difficult it is to fight corruption in our country. If George could harbour such a deep resentment for the fight against corruption whilst working as Minister of Justice and Attorney General, what hope is there for our country?

Against this background, the successes that have been scored in the fight against corruption need to be fairly assessed. It has not been an easy fight. And people like George will continue to do everything to ensure that the corrupt are protected and defended.

Defending Levy goes against their desire to defend the corrupt. Between Levy and the corrupt, George has chosen the corrupt.

Labels: GEORGE KUNDA, MWANAWASA

posted by MrK @ 7:06 AM