Maravi

Chiluba, a shameless thief

Chiluba, a shameless thief
By The Post
Mon 17 May 2010, 04:10 CAT

No matter what Frederick Chiluba thinks of himself, he will not manage to convince anyone that he is not a thief, a plunderer. Our people are not dull and gullible as Chiluba thinks they are.

On Saturday as he addressed some of our traditional leaders in Mansa, Chiluba declared that these traditional leaders should be proud of him because he is not a thief. He said these traditional leaders gave birth to a king and not a thief.

Chiluba also claimed that in 2006 he turned down Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata’s offer to drop, by way of interfering with the judicial process, all his corruption cases against him because doing that would be damaging the judicial process. Chiluba said he did not worry about the allegations against him because he knew he did not steal except those who hate him had mounted propaganda against him in a bid to persecute him.

Chiluba further said his suffering is now over because God removed shame from his face and freed him through the courts of law.

If we did not know Chiluba, we could have concluded that he said this under the influence of something. But we know Chiluba to be a shameless thief, a crooked liar. So his claims do not surprise us.

Yes, Chiluba can claim to be a Christian but he should not be using God’s name in vain. It is blasphemous for Chiluba to claim that God removed shame from his face and freed him through the courts of law.

The God we know is one of justice. So how can a God of justice free a thief like Chiluba who has robbed His people? Chiluba should not misdirect his praises for Rupiah Banda to God.

Even a baby who was born yesterday knows that Rupiah interfered with our judicial process to secure Chiluba a dubious acquittal. It is Rupiah who removed shame from Chiluba’s face and ‘acquitted’ him in court. This is no longer a matter of guesswork. Rupiah and his minions have made several public statements confirming how they secured Chiluba’s acquittal.

Again, without any shame, Chiluba was busy claiming that he was born a king and not a thief. Is Chiluba from a royal family? For all we know, only those from royal families are born kings?

If Chiluba had any conscience at all, it could have spoken to him to shut up. But it appears that even his conscience is dead. That is why he can declare himself a king and not a thief. If Chiluba has not stolen, why should he protest against the public’s demand for an appeal against his acquittal in the High Court and Supreme Court, if need be? If he did not steal, why should Rupiah stop the appeal?

Rupiah forgets that even walls have got ears, so he speaks carelessly about some of these issues. Not too long ago, Rupiah was telling some people that taking Chiluba back to court would be like daring a lion after surviving its first attack. What did Rupiah mean by this statement?

Anyway, this is not the only case where Chiluba’s theft is found. The London High Court judgment caught him pants down.

Rupiah’s government, his master’s government, is trying to register this same judgment against him so he can pay back to the Zambian people over US $40 million that he stole. This judgment was secured by George Kunda as Attorney General and justice minister. George is still serving as justice minister as well as Republican Vice-President.

And today, Chiluba can have the audacity to stand and claim that God removed shame from his face and freed him through the courts of law. We know Chiluba has no respect for our people. That is why he stole from them. But at least we ask him to respect God and spare His lofty name from such nonsense.

Chiluba is in Luapula Province today to fulfill his contract with Rupiah. Chiluba needed his freedom while Rupiah needed his support to win elections in 2008 and beyond. So the two cut a deal. That is how we saw Chiluba disappearing from the PF which he joined after ditching MMD because the late Levy Mwanawasa, on behalf of our people, pursued him for corruption and theft of public resources.

But Chiluba thinks he can confuse our people by claiming that he turned down Sata’s offer in 2006 to give him back his freedom. Chiluba supported Sata in 2006 only on account that his freedom was assured. We have not forgotten Chiluba’s words when he went to cast a vote for Sata. He said: “We are voting out the bad and voting in the good.” Levy and MMD were the bad and Sata and PF were the good.

As fate would have it, Sata’s public declaration to dubiously drop charges against Chiluba and all those charged with plunder, if assumed power, largely cost him what appeared to be a good opportunity for him to defeat Levy.

Learning from this bitter lesson, Sata in 2008 during the presidential by-election learnt to make appropriate pronouncements. This time around, he pledged to strengthen the fight against corruption upon assuming office and to ensure that all those who were being prosecuted on corruption charges were quickly and justly tried.

He said this consistently and Chiluba realised that Sata meant business. That is how Chiluba deserted PF and Sata to join Rupiah whose interest was to weaken or stop the fight against corruption. Rupiah and Chiluba are birds of the same feather. Chiluba has found solace in the new MMD under Rupiah.

Today, Chiluba can tell us that Sata can’t be President of Zambia because he is just a former police constable in the colonial government. If he is interested in educated people leading our country, why did Chiluba choose to support Sata over Levy and Hakainde Hichilema who were university graduates?

The truth is Levy and Hichilema did not offer him what he wanted. Chiluba is on record that he supports political parties based on what he can get out of them. Clearly, Chiluba is today supporting MMD not because it is the best party but because it has given him what he wanted desperately – freedom.

It is therefore an insult to our people for Chiluba to claim that he did not steal from them. He insinuated that he was an innocent man; that is why the government took seven years to conclude his prosecution because they were fishing for evidence.

Has Chiluba forgotten that he stalled that prosecution because most of the time he was in South Africa for treatment of his alleged heart condition. At one point, the case was adjourned for close to one year. When a proposal was made to try him via video conference facilities from his residence in the interest of time, Chiluba violently protested that he was unwell.

Today, he can tease our people that they took seven years in court with him because they were on a fishing expedition. What a joke!

We can’t talk about Chiluba’s ability to politically deliver Luapula Province to Rupiah and the MMD. We can only remind him that in 2008 when he went there on a similar mission, he lamentably failed to achieve his goal. Rupiah was rejected even in the village where Chiluba comes from. Only the other day, William Banda announced that MMD were dispatching over 2,300 cadres from Lusaka to protect Chiluba whilst in Luapula Province. If Chiluba is such a popular figure in Luapula, we wondered why thousands of cadres should come from Lusaka to protect him in his own village.

We can only say that time will tell if Chiluba is the solution to Rupiah’s desire for a second term in office. We know that both Chiluba and Rupiah are desperate. This explains their engagement in desperate schemes. They are mindful of what they have done, so a change of government is the last thing they would ever entertain on their minds. Chiluba is not campaigning for Rupiah for nothing. He is paying back a debt of gratitude to Rupiah for having removed shame from his face with that dubious acquittal.

The other week in Kitwe, Rupiah said it would be madness for anyone to think that he can denounce Chiluba just because he was accused of something. As far as Rupiah is concerned, Chiluba was “a damn good president” who he has now engaged as a consultant on politics and development.

We wonder how our people should expect Rupiah’s government to effect the London High Court judgment against Chiluba. How can Rupiah possibly effect a judgment against his consultant?

Rupiah can only protect corruption since he is also corrupt. And Chiluba has found his equal, a corrupt President. That is why he has been engaged as a consultant and sent to Luapula to go and corrupt more people. Corruption is the only thing Chiluba can effectively and efficiently accomplish.

Labels: CHILUBA, MMD

posted by MrK @ 4:17 AM