Maravi

Chiluba, stop telling lies about Levy

Chiluba, stop telling lies about Levy
By The Post
Thu 01 July 2010, 10:10 CAT

It is said that “if you are good, you are guided by honesty. People who can’t be trusted are destroyed by their own dishonesty” (Proverbs 11:3). There is a great lesson in the words that we have just quoted from the Bible. Honesty does not always appear profitable. Indeed many times some people give in to dishonest ways in the hope of reaping great benefits.

But the Bible, being what it is, must be correct when it says people who can’t be trusted, those who are dishonest, are destroyed by their own dishonesty. Frederick Chiluba is a good example of a person who has been destroyed by his own dishonesty.

The opportunity to lead others, to serve others is a great avenue for human fulfilment. Those who find themselves in positions of leadership need to understand the demands that it puts on them. To benefit from a position of leadership in a way that is meaningful, a leader must be prepared to serve honestly and sincerely; to put the interests of those that he or she serves above his or her own interests.

This is the only way that true fulfilment can be derived from a position of leadership. But leadership and the power that it brings has a tendency to delude those who hold it into believing that they will derive fulfilment by excessive reliance on the power that it gives. This leads to abuse and in the end, a loss of standing in front of the people that such a person leads.

This is a lesson that Chiluba ought to have learnt but failed to. When Chiluba became president, he was given the rare opportunity that few individuals ever get to be of service to their people. Chiluba had the opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of our people. By the nature of the office that he held, he also had access to a lot of power over all sorts of things, including our national resources. And Chiluba was also responsible for those that served under him.

It ought to be admitted that the temptations that he must have faced were many. To remain useful and honest in the exercise of his job, he needed to have a very high level of humility and to exercise a greater degree of self-limitation and integrity. Chiluba did not do these things. Today, Chiluba thirsts and hungers for greatness. But he had an opportunity to be great if that was important to him. What did he do?

He squandered the opportunity. How? Instead of devoting himself to honest service, he embraced all the vices imaginable that come with the exercise of power. Chiluba quickly realised that he was not getting anywhere in attaining greatness and so he became autocratic and brutal to anyone that he felt threatened his presidency or injured his feelings in any way. Chiluba devoted a lot of time to fixing enemies, real and imaginary. The result was he had no time to devote to serving the Zambian people heart and soul. He divorced himself from the masses of our people and was driven in all cases by self-interest, greed and vanity.

It should not surprise anybody that Chiluba resorted to plunder and corruption as acceptable conduct in running the affairs of his government. It is not coincidental that many people who served in his government are today facing all sorts of problems with the law because they joined Chiluba in stealing from our people and abusing their resources. Chiluba as president had no real respect for the people who put him where he was. This is what made it impossible for him to respect public property.

How could he respect the property of people he did not respect? In fact, the problem for Chiluba was even more fundamental. He did not accept that the property that he was superintending belonged to the people. We say this because to this day, Chiluba speaks about the property that he took from our people with a sense of entitlement. He has never accepted that he did anything wrong. If this was not so, Chiluba wouldn’t have stolen from the Zambian people. Stealing from someone is a demonstration of lack of respect, care and recognition for that person’s rights.

It was not Levy Mwanawasa who turned the courts into a playground. Levy went to court for serious business. It was Chiluba’s disregard for the law when he was president that turned him and his tandem of thieves into a permanent fixture in our courts until Rupiah Banda appeared to save them.

There is a lesson for Rupiah and his minions from what has happened to Chiluba. Not too long ago, Chiluba was like Rupiah is today. In his mind, he was the alpha and the omega, everything started and ended with him. Chiluba never thought that one day he would be called to account. But what has happened? Today Chiluba knows that his continued freedom is dependent on becoming Rupiah’s bootlicker. Chiluba has become an errand boy for Rupiah in order to try and avoid facing the music of the law for his misdeeds when he was president.

Rupiah can avoid this sort of end by being honest and doing his best to serve our people. But so far, this does not appear to be Rupiah’s strongest point. He seems determined to follow in Chiluba’s footsteps. We say this because the same arrogance that characterised Chiluba’s presidency is in Rupiah’s government. There does not seem to be a real respect for public opinion and, worse still, for public property. The way Rupiah, his children and some of his minions have behaved over RP Capital and Zamtel privatisation is illustrative of this. Rupiah has an opportunity to serve our people but at every turn, he is making the wrong choices.

Rupiah doesn’t need to look very far to see what is going to happen to him. His political consultant, Chiluba, has reduced himself to making all sorts of promises to all kinds of people in the hope of continuing to receive protection from prosecution for corruption and other favours from Rupiah. Chiluba had the opportunity to reduce the poverty and suffering of our people in general, and the Copperbelt in particular, when he was president. But he chose to concentrate on enriching himself and his cronies, buying expensive designer suits, shirts, shoes, pyjamas from expensive European boutiques, giving girlfriends stolen public funds, and so on and so forth. What sense does it make for somebody who could have done so much for the workers in the mining industry to start promising solutions 10 years after he left power?

Chiluba does not see the ridiculousness of his behaviour because he is consumed by his efforts to continue enjoying protection. All that Rupiah has to say is jump and Chiluba, as the saying goes, will only say, “How high?”

It therefore doesn’t make sense for Chiluba to blame Levy for his problems, for his being prosecuted and for spending time in court. His prosecution was not a play; it was a very serious matter. It is a matter that has been found to be serious not only by the courts of this country but also by those of England where Chiluba was found to have stolen public funds and ordered to pay back the money. Some people ruin themselves by their own foolish actions and then blame others for their misery.

This is what Chiluba is doing. He knows the wrong things that he has done, but instead of taking responsibility, he wants to find somebody to blame. Not even his friend Rupiah believes that Chiluba is innocent. This is why Rupiah made sure that the appeal against Chiluba’s questionable acquittal was stopped. He knew that taking Chiluba back to court, to use his own words, would be like taking him back into a lion’s mouth after he has been rescued from it.

But this business of telling lies about Levy needs to be stopped. Chiluba has the right to criticise anyone but he has no right to tell lies about anyone, especially if that person is no more and cannot be here to defend himself. We know that Chiluba stole. He was taken to court because he stole. What did he want from Levy? Did he want Levy to stand in the way of justice and protect him from prosecution the way Rupiah is doing?

Anyway, it is clear that Chiluba is not alone in maligning Levy. He is doing what Rupiah has been condoning or wants him to do. This is why even people like George Kunda, who is now Rupiah’s sidekick and Chiluba’s public relations officer, cannot defend the man who brought him into politics and government, who helped him to be where he is today. Rupiah and George’s unprincipled politics will gain them Chiluba’s end.

Labels: CHILUBA, MWANAWASA, RUPIAH BANDA, SATA

posted by MrK @ 2:05 PM