Maravi

Chiluba is still a thief

Chiluba is still a thief
By Editor
Mon 16 Aug. 2010, 04:00 CAT

Frederick Chiluba and his tandem of thieves may be celebrating today but the truth is now cast in stone – they are thieves, nothing else but thieves.

Our people will never stop asking for justice. The judiciary may yet again have disappointed our people but that is just one door that has been closed. In a struggle such as our people are engaged in, there will be many setbacks, many disappointments. But there will also be many opportunities to advance the cause of the people.

By refusing to register the United Kingdom judgment obtained by then Attorney General George Kunda against Chiluba and others who stole and plundered public resources, the judiciary has renewed the many questions that our people have about its conduct. It is important for our people to continue to have faith in the laws of the land and their ability to deliver on their wishes notwithstanding the many setbacks and frustrations that they suffer. We say this because it is only the observance of the law that will ensure that we continue to live in a civilised and peaceful society. Every citizen, happy or unhappy, has a duty to ensure that they respect the law. We may not like what the judiciary is doing but we are still all required to respect the law. This is our duty as citizens.

But in the same way that we have duties as citizens, the judiciary also has duties. One of the most important duties that the judiciary has is to ensure that our people retain respect for it and confidence in its ability to apply the law equally without taking irrelevant considerations into account. The law that was applicable when Levy Mwanawasa was alive and in State House should be the same law that applies now that Rupiah Banda is in State House. Our people must not be given the impression that the law is applied in accordance with who is president at any particular time. The judiciary has an important duty in ensuring that we remain a civilised and peaceful country. They have a duty to ensure that our people retain the confidence that when they have problems, their courts are going to solve those problems in accordance with established rules.

The little law that we have learnt tells us that one of the most important principles that must preoccupy the judiciary in dispensing justice is that when it does its job, justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done.

This means that the process by which the justice is delivered is as important as the justice itself. Justice delivered in a shabby way is equivalent to injustice.

The cases involving Chiluba seem to have taken on a mysterious character. The conduct of the judicial officers handling the matters is always under very close scrutiny so that one would expect that they would be careful not to do things that do nothing except to arouse suspicion. We say this because in relation to the now infamous Chiluba acquittal, the magistrate who delivered the Chiluba judgment mysteriously adjourned the matter on the Friday that he should have given the judgment and did not bother to explain to the public why the extra weekend was necessary. That in itself raised all sorts of suspicions and did not help to increase the confidence of the public in the decision that was passed.

In the case of the registration of the London High Court judgment, another unnecessary controversy has been created, which will no doubt lead to all sorts of speculation. Judge Evans Hamaundu’s decision was being anxiously awaited by many of our people. It had been announced that judgment would be delivered on Wednesday, August 18, but somehow, this judgment was quietly released five days before the expected date in a way that ambushed our people. It is these small things that raise a lot of concern from our people, and our judiciary would do well to pay attention to this. We would be pretending if we did not admit that confidence in our judiciary is at an all-time low, and these kinds of occurrences do nothing to improve the image of the judiciary.

We won’t pretend to be legal experts simply because of the little law that we have learnt. We will leave the legal analysis to more qualified lawyers and legal luminaries; and they are many. But all we can say is that many of our people will feel that justice has not been done. They will feel that Chiluba has gotten away lightly yet again. In Proverbs 24:23, it is said that, “…It is wrong for a judge to be prejudiced. If he pronounces a guilty person innocent, he will be cursed and hated by everyone. Judges who punish the guilty, however, will be prosperous and enjoy a good reputation.” This is something that our judiciary will do well to take into account. Our people are not expecting them to find innocent people guilty in much the same way that they are not expecting them to let the guilty go scot-free. Our people will only be satisfied when justice is seen to be done. Indeed, the same book of Proverbs says, “It is not right to favour the guilty and keep the innocent from receiving justice” (Proverbs 18:5). As we said earlier, we will only live as a civilised country if people feel that justice prevails. It is justice that makes a government strong (Proverbs 16:12). This same justice will make the judiciary strong and respectable. And all our people will have no choice but to respect them. But conduct which brings into question any judicial officer does nothing to increase the respectability and prestige of the judiciary which is necessary for the maintenance of the rule of law.

We know that many of our people are disappointed by what has transpired in relation to the registration of the London High Court judgment. But we should not be surprised because the writing, as the saying goes, has been on the wall.

No one should expect Rupiah’s government to fight for the registration of the London judgment sincerely against their friend whom they have declared innocent. Long before this matter was heard, Rupiah declared Chiluba innocent.

Many of his own ministers have been falling over themselves to praise Chiluba.

This is something that we have reported on.

But what does this refusal to register this judgment mean? Does it mean that Chiluba is innocent and that he never stole any government money? What the court has done is refuse to allow our people to enjoy the benefits of their judgment for reasons that we will leave to the experts to debate. But what the court has not done is to declare Chiluba innocent. Chiluba and his tandem of thieves are crooks who have stolen from our people, and it is only the protection of Rupiah that is going to keep our people from getting what is due to them. We say this because we do not expect Rupiah’s government to appeal judge Hamaundu’s decision. They don’t appeal these kinds of cases. It is only cases that involve opposition members that they appeal. It is not long ago that government said they were appealing against the sentence of Mark Mushili due to public outcry. But in the case of Chiluba, no amount of outcry will make them do the right thing. Anyway, Chiluba should know that that judgment which has been obtained against him is still valid, and it is only a matter of time before somebody dusts it and goes for him.

We know that even the house in which Chiluba is sleeping and probably even the furniture on which he is sitting is bought using embezzled government funds.

And yet today Chiluba wants our people to believe that he is innocent. But we all know what he has done, and we have that judgment to show for it. As for his tandem of thieves, many of them are outside jail only because of bail. But we should not be surprised if their cases are deliberately bungled to free them.

Our people should not lose heart. The fight to rid our country of corruption and its attendant vices should not depend on the charity of the head of state.

We should all continue to make it known that those that we allow to run our affairs are not entitled to abuse our resources as Chiluba did. Yes, Chiluba may feel like he has got away, but his time is yet to come. Those that are protecting Chiluba should also know that their time will come. As we have advised him before, there is only one way of being safe, and that is not to steal from our people or abuse their resources. But we have no doubt from what we have seen that the same plunder that characterised Chiluba’s government is happening now. It is unfortunate that people do not learn from the mistakes and misdeed of others.

Labels: CORRUPTION, FREDERICK CHILUBA, GEORGE KUNDA

posted by MrK @ 4:10 AM