Maravi

Our people hate thieves

Our people hate thieves
By The Editor
Sun 29 Aug. 2010, 04:00 CAT

THE fight against corruption in our country reached its highest levels when progressive forces in government and in civil society united to fight this scourge.

The fight against corruption reached its highest levels when we had leaders in government, in the Church and in civil society organisations that were aware that no one had the right to steal public resources and personalise the results of collective effort and that the fruits of public investments should reach all our people.

No foreign citizen or government told Kenneth Kaunda that corruption is bad and it should be fought in Zambia. KK hated corruption, theft of public funds because it was evil and anti-social. And this explains why for all his failings and inadequacies as a human being and as a leader, no one in this world, no one in this country can ever point an accusing finger at KK and say he took one ngwee, one cent, one penny from public coffers that was not his due. It is a basic principle of any good religion to hate theft, corruption and abuse of public resources. The Ten Commandments directs that “Thou shall not steal”. Who can argue with this biblical commandment? Even the Quran outlaws theft, corruption.

And accordingly, the great majority of the Zambian people hate corruption and they don’t protect thieves when they are caught. Look at what happens when a thief is caught on our streets, in our compounds or villages; look at what happens to him or her! Our people hate stealing, corruption. If they can’t tolerate stealing on the street, in their compounds or villages, why should anyone think they don’t mind it, they are indifferent to it in state institutions?

The corruption fight that took Frederick Chiluba to the London High Court and in our own courts here in Zambia was not instigated by any foreign citizen or government. It was a product of our own efforts. It was a product of our own people’s hatred for theft and corruption.

Chiluba’s corruption got to a point where our people could not take it any longer and were ready to risk being arrested for denouncing him and his corrupt ways. Chiluba was openly called a thief as a serving president; people were not afraid of being arrested and prosecuted for doing so – and indeed they were arrested and taken to court for doing so. But things backfired for Chiluba and more evidence of his corruption emerged from those prosecutions. None of those who were involved in denouncing Chiluba were told by any foreign citizen or government to do so. And no foreign citizen or government ordered Chiluba to arrest and prosecute those who were calling him a thief.

But in this highly globalising world in which corruption and other crimes are being globalised, it is inevitable that the fight against corruption will also be globalised. Look at the network that Chiluba and his tandem of thieves had established to steal public funds! They were moving money from state institutions in Zambia, taking it to London and there move it to their lawyers; spend some of it there and in other European countries and remit part of it back to Zambia through Faustin Kabwe’s Access Financial Services. And when the money was in Zambia, they used it to buy all sorts of things – property, companies, sex, political patronage and so on and so forth. For this reason, no one has the right and will be given the right to abuse the concept of national sovereignty to deny the rest of the world the right and duty to participate when, behind those sovereign boundaries, public resources are being stolen by their presidents and other public servants. The issue of corruption in the world had to be treated as a common challenge of humanity. And probably this explains why there is a United Nations convention to fight corruption which calls all the nations and peoples of the world to unite in the fight against this scourge. Without the fight against corruption, there will be no development in our poor countries and our poor people will be robbed by their own leaders and other unscrupulous elements of the very limited resources that they have or are given by other nations and peoples of goodwill. Corruption in government, in public institutions is a plague that must be erased from every regime in every place in the world because it undermines governments’ ability to provide their people with the necessary services. And there is nothing which makes people more appreciative of a government than that it should be able to deliver services.

There is no doubt that Rupiah and his government are on the defensive, and not on the offensive, when it comes to fighting corruption. They are defending corruption and corrupt elements. They have done everything possible to let corrupt elements who are their friends off the hook. When they have appeared to be fighting corruption, it hasn’t been corruption they have been fighting but simply a matter of vengeance against their political opponents and those who oppose their evil deeds. If Chiluba was not politically and otherwise an ally and friend of Rupiah, he would be in jail today and the London High Court judgment would have long been enforced against him. Rupiah has made it very clear that he doesn’t want Chiluba to be convicted over corruption in any way.

And he has gone as far as abusing state institutions to ensure that Chiluba goes scot-free. Rupiah has made it very clear that he stopped the state to appeal against Chiluba’s highly questionable acquittal for corruption. This in itself is an indication that Chiluba’s acquittal was procured for him by those who had made it very clear that they don’t want to see him in jail, are not ready to see him in jail.

The fight against corruption is in shambles today because Rupiah’s government is for corruption and not against corruption. There will be no serious fight against corruption in this country as long as those in control of state institutions are not willing to fight corruption and they survive by corruption.

Over the last 15 years or so, all state institutions have been corrupted to the bone; they are reeking with corruption in every pore. And this corruption runs down from State House to the lowest office of the state or government. All offices of the state are being abused. Public funds, money meant for the provision of public services is predominately ending up in the pockets of public servants through corrupt procurements, corruptly organised workshops and seminars which are nothing but a conduit for stealing public funds. All institutions in this chain have been corrupted. And individuals who do not want to be part of this league have a miserable existence in public institutions. It is public servants who are assisting those in government to steal public funds and channel it to their political campaigns. And this came out very clearly in the election petition against Levy Mwanawasa.

Fighting corruption in this country will never be an easy undertaking because of its depth – all institutions of the state have been corrupted, are contaminated. When corruption reaches institutions like the judiciary to the level it has done, to the level of the Chief Justice, then you know that the nation is in serious trouble, it’s rotten. And no amount of posturing will remedy the situation. It doesn’t matter how many institutions we create to fight corruption, if the spirit to do so is not there in the people running these institutions, the political leadership of the country and the general public, nothing will come out of them. Zaire’s Mobutu also had such institutions; he had the police and the courts. But we all know what type of a country he ran and how he swindled that nation of its resources. Right here in Zambia, we had the Anti Corruption Commission, the police, the Auditor General and even a parliamentary committee monitoring the use of public funds, but that didn’t stop Chiluba from stealing public funds.

And these same institutions are today aiding Chiluba to go scot-free. Look at the behaviour of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Anti Corruption Commission and indeed the courts towards Chiluba and his corruption! Look at what they are doing to protect him! In fact, when Rupiah wants to justify his decision to let Chiluba go scot-free, he uses these same institutions to argue his case – the Director of Public Prosecutions has decided this is so-and-so when in fact it is him who has decided that things shall be this way. When he decides that Chiluba should be acquitted, Rupiah uses the courts to justify his decision – the courts have decided, and we just have to accept the decision of the court when it’s actually his own decision that he is forcing us to accept. Rupiah forced the Zambian people to accept Chiluba’s acquittal even before the magistrate had finished reading his judgment acquitting him. This is where the problem lies; this is where the fight needs to be primarily directed. And truly, this is a fight which we Zambians ourselves have to fight. But in saying this, we are not in any way implying that international assistance and solidarity is not important. These thieves are stealing public funds with the assistance of foreigners. But they don’t want the Zambian people to fight them with the assistance of foreigners. Why the double standards? What is good for the goose is good for the gander!

Labels: CORRUPTION, FREDERICK CHILUBA, JUDICIARY, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 7:15 AM