It is Rupiah who is attacking the judiciary

It is Rupiah who is attacking the judiciary
By The Post
Fri 10 Sep. 2010, 04:00 CAT

Since Rupiah Banda came into power, he has not done anything that has served to enhance the rule of law in our country.

Rupiah’s behaviour in State House is consistent with the behaviour of a despot that does not respect the rule of law or even the independence of the judicial system that he is today trying to preach to us about. What can Rupiah tell us about the rule of law? To defend the rule of law, it is not enough to chant a few slogans, and think that by so doing, one is defending the rule of law.

Rupiah has done a lot to ruin the reputation of the judicial system in our country. Trying to blame others for what is happening to the standing of the judiciary will not change his record and contribution to this sorry state of affairs. The rule of law is more than just the notional independence of a judiciary.

Chanting slogans about respecting the rule of law says nothing about the state of the judicial system in the country. We all know that Rupiah and his minions have shamelessly turned the judicial system into a political vendetta settling system where only their enemies are tried. The police, who form an important part of the building blocks for the rule of law have been reduced to Rupiah’s private militia who are subservient to cadres like William Banda.

Everybody knows that the police will not do anything unless it has the blessing of Rupiah himself and, by extension, thugs like William Banda who has recently taken to threatening violence against this newspaper. Even as a person like William Banda does that, we know that nothing will happen to him because he has the full protection and confidence of his benefactor Rupiah.

What rule of law can Rupiah talk about when the police and other law enforcement agencies cannot enforce the law without the direct say-so of the political masters?

Everybody knows that George Mpombo was dragged before a court of law to be gagged because of his criticism of Rupiah’s abuse of power. As a perceived enemy of the President, Mpombo received swift justice, and now he has been sentenced. The editor of this newspaper is another victim of the kind of justice that seems targeted to silence anyone who expresses an opinion that is opposed to Rupiah’s penchant for abuse of power.

If anyone is in doubt about what we are saying, all they need to do is look at what has happened with Lucy Changwe who is in a similar, if not worse, position to what Mpombo was in. What have the police done? They have come out defending Changwe and told the nation that they cannot act against Changwe for whatever reason and yet in the case of Mpombo, they were quick to move even though there was clear evidence that Mpombo had communicated with Terence Findlay, asking him not to deposit the cheque that he nonetheless did.

Mpombo’s case was clear political witch-hunt. And yet Changwe’s case is a clear case of political manipulation of the rule of law by Rupiah’s government. We saw this uneven implementation of the law in the Mufumbwe by-election.

It is obvious that the MMD, through its cadres, was the mastermind and orchestrators of the violence that characterised that election and yet not one MMD-related cadre has been arrested. UPND spokesman and Zambezi West member of parliament Charles Kakoma was assaulted brutally by MMD cadres. But to this day, no one has been arrested in connection with that attack. Not even a public statement by the police has been issued to explain why an attack on a member of parliament has been ignored. On the other hand, the same police that seem impotent to act when MMD cadres and MMD friends breach the law have been quick to arrest Solwezi Central UPND member of parliament Watson Lumba and others in connection with violence that everybody knows was orchestrated by the MMD.

What rule of law can Rupiah talk about when his party is busy abusing its position to punish political opponents? Is Rupiah telling us that he does not know that under his leadership, the police have been reduced to a militia of cadres that only works on political instructions? On the judiciary, no one has done more to reduce the esteem of our judiciary than Rupiah himself. The things he has done and said have left the judiciary in a compromised position.

We say this because our people have not forgotten that when the questionable judgment acquitting Frederick Chiluba was still being read in court, Rupiah was busy telling people at a gathering in Kabwe to accept the decision of the court in terms that suggested that he knew the outcome. Did that conduct enhance the perception of the independence of the judiciary?

The same Rupiah told the nation that he had decided not to appeal against the acquittal of Chiluba when his government had been trying to give the impression that such a decision had been made by the Director of Public Prosecutions. Rupiah’s boobs on the Chiluba matters clearly demonstrated that his government was working to undermine the rule of law. This is because by his comment in Kabwe, it seemed that the courts were consulting with Rupiah and telling him their decision on a matter of immense public interest before the matter was determined in court. This was wrong and did nothing to enhance the prestige and legitimacy of the judiciary.

It is not the people Rupiah is attacking that are denting the image of the judiciary. It is people like Rupiah himself and his sidekicks like Mike Mulongoti, who told the nation that Chiluba just had to be acquitted because it is not everybody who should be sent to jail. Does Rupiah expect our people to be happy when such comments are being made by those in power? As we have said before, the maintenance of the dignity of the courts is something that the courts themselves will have to work on.

They need to ensure that their decisions are of such quality and standard that all well-meaning people of goodwill will find no reasonable cause to question them. The decision to acquit Chiluba and the more recent decision to refuse the registration of the London High Court judgment have not done anything to enhance the prestige of the judiciary. Worse still, the behaviour of Rupiah and his minions has not done anything to help the judiciary on this score.

Rupiah and his government have decided that the appeal system that exists in our judicial system is unnecessary. They have also given the impression that appealing is disrespecting the courts. Refusing to appeal matters of serious public interest, against legitimate public demands, has not helped to enhance the image of the judiciary. In other words, what is left on the public record is the unacceptable and wrong decisions of lower courts.

If Rupiah had been interested in enhancing the image of the courts, he would have allowed these matters to be determined in accordance with the full facilities of our country’s legal due process. By cutting short the due process, Rupiah has also cut the respectability of our courts. But we know that this does not really concern Rupiah.

As long as he gets what he wants, he is not concerned with the integrity and standing of our courts. We have also noted that Rupiah is calling the criticism of the judiciary unjustified and calling for it to be checked. How is the legitimate criticism of the judiciary going to be checked? Every institution in our country should open itself to public scrutiny.

There is no institution that should be above public accountability. We know that there is a tendency to brand every criticism of the court as contempt. But the little law that we know tells us that this is wrong. What happened in the Nsuka Sambo case is wrong. No one should be 'sambod' for the legitimate criticism of things that go wrong in our court system.

Anyway, what is clear is that it is actually Rupiah and his friends that are reducing the standing of our judiciary.