Kunda will have to account for the over K200 billion he has wasted

Kunda will have to account for the over K200 billion he has wasted
By The Post
Thu 31 Mar. 2011, 04:00 CAT

It is said that the mark of great leaders is the ability to understand the context in which they are operating and act accordingly. It is also said that a leader who relies on authority to solve problems is bound to come to grief. It seems Rupiah Banda and George Kunda don’t understand all this.

They think if you are voted into office, then you have the authority to do as you please until you leave office. Their electoral mandate is all that matters to them. And because they have been elected, they don’t think they have a duty and are responsible to listen to other citizens.

But what they are forgetting is that democracy means government of the people, by the people, for the people; it means a government in which all the people participate and one which acts at all times in the best interests of the people and protects and defends the people’s interests.

And all this is done with the people, and not at their exclusion.

The people’s participation in the governance of their country does not begin and end with elections.

For this reason, a democratic government listens to the people’s concerns all the time.

There is need for those in leadership to mull over things and consider the feelings of the people.

But this is not the way Rupiah and George have been running the affairs of our country.

The way that Rupiah and George have proceeded over the constitution is frightening.

We say this because they have behaved as though they were putting together a little constitution for a small club which they own.

A constitution of a country is a serious piece of legislation.

This is a document that embodies the will of our people about how they want to be governed.

For that reason, it is important that when it is being put together, the legitimate wishes of our people are taken into account.

This is something that Rupiah and George did not want to do.

They set out to defraud our people and deny them their legitimate wishes.

Rupiah thought that his friend George could sit and write a constitution, take it to Parliament and have it rubberstamped.

And the other day, they were reminded that it is not that simple.

Some of the representatives of our people decided to say no.

But even if they had succeeded to get the required number of votes, the two thirds majority in Parliament, they would not have succeeded in giving our people a constitution that would stand the test of time.

This is because George’s constitution did not reflect the wishes of our people as they were gathered by the Mung’omba Constitution Review Commission and other commissions before it.

Rupiah’s desire to have an unquestioned hold on power to the extent of even trying to force his own constitution on our people is a recipe for disaster.

One hopes that their experience the other day will cause them to stop and reflect very carefully on their behaviour.

What they tried to do was tantamount to a coup against the legitimate wishes of our people.

They took their personal constitution to Parliament and wanted it to be endorsed as a national constitution, purporting to reflect the wishes and aspirations of our people.

What kind of leaders are these? This is not honest leadership.

This is crooked, dishonest leadership. Rupiah and George are a danger to themselves and to the country.

Our people wanted their own constitution, not George’s constitution. But it seems that power has gotten to George’s head.

He believes that he can do anything as long as he is Vice-President and Minister of Justice. It is this lack of humility and respect for his fellow citizens that will land him in trouble.

This chap has caused the government, by some reckonings, to waste not less than K200 billion on his ego trip, on a constitution review process that embodied nothing but his personal interests and desires.

If George and his friends had been interested in a genuine enactment of the people-driven constitution, they would have had the humility to consult others and accommodate their wishes.

But instead, they created a mechanism that made it impossible for any honest and self-respecting citizen to participate in the constitution review process.

In this regard, almost all authentic or genuine religious institutions stayed away from their constitution review process.

The main political opposition party also stayed away from the process.

And a myriad of civil society organisations that could not be bought, that refused to be compromised through sitting allowances and all sorts of monetary gains also stayed away.

To George, this didn’t matter – it was good riddance of unwanted opposition. To him, this gave him the chance to get the constitution he wanted and do things his way.

They put in what they wanted and took out what they didn’t want without much ado.

Look at the way they dealt with the degree clause for a presidential candidate!

There was so much public opposition to that clause, but they ignored it and went ahead to vote for its inclusion.

But one day, the same people turned around and voted to remove it. It clearly showed that George was controlling the whole shenanigan farce called the constitution-making process.

George’s wish was the command of most of the people who attended the so-called National Constitutional Conference.

What he wanted was what they included; what George did not want, they excluded.

This is why we say this whole process was reduced to a mere childish ego trip for George.

For him, the whole exercise was a demonstration of how powerful he was, of what he could shove down people’s throats; it was a demonstration of where power lies.

George believed political power in this country lay with him and could get him whatever he wanted.

George never realised that real power did not lie with him but with the people.

And to this day, George still boasts that they can rule this country for 100 years.

This means that, in his little mind, he thinks he can get his way in an unlimited manner – his wish should be our command.

Since he is now very good friends with Frederick Chiluba, let him ask Chiluba about ruling forever.

Chiluba also used to boast that he could rule for as long as he wanted.

Anyway, this is how petty-minded people think; this is how tingods look at things.

Even Muammar Gaddafi thought he would rule Libya forever without listening to the voice of any “rat” or “cockroach”. Today, “rats and cockroaches” are making Gaddafi’s life miserable.

As for Chiluba, the docile Zambians that he thought he could rule forever, showed him the way out of State House and exposed his criminality, including his shamefully expensive and countless platform shoes.

Chiluba never thought a day would come when he would not be in power.

And these are the same people George thinks he can rule for 100 years.

Although Chiluba has changed his complexion and now looks yellow, the Zambian people have not changed – they are still the same people.

One of the main reasons why our people wanted a new constitution was to ensure that their voice in matters of governance was heard in a real and meaningful way.

They wanted an election that would reflect the wish of the people and would put in place a government that has majority support.

This is something that George made sure was not included in the constitution that went to Parliament.

There were many things that our people wanted, including a real separation of powers between the presidency and the other wings of the state.

Again, George wants to hold these institutions in his pocket so that they can only do his wishes, not the people’s wishes.

Today, the judiciary and the legislature can be said to be in George’s pocket.

George today decides who should be prosecuted and who should be allowed to go scot-free; who should be convicted and who should be acquitted; what matter deserves to be appealed and what shouldn’t be appealed.

It is also George who decides who should be appointed judge and who shouldn’t; which judge should be promoted or shouldn’t be promoted.

As for Parliament, George calls the shots and this is probably why he got drunk thinking he could push through that clearly fraudulent constitution in Parliament and get the two thirds support required and push it down our people’s throats.

And he could have succeeded. But this would not have made that trash of his a people-driven constitution. Trash is trash, even if it is supported by George. Let him learn a lesson from this.

Let him reflect on the over K200 billion they have wasted on a meaningless ego trip when many of our people are living in abject poverty with no services that are expected in an organised society.

But there shouldn’t be impunity. George should be made to account for this K200 billion plus of taxpayers’ money that he has wasted.

Anyway, Rupiah and George’s day of reckoning is coming.

Soon, they will have to explain to our people why they wasted so much money on something they knew to be a fraud.