Let's treat our presidents the French, Chirac way

Let's treat our presidents the French, Chirac way
By The Post
Sun 18 Dec. 2011, 15:00 CAT

NO one is or should be placed above the law. And no crime can or should be committed in the name of politics. Abusing public office is a crime that should not be tolerated anywhere in the world. Corruption in government is a plague that must be erased from every regime in every place in the world.

A law that allows public officers to abuse their offices is null and void because it cannot be justified morally, Biblically or otherwise. It doesn't work to pass a law that allows one to use his office to steal from the public, to rape the nation.

This is what Jacques Chirac's prosecution and conviction teaches us. Chirac abused his office as mayor of Paris to create 19 totally or partially fake jobs to benefit himself politically. Chirac abused public trust, and entered into illegal conflict of interest. It has taken about 20 years to get him convicted.

The French people had to wait until he ceased to be president of France to get him prosecuted because he enjoyed immunity. But, as the Bembas say, umulandu taubola, his wrongs have caught up with him and not even time could absolve him of his crimes.

Chirac was a very popular politician and a respected French statesman but this has not spared him prosecution. And this should teach something to some of our people who think prosecuting a former president for corruption and other abuses is not right, is an act of disrespect for a former head of state or is seen to be an act of vengeance or malice. There is nothing disrespectful, vengeful or malicious in prosecuting a former head of state who has stolen from his people, who has abused the trust placed in his office to advantage himself financially or politically.

There was nothing wrong in prosecuting Frederick Chiluba for the many financial abuses he engaged in or perpetrated when he was president of the Republic.

Chiluba treated public funds as if they were his own personal monies. He spent over a million dollars in one European boutique buying designer suits, shirts, pajamas, shoes and so on and so forth.

Chiluba abused the intelligence, together with his intelligence chief Xavier Chungu and corrupt businessmen like Faustin Kabwe and some reckless lawyers at home and abroad to defraud the poor Zambian people of their money. When caught, Chiluba and his friends wanted to claim that it was personal money - US $8 million - that he had put in the intelligence accounts in London.

If this indeed was personal money as Chiluba claimed, where did it come from? Who gave it to him and for what? If this money was a gift from so-called well-wishers, it was a bribe. And receiving bribes is still a crime, is corruption. Chiluba and his friends deceitfully cried political persecution.

There was nothing political about their prosecution. The only thing that was political was themselves. However, Chiluba was lucky after the death of Levy Mwanawasa, an extremely corrupt regime of Rupiah Banda was ushered in, of course with his support, to protect him from further prosecution and conviction. There are many other charges which could have been raised against Chiluba if there was political will to do so beyond those which he was questionably acquitted for by magistrate Jones Chinyama.

The MMD leadership used everything at their disposal, including the spineless Director of Public Prosecutions Chalwe Mchenga, who has now been made a High Court judge, to ensure that Chiluba escaped meaningful prosecution. Mchenga made sure there was no appeal against Chinyama's politically-engineered acquittal of Chiluba. And there were political statements by Rupiah and his regime indicating that they were not comfortable with Chiluba being convicted and sent to jail. The rule of law was bent to protect Chiluba.

There was clearly no equality before the law in Chiluba's matter. Even civil proceedings against him received the most ridiculous and contradictory judgments just to ensure that Chiluba kept his loot. Again, there was no rule of law here. It was simply an issue of corrupting all institutions of the state to ensure that Chiluba went scot-free. That they achieved and forces of nature also ensured that Chiluba went scot-free - he died and indeed went free. To where? We don't know!

There are issues of abuse of public resources surrounding Rupiah and his regime. Rupiah made sure that before the end of his tenure of office he had changed the law, removing the abuse of office offence from our statutes. Why did Rupiah do it? To protect himself from prosecution after leaving office. Will this be possible? Yes, it is possible because in the final analysis, the question of whether or not Rupiah should be protected will be decided upon by the politicians at State House and in Parliament.

Right now, Rupiah and his friends are mobilising to ensure that he is not prosecuted for his abuses. Even corrupt clergymen have been mobilised to defend Rupiah and argue that it would be wrong to prosecute him and there should be reconciliation. The MMD today is being held hostage because of Rupiah's fear of prosecution for the crimes he committed while in office. Rupiah wants to ensure that only a leadership that is committed to defending him from prosecution leads the MMD. And of course, there are elements in the MMD who were very much part of the corruption that characterised Rupiah's regime. They too are scared of prosecution.

Even Mchenga is scared of prosecution and has done everything possible to ensure that those he fears could prosecute him are not given the opportunity to do so. Even a few days after being ratified for appointment as a judge, Mchenga was still fighting to protect himself from the possibility of prosecution. We wonder: from what? They are all panicking because they know they did wrong things.

But a decent society should treat all wrongdoing as wrongdoing and prosecute it. And it shouldn't matter who is involved. If it is us involved, no one should protect us from prosecution no matter how friendly or close to us they may be. Let the law take its course.

And we ask this government that if ever there was any wrongdoing on our part of any kind under any regime, including under the current government, we would welcome prosecution than being shielded from it. The most those who don't want to see us in prison can do is to bring us food and other things that can make our stay in prison much easier or less stressful. What we ask of others is what we are asking for ourselves.

If as Rupiah used to allege, we are found wanting in any way, our best treatment is prosecution and if possible conviction and being sent to jail. This is what equality before the law demands. No one should be put above the law regardless of the positions they occupy in society or the previous contributions they made to our country.

Even our very beloved and most-respected comrade, Kenneth Kaunda, if it is found that he stole from the Zambian people when he was president 20 years ago, he should be arrested and prosecuted and if found wanting sent to jail. He is our comrade and we will be visiting him in jail. This is what equality before the law demands. This is what fairness and justice demand.

No one should in any way be placed above the law. And we need politicians who respect this principle. We need state investigative agencies that are firm but fair and just to all.

We need a prosecution agency that treats all equally before the law. And we need judges who are able to administer justice fairly and equally without regard to the political or other affiliation of the people involved. In a word, we don't need prosecution officers of the Mchenga type; we don't need judges of the Mchenga type.

We hope our politicians will allow the law to take its course in so far as Rupiah is concerned. We sincerely believe Rupiah ran a corrupt regime and he himself engaged in corrupt activities. We also believe Rupiah violated the Zambian Constitution by making himself or allowing himself to be a presidential candidate in the 2008 and 2011 elections when he knew very well that not both his parents were Zambians by descent.

In short, Rupiah should be prosecuted for perjury and this doesn't need the removal of his immunity by Parliament because he had no such immunity in 2008.