Maravi

More action is needed from the action man on prisoners

More action is needed from the action man on prisoners
By The Post
Sat 31 Dec. 2011, 14:00 CAT

"I was in prison for 40 days and the majority of people in prison are poor people. Poor people have no representation. Let us revamp the legal aid system and let us also create a new office of district attorney so that people can be properly prosecuted…poor people don't even know what legal representation is.

I stayed 40 days because I had a very effective legal representation; I even managed to get bail on a matter which they said there is no bail. My lawyers went around and got a constitutional bail."

This was said by Michael Sata on Thursday. It is true that the majority of our prisoners are poor people. The rich and politically powerful rarely go to prison. Not because they don't commit crimes. But simply because they have the money to buy justice and the political influence to get what they want.

There is very little justice for the poor in this country. Sometimes they are arrested wrongly but no one is willing to listen to their story, to their explanations. They are simply told: "Uzakambila ku police." And when they get to the police, they are not even given the chance to explain anything.

They are simply locked away. There are many poor people in our prisons who have been there for years without attending court. What type of rule of law is this where there is no equality before the law, or equal protection of the law as it is often phrased? We know that equality before the law is fundamental to any just and democratic society.

But every day, the great majority of our people, the poor people, are not treated in a manner that one can say there is equality before the law for them. Whether rich or poor - all are entitled to equal protection before the law. But this is not the case in our country today.

We have criminals in this country who are not in prison today simply because they have money and they have political clout or connections. We have people who have been convicted for corruption but because they are rich and well connected politically, they are not in prison.

The law and law enforcement institutions have bent over backwards to accommodate rich and politically powerful elements like Frederick Chiluba and save them from going to jail. Court processes were manipulated by Rupiah Banda, with the help of his Director of Public Prosecutions Chalwe Mchenga, to set Chiluba free and save him from going to jail for corruption.

In a country where there is equality before the law, this would not have happened. The democratic state cannot guarantee that life will treat everyone equally, and it has no responsibility to do so. However, under no circumstances should those in power impose additional inequalities; they should be required to deal evenly and equally with all our people - rich or poor, politically powerful or otherwise. No one should be placed above the law.

There is very little justice for the poor in this country. The poor can't afford lawyers and very little legal aid is extended to them while the politically powerful sometimes don't even have to pay lawyers because they offer themselves to them for free.

But how many of our lawyers are offering themselves for free to poor people? We had Rupiah being represented for free in all sorts of matters by all sorts of lawyers when he was in a position to pay. But none of these lawyers offered themselves to our poor brothers and sisters who have been languishing in our jails for years without a lawyer.

Even when the politically powerful steal from the poor, from the poor people's government, they are not short of probono legal representation. Lawyers fall over each other to represent them. It is said that when a rich or politically powerful man stumbles, his friends will steady him, but if a poor man falls, his friends will have nothing to do with him.

When a rich or politically powerful man makes a mistake, there are many people to cover up for him and explain away all the things he never should have said. But let a poor man make a mistake, and he gets nothing but jail. Even when he has something to say in mitigation, nobody will listen.

It is pleasing to hear Michael speak for the poor in prison, saying he has been there and he knows their plight. It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. It is also said that a nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones - and Zambia treats its imprisoned poor citizens like animals.

We agree with the observations made by Archbishop Nicola Girasoli the other day over the plight of our prisoners. Archbishop Girasoli observed that "it's only those with money that have good access to justice and we have thousands of people who have cases that have not been dealt with, with some of them in prison while those with money are free on bail…Equality before the law is a very strong human right because this is what protects the minority".

He further observed that there was need to improve the image of the Judiciary in the country.

Our justice system is not promoting the common good and seems to favour the rich and politically powerful. This should not be allowed to continue. This injustice, this inequality cries out for justice, solidarity.

Michael has placed before us a challenge that we cannot sidestep and to which we must respond with a speed and boldness adequate to the urgency of the times. We need to urgently respond to the suffering of our poor people who are languishing without meaningful legal representation and access to justice in our prisons. We ought to sharpen the awareness of our duty of solidarity with the poor, to which charity leads us.

This solidarity means that we make ours their problems and their struggles, that we know how to speak with them and for them. This has to be concretised in criticism of injustice and oppression, in the struggle against the intolerable situation that a poor person often has to tolerate, in the willingness to dialogue with the groups responsible for that situation in order to make them understand their obligations.

Let us not forget that where there is injustice of this nature, there is a rejection of the Lord's gift of peace, and even more, a rejection of the Lord Himself. We say this because justice, understood as holiness, a gift of the Lord, is the basic foundation of social justice. By his example, Christ taught us to live what he preached.

Christ preached human solidarity and proclaimed that love should configure all our social structures. Today, as always, the spirit of Christ is actively giving impetus to history. It shows up in solidarity, in the unselfish commitment of those who struggle for liberty and evince authentic love for their incarcerated poor brothers and sisters who have no access to justice.

We highly welcome Michael's concerns for the poor in our prisons. Situations of grave injustice require the courage to make far-reaching reforms in our justice system. The fight against injustice is meaningless unless it is waged with a view to establishing a new order in conformity with the demands of justice.

The motivating concern for the poor must be translated at all levels into concrete actions, until it decisively attains a series of necessary reforms. We wish to appeal with simplicity and humility to everyone, without exception, to take seriously Michael's observations on the plight of our poor brothers and sisters who are languishing in our prisons.

We ask all of you to be convinced of the seriousness of what Michael was saying and of the individual responsibility of each one of you to do something to address the problem. There is urgent need for us to implement measures inspired by solidarity and love of preference for the poor.

This is what is demanded by the present moment and above all, by the very dignity of the human person. We also ask Michael to do everything within his powers to address the plight of our poor brothers and sisters in prisons. Michael has shown some great concern over this issue.

This is not the first time he is speaking about it. He has consistently been on this issue for some time now. We want to see more action from the action man on this issue.

Labels: MICHAEL SATA, PRISONS

posted by MrK @ 5:12 PM