Maravi

Corruption is not a state secret

Corruption is not a state secret
By The Post
Tue 06 Mar. 2012, 12:00 CAT

GEORGE Kunda says the government should be careful in its fight against corruption because they may end up revealing state secrets and that it is important to protect government institutions. What George is saying is not new. Frederick Chiluba and his tandem of thieves tried to use that argument when they were being arrested and prosecuted for corruption.

Chiluba and his friends used the intelligence bank accounts and activities to steal public funds. They thought in this way, nobody would ever question or get to know what they had done. They thought they could use the secrecy surrounding the intelligence services to steal. It didn't work.

We are reminded of what Levy Mwanawasa said when we had sent our lawyers to take to him the Zamtrop accounts which we had obtained through a court order and ask him if there was anything in it that was of importance to our national security so that we don't use it in our defence, Levy told our lawyers that there was nothing that could be said to be of national security in stealing; that people shouldn't steal public funds and hide behind national security. This is what George and his friends are today trying to do.

They won't be allowed to hide their corruption behind state secrets or national security. There is truly nothing of a security nature that needs to be protected in all these corruption cases George and his friends are being probed for. There is no security law that allows corruption.

Corruption is corruption, regardless of where it arises. We all know how Xavier Chungu, as head of our intelligence services, abused public funds to enrich himself and his friends. Those who have committed crimes, those who have abused their offices should not try to invoke the argument of national security or secrets to go scot-free.

People handling these matters are not unpatriotic or reckless and they know what constitutes national security or secrets. Legitimate secrets will be protected and will be distinguished from cases of corruption.

No one, not even under Levy, was prosecuted for doing legitimate security or intelligence work. Even our courts of law will distinguish between corruption and security or intelligence work. What is being investigated and what will be prosecuted is corruption and not legitimate national security or intelligence expenditure.

And no one should be able to pull the curtain of secrecy around decisions and acts of corruption which can be probed and prosecuted without injustice.
We all know that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and there is nothing more corrupt than power exercised in secrecy. Theft is not secret. And our national security interests will not be protected through corruption, through abuse of public resources.

It seems some people will never learn that cover-ups can be worse than the underlying conduct. There is no need to cover up wrong things under the guise of protecting state secrets. What state secrets? The state doesn't steal; it can't steal from itself. What has been stolen here are resources that belong to the state and the secrets of the state cannot be used to cover up the wrongs that have been done against the state itself.

What is needed is an accountable and transparent government. Those in government have to account for their actions and everything, every expenditure can't be declared a state secret. When so much is secret, secrecy is not respected.

And why is George so concerned about establishing a culture of removing the immunity of a former president who has stolen, who had abused his office so that he can be prosecuted? The law provides for that. If we have corrupt presidents replacing each other, it doesn't matter to have them all prosecuted. This is within the law.

We shouldn't allow a culture of impunity to take root. Corruption has to be fought regardless of the status of who is involved in it. If by lifting Rupiah Banda's immunity so that he could be prosecuted for the corruption he was engaged in when he was president of the Republic, it means that we will have to do the same about Michael Sata when he leaves office, let it be.

If Michael will engage in corruption during the tenure of his office, the next government will be required to lift his immunity and get him prosecuted. When Dr Kenneth Kaunda left office, the Chiluba regime believed he had stolen public funds and brought in Scotland Yard to investigate him.

But they found nothing. If there are suspicions of wrongdoing, let them be investigated and if wrongdoing is established, the immunity should be removed and prosecutions allowed to commence. We are not the only ones in the world doing this. There are many other countries in the world - from Taiwan to France - that have prosecuted their former presidents and got them convicted.
The immunity given to the president was never meant to be a licence for stealing public funds.

The immunity was extended to the president to protect him from unjustified litigation. And stealing public funds can never be justified in any way.
Moreover, this government has made it clear that the standard they are setting on corruption and its prosecution will be the standard that will be used in their own cases.

They are not asking for different standards for Rupiah and his league and another one for themselves. They are not, in any way, calling others to virtues which they themselves are not ready to embrace or live by. This is the type of leadership the country needs, a leadership that sets rules that should not only be obeyed by others but also by itself.

It is increasingly becoming clear to all that George and his friends are now starting to realise that they are in hot soup, their game is over. They never thought they would leave power so soon; they never thought they would be made to account for their misdeeds so soon.

They thought they would be in power for a much longer time and that power would just be changing hands among themselves - the MMD would be in power for a very long time to come.

Actually they used to boast about this. So they can't believe that their game is over and they have to account for their corruption. No amount of state secrets will save them from the impending Armageddon. The best they can do is start returning what they stole and seek forgiveness from the Zambian people.

Labels: CORRUPTION, FREDERICK CHILUBA, GEORGE KUNDA

posted by MrK @ 4:38 PM