Maravi

Rupiah delivers 1st lecture at Boston University

Rupiah delivers 1st lecture at Boston University
By Moses Kuwema
Thu 05 Apr. 2012, 13:54 CAT

RUPIAH Banda says his administration chose to uphold the Constitution and allow the legal system to exercise its authority without executive intervention regarding Frederick Chiluba's case in which the late former president had been found guilty of corruption by the London High Court.

During his inaugural lecture at Boston University in the US, Banda said he was proud of his administration's steadfast refusal to allow the executive branch encroach on other branches of government and to stand by the principles of democracy that had been damaged in the past.

"This led to a spirited competitive environment, sometimes to the detriment of my administration, but fully within the boundaries of what we should expect in a normal democracy," he said.

Banda said there were deep misunderstandings fueled by hostile newspaper editors who chose to back the opposition party.

He said in particular, his government was criticised over a Zambian court decision regarding former president Chiluba, who had been found guilty of corruption in a civil case by the London High Court.

"Essentially, I was being demanded as president to personally intervene in the judicial process and violate the separation of powers to force the Judiciary to uphold the British decision against Chiluba, who, it must be recognised, was seen as an enormously popular leader by a large number of people in the country. Notwithstanding that Chiluba once jailed me as a political prisoner; my administration chose to uphold the constitution and allow the legal system to exercise its authority without executive intervention," he said.

This is the same Banda who, when addressing mourners at Embassy Park during the burial of former president Chiluba, said Levy Mwanawasa wanted Chiluba to be rescued from the corruption cases he was facing and he did what Mwanawasa wanted.

"Let me assure all Zambians if this can help in any way. I was vice-president to president Mwanawasa and I had very sincere discussions with him about what was going on regarding Dr Chiluba. I can assure the Zambians that he too, towards the end, felt that something had to be done to remove him from the prosecution," Banda said then.

"However, as we all know even I when I came, I tried (to forgive Chiluba) but there are always people who felt that forgiveness should not be part of our life in Zambia. Therefore, I feel that president Mwanawasa himself if he had not been taken away would have said what I am saying."

And at State House after he swore in Hildah Chibomba as Supreme Court judge, Abyudi Shonga as Solicitor General and bestowed the status of State Counsel on United Liberal Party (ULP) president Sakwiba Sikota and former Director of Public Prosecutions Chalwe Mchenga, Banda, immediately after the magistrates' courts acquitted Chiluba on corruption charges, thanked and congratulated Zambians for accepting the acquittal.

He said there was anxiety about what would happen to Chiluba before the judgment.

"I want to thank the Zambian people, your honour the Zambian people today, for having accepted the decision of the Judiciary. I congratulate them because all of us were anxious; we wanted to know what will happen to one of our former presidents. The Zambian people really have to be congratulated for respecting the Judiciary, for respecting this noble institution. Whoever thought of it, wherever he came from, was a very wise person and that's why this should continue to thrive," Banda said then.

And officiating at the 28th general conference of the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) at Mulungushi University, a day when Chiluba was acquitted, Banda said nobody could deny that Chiluba did a lot of good things for the country.

"Today is a very important day for the Zambian community. As we are speaking now, our former president Chiluba is in court and the verdict is being pronounced on him. I have kept quiet at all times because I believe that we need the Judiciary to adjudicate on these matters. Soon you will know what the Judiciary will decide," Banda said even before the magistrate had finished reading his judgment.

In Boston, Banda said at the beginning of his tenure, the MMD continued with the fight against corruption and sought to base the anti-corruption efforts under a sound statutory framework that would conduct prosecutions in a lawful manner.

Banda said one of the most important measures MMD took was to streamline the prosecutorial bodies, by moving the anti-corruption task force under the police to improve its efficiency, deepen access to resources, and cut back on all the redundancies.

"If there is one thing that I regret during my presidency, it is that our communications efforts regarding these decisions could have been much better. The moving of the task force to serve under the police, which, by the way, was essential to the improvement of the anti-corruption drive," he said.

He named the three reasons for moving the task force under the police as, avoiding the spiraling costs, restoring presumption of innocence and due process and protecting against personal and political manipulation.

Banda said when the task force functioned independently; investigators were enormously wasteful of the budget.

"Scheduling expensive and unnecessary trips to Europe and the United States and then coming up with very weak cases - often accusing some corrupt individual of a fraud in the amount that represented less than one tenth of the budget wasted by the task force in bringing the case to trial. Further, before my reforms, the task force, operated on the principle of ‘guilty until proven innocent,' and were notoriously famous for using the press to conduct trials by headline - sometimes even resulting in newspaper editorials, not real investigation and evidence, being presented to the judge. Lastly, having the task force separate from the police opened it up to personal and political manipulation, with the appointment of members of the ruling party to key positions to guide prosecutions," he said.

Banda observed that the cooperating partners were critical of his anti-corruption efforts because they failed to communicate all of his administration's concerns.

He said there was a failure on behalf of the West to understand how an anti-corruption fight could itself become corrupted.

Banda said the seeking of financial assistance by his administration from China did not always sit well with the cooperating partners from the West, who were discomforted by the new Eastern presence in Africa.

"…And they would make unfounded allegations of impropriety and unreasonable demands to know the details of loan conditions and pricing of competitive bids, which were not only false and damaging to us, but also to the welfare of our people," he said.

And Banda said he was proud that his administration left with dignity and afforded President Michael Sata an opportunity to succeed or fail based on his policies, not because of political traps laid by those he followed.

He said he was proud of his campaign in the run-up to the September 20, elections.

"In an election contested by three major parties and seven smaller parties, our party secured the votes of 35 per cent of the country, and lost by a narrow margin of around 180,000 votes in a hard-fought contest," he said.

Banda said he even relinquished the leadership position of the MMD because he believed that past presidents must give future leadership an opportunity to emerge.

"For democracy to flourish there must be a continuing stream of individuals of integrity and ideas with promise. There must be room for a new generation of leaders to rise to solve the next generation of problems. If democracy is going to be secure in countries like Zambia, if development is going to take root, old leaders can't cling to power or attempt to consolidate it at all costs. There comes a time when leaders must step aside and become statesmen (elder or not) and stop seeing themselves as the personification of the state. Again, let me say that's why I applaud Abdoulaye Wade's conceding power in Senegal," Banda said.

He said democracy and good governance was a never-ending job as it was not something that was accomplished and then just left to stand alone, but that it must always be strengthened, respected, and upheld.

"Democracy also requires a culture of acceptance, the people of the country must understand that even when their candidate loses and the other candidate wins, it is still their government. That is why the expectations of the people need to be managed in African democracies, requiring that leaders be honest and transparent with their citizens," he said.

Banda said political leaders had a responsibility to listen to their people, not their own egos.

He said he saw the entrenchment of democracy in Zambia happening once the country had a people-driven constitution that would not be subject to manipulation year after year.

Banda said the 50 per cent plus one vote for the presidential elections were some of the issues that need to be resolved under the current constitution review process.

Labels: MMD, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 3:34 PM