Maravi

What does Rupiah mean by coexistence?

What does Rupiah mean by coexistence?
By The Post
Wed 04 July 2012, 13:25 CAT

WHEN a man who for the three years he was president of our Republic tolerated and defended the intolerance, violence and inability of his supporters to coexist with others, one wonders what he means by coexistence or what has moved him to call for coexistence. Rupiah Banda led the most intolerant regime of our multiparty politics in the last twenty years. He surrounded himself with the most intolerant, most violent and most hateful elements.

And William Banda, who he is praising today, was one such intolerant, violent and hateful fellow. Rupiah himself was not different from William. Many in our country today who found themselves on the other side of politics are still carrying the scars of Rupiah's intolerance. And for Rupiah, intolerance had to be accompanied by greed and vanity. Rupiah had no regard for the rights and plight of others.

If Rupiah had a chance, he would have taken all the resources of this country for himself and left nothing for others. Look at the involvement of Rupiah's family in government contracts! Look at how Rupiah and his sons enriched themselves in such a short time! Look at what Rupiah himself has that he didn't have before he became president! One cannot call for peaceful existence with others when he has no respect for the rights and privileges of others.

It would seem that when Rupiah was president, him and his family had more rights to the resources of this country than others. Look at how far his intolerance took him: he took over Rajan Mahtani's bank simply because when he had failed to repay his loan, this bank took over his property which was pledged as security!

Look at the way he treated others who were opposed to him, both within his party and outside it! And today this same Rupiah that never respected the spirit of co-existence and tolerance is calling for these things! Why? What has happened? Why the change of heart? The truth is Rupiah always acts in self-interest. And when he is calling for co-existence, he is simply calling for the tolerance of the crimes of his league.

We all know that today Rupiah's son, Henry, is on the run from our law enforcement agencies who want him to answer some questions on matters of corruption. Rupiah's wife, Thandiwe, has been called by our law enforcement agencies to answer some questions related to matters of corruption. And we have no doubt, given what we know of what he was doing when he was in power, it won't be long before Rupiah is asked to explain how he acquired a number of things.

Money does not grow on trees. And Rupiah's businesses and other assets were all declared and were well known. Where and how was it possible for him and his family to acquire so much wealth, so much property in a period of just three years? And the remuneration of the president in this country is not that high.

We know what coexistence means for Rupiah. It means exempting those who abused their offices, those who stole public funds when they were in power from going to jail and from losing their loot. This is what Rupiah did with Frederick Chiluba. With his own mouth, with his own tongue, Rupiah used to boast, brag about preventing Chiluba from being jailed.

How was this possible? It can only be through the manipulation of our judicial process, of our magistrates and judges and of the prosecution authorities. This is what Rupiah did. And this is what he means by coexistence. This is what he wants from this regime. But is this what the Zambian people want? Is this what coexistence should mean to the Zambian people?

They know that this country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless it is a good place for all of us to live in.

We agree with Rupiah on the need and the principle of coexistence. But what we disagree with is any attempt to manipulate this idea, this noble principle and use it to exempt oneself from being made accountable for one's crimes. When we were young, we used to be told that there were struggles even in heaven, among the angels - and if there were struggles in heaven, how can we fail to understand that there may be struggles on earth?

What's more, Jesus tells us we must love our enemies - he doesn't say we mustn't have enemies - and there is no greater love for a wrongdoer, a criminal, a corrupt person than to prevent him from doing wrong, from committing crimes and from engaging in corruption. We were also taught that there was a constant struggle between good and evil, and evil had to be punished.

We were taught that those who committed crimes were responsible for injustice, evil, and all those other things would be punished in hell. Could that be interpreted as an expression of hatred, inability to coexist with others, intolerance?

We remember what Levy Mwanawasa said in response to calls for him to forgive Chiluba. Levy said he had no problem forgiving Chiluba if he brought back part of what he had stolen from the Zambian people. In a word, what Levy was saying is that forgiveness doesn't just come like that - one has to confess his sins, wrongs and then seek forgiveness. True reconciliation is to seek and accept forgiveness.

In the state our country is in today, with all its poverty and unemployment, the mission of reconciliation in the political arena must be underpinned by the uplifting of the most downtrodden sections of our population and all-round transformation of our society. And we should not be tempted by any form of political manipulation or be enticed to read co-existence, reconciliation, tolerance and fairness as meaning parity between justice and injustice.

Of course, we must love everybody, but not everyone in the same way; you love those who have abused their offices, those who have abused public funds by having them prosecuted; you love the poor, those who have been robbed by giving back to them their dignity and restoring to them that which they were robbed of. Love has to be a classifying device to become universal.

If we are not open to objective acknowledgement of our situation and the things that distress our people, then we are not prepared, in a true way, for co-existence and reconciliation for the sake of the real, living wholeness of our nation.

If we want our conversion to find true expression in the life of our national community, we must strive to lead lives worthy of the Gospel (Phil 1:27, Eph 4:1), reject all lies, all harmful or offensive words, all anger, bitterness and evil utterance, and be benevolent and forgive generously as God forgave us through Christ.

Labels: CORRUPTION, RUPIAH BANDA, WYNTER KABIMBA

posted by MrK @ 4:19 PM