Maravi

Why is MMD defending corruption?
By Editor
Tue 30 Apr. 2013, 14:00 CAT

It is difficult to understand why the MMD has continued to defend Rupiah Banda and his corruption. The problems that the MMD is facing today have been foisted upon it by Rupiah. The MMD is in the state it is in today because of Rupiah's behaviour and corruption.

It is Rupiah who made the MMD lose power and be kicked out of government. Rupiah ran a corrupt and very intolerant regime that discredited the MMD in the eyes of our people. Rupiah's behaviour as president of the Republic was disgraceful and lacked seriousness in all aspects.

Rupiah was in State House to enjoy himself, enrich himself and his family and not to lead the country and strengthen the MMD. The MMD was simply a ladder for Rupiah to use to ascend to power. And the rung of a ladder was not meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.

The MMD, in its current state, is of very little value to Rupiah. The MMD as a party is not able to give Rupiah the protection he wants from it. The party failed to mobilise against the removal of his immunity. The most the party can give Rupiah today is to parade some cadres at court whenever he goes for an appearance. This is not of much value to Rupiah because it will have no effect on the outcome of his cases.

Rupiah needs the services of his lawyers more than of the MMD cadres.
And MMD cadres are making fools of themselves going to court to give support or solidarity to a person who is responsible for the destruction of their party. The sleaze of Rupiah's regime totally disgraced the MMD in the eyes of the public. Their perception is of corruption and unfitness for public office. And if the MMD does not distance itself from the corruption of Rupiah's regime and start afresh, that distasteful perception will endure and do them damage for a long time.

The support and solidarity the MMD is giving to Rupiah is sending a message to the Zambian people that the party, its members and leadership stand for corruption, defend corruption, embrace corruption. With such a public perception, MMD will never see a reversal of political fortunes.

And decent members, cadres and leaders of the MMD should be ashamed of themselves being seen to be defending Rupiah's corruption. Only if they themselves are corrupt will they not be ashamed of this.

As for Nevers himself, his defence of Rupiah's corruption is understandable because, like Rupiah, he is also facing corruption allegations. Probably Nevers needs Rupiah to fight his own corruption charges. But it can never be true that everyone, everybody in MMD is corrupt. There are decent people in that party who have allowed themselves to be misled, to be fooled, to be manipulated into defending causes that are not worth defending.

Rupiah is not being persecuted. If this was the case, Rupiah would deserve the support of all Zambians of goodwill, including ourselves. If Rupiah was being persecuted, as he wants everyone to believe, we would be there to defend him in spite of everything that he has done against us, in spite of his evil schemes against us. But Rupiah is being prosecuted justifiably and legally so. If Rupiah was being persecuted, he wouldn't be in that court today. That's not a court of persecution; it's a court of prosecution. The magistrate before whom Rupiah is appearing is not a persecutor.

So what is this solidarity with Rupiah about? Anyway, we know that wherever you see such gatherings, someone is forking out money. MMD cadres don't move without being paid. And for money, they will allow themselves to be hit by the cold and to be scorched by the sun. For money, they will leave their homes and families to come and show the world that Rupiah is not alone; he has got people supporting him.
Probably some of them believe that the good old days of eating endlessly will come back. MMD is out of power and probably out of power forever. It is a discredited political party with a discredited leadership.

Solidarity with Rupiah will never save the MMD. It will instead get the party more discredited and dismissed as corrupt by the Zambian people.

Probably some think by supporting Rupiah, more money will flow into the party. It won't. The most Rupiah will do is to release a bit of money to pay for those cadres who come to court and meet the legal fees of his lawyers. About Rupiah funding the MMD to the extent they are expecting, it won't happen. This will be a waste of money on Rupiah's part because there is no profit in him financing the MMD, especially with money he is being accused of having stolen.

And this also demonstrates the lack of morality on the part of those involved in giving Rupiah solidarity over his corruption cases. They all know very well how the MMD was being run, where the money was coming from. Can any of them really stand up and say the MMD was being run by Rupiah on a clean basis with clean money?

It is not difficult for the MMD to distance itself from the corruption of the Rupiah regime. Under Levy, the MMD distanced itself from the corruption of its former leader Frederick Chiluba. Cadres from the MMD of Levy never went to court to give solidarity to Chiluba's corruption. They stayed away and allowed the law to take its course.

But the MMD of Nevers has no shame going to court and defending the corruption of those who previously led it.

Of course, Levy is not Nevers. Levy was not facing any corruption charges before our courts of law. Nevers is facing corruption charges before our courts of law. This is not a small difference.

But the consequence of this is the total destruction of MMD because every day that MMD cadres and leaders are seen parading themselves in defence of corruption, the party's standing diminishes.

Labels: CORRUPTION, MMD, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 4:51 PM