Looking unto the East: Thieving politicians should not go scot-free

It would be a truism to state that all political systems have corrupt individuals and institutions.

Media reports giving details of acts of dishonesty, embezzlement and graft are a daily reality, and no country can claim to be immune from the cancer of thieving politicians.

Where countries differ, however, is in the way they deal with those public officials who are caught with their hands in the till.

In most African countries, public officials who cheat, steal and embezzle are considered smart entrepreneurs who know to put their offices to good use.

I once heard an African head of state say that one cannot work in a honey factory without licking one’s fingers.

This attitude among Africans could have a number of explanations. One is that no one dare point a finger at, say, a president or his wife, son, daughter or concubine, even if everyone in the country knows that the so-called first family is a fraternity of hoodlums.

Another is that the very institutions created to fight corruption are housed in the president’s office and receive direct orders from him.

The very well remunerated individuals heading these institutions know better than to bite the hand that feeds them. (Sometimes they themselves become so corrupted that one wonders whether “setting a thief to catch a thief” is not being taken too literally).

All too often these offices are made to do hatchet jobs for the big man by harassing political opponents.

Thirdly, there is in many of our countries an immunity clause that shields presidents from prosecution for acts they may have committed while carrying out their duties, and this has been deliberately misconstrued to mean any acts committed by a president.

Could this ever mean that a person who commits rape while he is president would be viewed as having committed that act while carrying out his duties?

Thirdly, our heads of state have found an effective insurance policy: If you close your eyes to the corruption of your predecessor, your successor will close his eyes to your own corruption. It works.

Then there is the outrageous suggestion that the prosecution of former leaders might make them less willing to respect term limits and hang onto power, which would seriously hobble the already fragile democracies. Hogwash.
Also, we cannot properly relate to public property, which in our psyche belongs not to us but to the state.

As a result, people who regularly “necklace” and burn chicken thieves to ashes feel unconcerned when billions of shillings find their way into private bank accounts.

This is a far cry from what our friends do in the Far East. To be sure, they too have politicians with appetites to match our politicians’ often much bigger appetites.

But once they catch them they prosecute them, and several former presidents are languishing in jail as I write.

In one country they go one better: they shoot you and then invoice your family for the execution bullet.

A couple of African countries have attempted to make former heads of state account for their alleged crimes that they supposedly committed while in office: Frederick Chiluba in Zambia and Bakili Muluzi in Malawi.

Of course, there have been allegations of political scores being settled and suchlike, but the very fact of making it plain that nobody is above the law has a cathartic effect on our societies.

Unless we can have it ingrained in our collective psyche that our politicians, including heads of state, are public servants, governed by a certain set of rules and regulations that they must strictly adhere to, we cannot hope to build governance systems that work.

There seems to be an argument in Zambia as to whether Chiluba should be pursued further, while in Malawi the prosecution has finally got Muluzi before a court of law.

He may be convicted or he may be acquitted, but that is not the point. The point is that impunity has been dealt a serious blow, and that can only be for the good of Africa.

Jenerali Ulimwengu, chairman of the board of Raia Mwema newspaper, is a political commentator and civil society activist based in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: [email protected]