Why is Cornelius destroying his political career this way?

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Why is Cornelius destroying his political career this way?

According to Benjamin Disraeli, in politics nothing is contemptible.

If there is one government position that destroys people’s political careers, it is that of Chief Government Spokesperson and Minister of Information. When one takes a closer look at Zambia’s political history, one thing becomes evident: that successive republican presidents have tended to fill this position with individuals who go out of their way to cover the failings of their appointing authority, to defend the indefensible, to lie with a straight face. This explains why individuals who have held the position of minister of information have generally never commanded much respect from most Zambians. Even those who, prior to assuming the position, showed some semblance of level-headedness seem to lose it when they become chief government spokesperson. It is as if the position of minister of information is the one to which incumbent presidents send those whom they see as their potential successors for self-destruction. What we do not know is whether the affected individuals self-destruct consciously or do so blindly and without much regard to the long-term consequences of their antics on their political careers.

Before his appointment as Minister of Information and Media, and Chief Government Spokesperson, Cornelius Mweetwa was a very sensible person.

His positions on many issues were mature, sound, and, some would say, even inspiring. We have followed Cornelius’ public career from his student days at the University of Zambia where he served as president of the University of Zambia Students Union. Anyone who is familiar with his stint as UNZASU president would confirm that he was a very good and effective student leader who hardly told lies nor defended the indefensible. Even when he later assumed the roles of UPND deputy spokesperson (that is, before Charles Kakoma defected to the PF), member of parliament for Choma Central, UPND spokesperson or Southern Province minister, Cornelius continued to display decency and respect for public interest.

Until recently, Cornelius was not someone who was greatly despised by much of the public. He was generally seen by many people as his own person, one who had no reason to feed the public with lies or irrational defences of anyone in government. But ever since he assumed the role of Minister of Information and Media, the affection that a great number of Zambians had towards Cornelius is slowly disappearing and being replaced with a sense of disappointment. And it is easy to understand why. Cornelius, the Minister of Information and Media, is no longer the level-headed Cornelius we knew as UNZASU president, UPND spokesperson, Choma MP, or provincial minister. That old Cornelius, a man who showed complete disdain for telling lies and whom some began to see as a potential leader of this country, is dying right before our very eyes. His political obituary is writing itself. Today, there is a new Cornelius; a Cornelius that appears to be unashamed to defend the indefensible, to say the most unreasonable of things – to take leave from his senses and spit over his previously progressive record, all to appease his appointing authority. Listening to Cornelius nowadays is a pain. It is as if he is on a suicide mission to destroy his public image.

Let us take a few examples from his most recent press conferences. In response to growing public calls for President Hakainde Hichilema to release his assets, Cornelius says there is no legal requirement for the President to do so adding that: “Any attempt by a sitting president to do things that are not provided for by the law presents an existential threat to a possibility of deviating away from the trajectory of providing leadership anchored on the rule of law. The President of the Republic Zambia therefore wishes to indicate his desire to live by the law. Any call that a particular office of president should declare their assets annually should be made by the citizens to their lawmakers”.

This reasoning is absurd in several ways. First, President Hakainde Hichilema was elected on a ticket of transparency and accountability. How can promoting transparency and leading by example pose an existential threat to the rule of law? Second, and as the US Ambassador Michael Gonzales has said, “Leadership is not about only doing the bare minimum required by law, but about going beyond and doing what is right and needed to lead and shape reforms.”

Third, and as Dr Sishuwa Sishuwa noted, “Instead of joining those singing the song that says there is no law that requires President Hichilema to declare his assets, why has the executive branch of government failed to enact such a law over the last two years if at all it was committed to the fight against corruption?”

Fourth, why is Cornelius turning the issue of asset publication into a government affair when it is not?

The matter at hand relates to the President. Cornelius, the last time we checked, is not a spokesperson for the President. He is a mouthpiece for the government. At the very least, President Hichilema should have sent Clayson Hamasaka to defend the indefensible.

Why is Cornelius destroying his political career this way? What has gotten to his head such that he is now irritating Zambians who held him in high esteem? Does Cornelius know that he has veered off his rationality? If he doesn’t know, we are putting it to him that he is no longer the rational Cornelius Zambians used to know. He has now become a noise cymbal with no melody, a chatterbox. In all instances, he seems to enjoy listening to himself more than communicating sense to the nation.

At the same press conference, Cornelius also justified the hefty compensations being dished out to UPND members for false imprisonment, police arrests or detentions, and all sorts of reasons by the Attorney General on grounds that had such matters gone to trial, the State would have forked out more money in compensation. There are several problems with this thinking. The first is that of hypocrisy. If arresting and detaining people without taking them to court is wrong, why is the UPND administration doing to members of the opposition what the PF did to its members? How many times has this administration arrested and detained, several times, opposition Patriots for Economic Progress leader Sean Tembo without taking him to court? Second, how come it is only UPND members who are being compensated? If UNIP and PF members who were arrested by the MMD in the 1990s and early 2000s come forward to make similar claims, would the government require them to prove their cases at trial or would they too be given hefty compensation through consent orders? Third, how does the UPND justify compensation to someone who was released on a nolle prosequi, which means the freed can be rearrested if fresh evidence is found? Mumbi Phiri was kept in prison for over a year before she was released on a nolle prosequi. Is Cornelius telling us that if she sued the State today, she would be compensated without trial? Civil rights activist Brebner Changala has been arrested several times and released on a nolle. Is Cornelius telling us that if he sued the State today, he would be compensated without trial? Also, what gives Cornelius the confidence to conclude that all these matters where UPND members are receiving hefty amounts of money for alleged offences against them during the PF’s rule would automatically result in victories for the suing party and losses for the State if they are subjected to trial?

There are several examples we can cite to show the differences between the Cornelius of before – the mature, reasonable, and even trusted leader – and the Cornelius of after – the one who defends the indefensible. The one who justifies wrongs and thinks the public are stupid and can easily be misled with a straight face. Again, we ask: why is Cornelius destroying his political career this way?

Mario Vargas Llosa explained it this way, “My three years in politics was very instructive about the way in which the appetite for political power can destroy a human mind, destroy principles and values, and transform people into little monsters.”

Just when people thought Cornelius was presidential material, he has proven them wrong. He has shown them he is, after all, a turncoat just like any other common Zambian politician. This is the level Cornelius has reduced himself to. Again, why is he wasting a young and promising leadership?