Do not spare the ‘big fish’
We are appreciative of the efforts by the country’s anti graft institution to bring to book culprits suspected to have squandered public funds.
We have heard about a court in Nsanje convicting and sentencing a chief and chairperson of an area development committee, as told by the Anti Corruption Bureau – ACB.
While the development is quite commendable, what is of concern is the fact that the pattern that is coming to the fore is that selective justice is being applied.
While the small culprits are being quickly rounded up, that appears not to be the case with the so called big fish whose names keep coming in the limelight, suspected of having mismanaged public funds.
Not long ago, some legislators were mentioned to have been at the heart and core of the embezzlement to do with Constituency Development Funds – CDF. One was even arrested up in the Northern Region and only found reprieve when he was released on bail. To this day however, none of the legislators suspected in the CDF has been made to account for their role.
The examples are quite many and the bottom line is that the ACB has to be working with the same sense of speed and urgency when tackling cases that are implicating those with connections to the system and the perceived ‘big fish.’
Only then will a clear signal be sent to the public that the justice system has really started biting, and that the law indeed knows no class or one’s status in society.
Our stand is that the bureau should up its game and go after the ‘big fish’. That way, it will go a long way in its quest of regaining the long lost confidence among the people.
It is quite commendable that the wheels of justice are slowly turning in the right direction in as far as expediting matters in court is concerned, but there should not be any segregation in as far as who to bring before a court of law is concerned.
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