THE fight against corruption, more often than not, starts as a lone battle and could make the initiator unpopular in some quarters.
This is because the suspects usually have a lot of influence on society and are sometimes able to endear themselves to unsuspecting members of the public.
Where more citizens are gullible, the fight against corruption and other forms of financial dishonesty is lost even before it starts.
This is because the suspects are financially-powerful people who control society and influence the thinking of the majority of the citizens to their selfish advantage.
Our memories are still unsullied about what late President Levy Mwanawasa, may his soul continue to rest in peace, went through at the hand of the corrupt clique.
Dr Mwanawasa was ridiculed, verbally attacked, left, right and centre, by the people who, if they had any shame, should not even have dared to show up their faces in public.
However, given their shamelessness and cheek, the clique always cries foul and paint anyone trying to correct things as though is the one in the wrong when in fact not.
This is exactly what has started happening following the ascendance to the presidency by President Hakainde Hichilema who is a crusader against corruption.
As Mr Hichilema noted yesterday, the members of the suspected clique are regrouping and have started throwing all sorts of dirt they can manage to gather, including abusive language, at the president and anyone who shows support towards the current anti-corruption crusade.
Instead of being remorseful and apologetic to the people of Zambia, these people who, a few months ago, called anyone who complained about their many misdeeds cry babies, are now ‘crying murder’ even before they are summoned for any questioning.
They are ready to use their foul mouths to try and cow everyone who dares to raise a voice highlighting the clique’s past fraud and other offences.
What they forget is that, no one is above the law and no matter how foul mouthed one could be they are amenable to the rule of law.
They also choose to forget that as far as the fight against corruption is concerned, the Zambians know who could have been involved and who is doing the right thing to address the situation.
Talking about who could have been involved, it is not all former officials from the Patriotic Front (PF) administration who could have been involved, for instance.
As the president says, it is just a small clique of former leaders who, every time their names come up for wrong reasons, want to drag the entire former ruling party and their entire tribes into being the victims.
Any suspect is named as an individual not as a representative of his/her own tribe or club because crimes are committed by individuals not by clubs or tribes.
It is for that reason that United Party for National Development officials rightly guided some seemingly overzealous members who at one time called for outlawing of the PF as a party, given some criminalities which had alleged gone on under PF’s watch.
Indeed, the fight against corruption is aimed at weeding out any corrupt elements wherever they may be and regardless of the tribal background.
We are confident that former Financial Intelligence Centre boss, Mary Chirwa who was sworn in as Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) director general is equal to the task, given her past performance.
In the end, whether more suspects are found in a given church or indeed in from a given political party or region is not the issue.
Therefore, any suspect should wait for his/her day in court to state how clean they are and not verbally attack other innocent people who have not been indicted in the alleged scandals.