politics is even meaner and dirtier than mean politics in many other
places. And in this particular case, it has a fecal whiff!
Consider the cabal now in progress against businessman turned
politician Pierre-Jacques Chalupa, a Greek immigrant who has lived in
Kinshasa so long he's now a Congolese through and through. With, as
his lawyer claims, immigration documents to prove he's one! And even
if he didn't have those documents, the man got nowhere else to go: his
entire adult life was spent here!
A vocal anti-establishment politico and a darling of the opposition
media, Chalupa is the president of a duly registered political party
called "Action pour la Démocratie et le Développement au Congo" (ADD
Congo).
In 2006, Chalupa was elected MP in Kinshasa, but his career at the
National Assembly was short-lived: his win was invalidated by the
Supreme Court of Justice following a challenge filed by a political
rival.
In this election cycle, Chalupa, an MP candidate, was among the most
visible and pugnacious supporters of Tshisekedi. During the electoral
campaign, he was once arrested for putting up a pro-Tshisekedi
billboard at Victoire square. The police later gave a rather lame
explanation of the arrest: Chalupa was disrupting road traffic at rush
hours!
And in the end Chalupa's unwavering support for Tshisekedi might have
rubbed some powerful bozos the wrong way.
On Thursday, February 2, Chalupa was remanded in custody at Kinshasa
Makala Prison for acquiring "fraudulent" Congolese nationality. In
fact, according to news reports, he's been asked to prove two things:
1) his Congolese nationality; and 2) the "exclusivity" of his
Congolese nationality--meaning that he'd still be in trouble if he's
found to be holding his European Union passport!
These are some of the stupidest charges to ever be filed under the
equally stupid nationality laws in a country where well-known
politicians happen to be in the same predicament as Chalupa but go
about their daily businesses unmolested... Moral of the story: never
ever cross these MOFOS!
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