Dr. Levy Patrick Mwanawasa - A Good Man and A President Dies

Via dkos:

"The Zambian President, Levy Mwanawasa, died in hospital in Paris earlier today. He was 59. He had suffered a stroke in late June in Cairo where he was due to attend a summit of the African Union.

At the time of his stroke, President Mwanawasa was Chair of SADC, the South African Development Community and was an outspoken critic of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. At home he was better known for challenging the corruption of his predecessor, Frederick Chiluba.

The post goes onto provide biographical details about Mwanawasa including this note from the BBC obituary:

He had numerous professional distinctions, among them becoming the first Zambian lawyer to be appointed advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.

In Zambia, he was famous for taking up cases that few lawyers would even contemplate. But the one case that pushed him into prominence was a treason case in 1989.

He had to defend former vice-president Lt Gen Christon Tembo and others who were charged with plotting to overthrow the government of the then president, Kenneth Kaunda.

And I want to highlight the diarist's conclusion:

It will be for his courage in leading the regional criticism of Africa's self-proclaimed Hitler, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe that he will be best remembered outside his country. He broke the code of silence that surrounded a "liberation leader" among other African leaders to describe his southern neighboring country as a "catastrophe" and condemning the conduct of this year's elections.

It's important to mark the good ones in government wherever they may be. Too often the bad ones dominate the news.