Maravi

Tribally balancing Cabinet

Tribally balancing Cabinet
By Editor
Tuesday December 11, 2007 [03:00]

If it can be avoided it would be better not to have a large number of ministers. Governing a country is not an easy undertaking. It requires a lot of participation and this does not usually come without a cost to the public. The size of government is dictated by many factors – political, social, economic and so on and so forth.

Government is the instrument by which people cooperate together in order to achieve the common good. An authority is needed to guide the energies of all towards the common good.

There is need for a conversion of heart and for the transformation of the social structures in order to build our country. The government has the duty to serve the people and to equitably distribute goods and services among all the people. And the size of government should be in line with our goals as a nation.

And the ways in which we will achieve our goals are bound by context, changing with circumstances even while remaining steadfast in our commitment to our vision. A mark of great leaders is the ability to understand the context in which they are operating and act accordingly.

But in whatever we do, there is need to strive to be responsible in the use of any money made available to us as a nation either by our own taxpayers or through solidarity by our cooperating partners. It is time for us to embrace the culture of responsibility and accountability, and to commit ourselves with dedication and sacrifice in working for future generations.

Having a huge government costs a lot of money that could be used to provide other services to our people. We shouldn’t forget that it is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person or country from another. There are countries in this world, like Cuba, that have made very fine use of very limited resources to give its people a better life. The important thing is to give happiness to our people. Every government expenditure must be justified; it must be put on the judgement seat of reason.

The reasons being advanced by information minister Mike Mulongoti to justify the size of our government are very difficult to accept. Mulongoti says that Zambia needs to take into account that some tribal groupings might feel marginalised if the size of cabinet is reduced.

No one can deny that political considerations should be taken into account when forming government. But these political considerations should not be exaggerated. Ours is not a federal state or a federation of chiefdoms.

It is a unitary state whose government is supposed to be picked among the best political representatives of our people. And we disagree with Mulongoti that our government is truly constituted on the basis of tribal representation. If this was the case, the nature and character of our government would today be very different.

And based on the latest studies, a government that is tribal based would comprise of 43 per cent ministers who are Bemba speaking, 22 per cent Nyanja speaking, 19 per cent Tonga speaking, nine per cent Lozi speaking and seven per cent from the North Western Province tribes. We know that this is not the case with our government or cabinet.

We shouldn’t exaggerate the regional sensitivities that exist in our country to justify our political schemes that have little, if not nothing, to do with the legitimate or real interests of our people.

It is true our people love their languages, their tribes but they are not obsessed with these things. The outlook of the Zambian people is not really a tribal one. And this explains why our people are able and willing to vote for a candidate who is not a member of their language or tribe if he is better than one who would claim to be their own.

What Zambians want is merit. And what we should strive for as a country is merit and not some obscure tribal balancing scheme. We should never abandon the goal of merit and excellence in favour of an ill-defined quest for tribal balancing (ill-defined because it is really based on a desire for patronage rather than real broadening of opportunities to serve the nation).

We should realise that the interests of the Zambian people are by far larger than the combined sensitivities of those who make and benefit from ministerial appointments. Failure to realise this constitutes part of the explanation why our government can make such explanations to justify the size of cabinet on tribal balancing.

There is really no compromise of national security that can arise from appointing the very best of our politicians, on merit, to Cabinet positions as Mulongoti claims. It is in fact this disregard of merit in favour of some ill-defined tribal balancing that actually threatens national security. It threatens national security because it fails to deliver to people’s expectations.

There is little that can be achieved by appointing people to ministerial jobs who are incapable of performing the tasks given to them and are continually at sea. Ministerial jobs should not be given to people on the basis of their tribe, but on their abilities to deliver the required services to our people.

What our people need is to be provided with the necessary services needed in an organised society and not which tribesman is appointed minister. If we continue on this path, we will not go far because we have no respect whatsoever for merit. Even within the so-called tribal balancing, it is not the best members or politicians of the tribe who are given ministerial positions - no merit is considered even when making such tribally balanced appointments.

And this explains the poor performance of most of our ministers. There is need for change of attitude if we were to deliver the necessary services to the over 70 per cent of Zambians who are today wallowing in abject poverty.

Labels: CABINET, TRIBALISM

posted by MrK @ 6:28 AM