Maravi

Poor debates: who is to blame?

Poor debates: who is to blame?
By Editor
Tuesday February 12, 2008 [03:00]

The concerns raised by opposition UPND defence and security chairperson Captain Cosmas Moono about the low quality of debate in our Parliament deserve serious consideration by all of us. We cannot move this country forward with this type of leadership. This is not the type of leadership that can help make this country a good place for all of us to live in. Our politicians should know that this country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless it’s made a good place for all of us to live in.

From what Capt Moono is saying, it’s very clear to us that Zambia is in trouble today, is in poverty today, is in confusion today not because her people have failed, but because her political leaders have failed.

And what Zambia urgently needs today are political leaders to match the greatness of her people. Unless we face this fact, we shall pay the price that must be paid by those who wait too long to correct things, to sort out problems.

Some people may feel offended by Capt Moono’s remarks and may even attempt to accuse him of insulting and harassing members of parliament. But they will not succeed in hiding the imbecility of our members of parliament and indeed of our politicians in general.

There is no doubt that we have attempted to elect or select our political leaders on a basis that is bound to retard our progress as a nation. And it is time we turned our backs on this ugly attitude and realised that if we are to live in this complicated world of today, we have to start acting up to different standards from the ones we have been following in the election or selection of our political leaders.

When one listens to our parliamentary debates, one wonders why taxpayers’ money should be wasted to pay people such huge sitting allowances for talking rubbish, for sleeping in the House, for just shouting ‘hear, hear, hear’ and all such nonsense.

This is being very cruel or unkind to the poor people of this country. And we join Capt Moono in resenting bitterly this unconcern for the lives of the innocent poor men and women of this country.

Unless something is done to raise the quality of debates in our Parliament, our people will soon lose interest in the value of this very important institution.

Our people deserve to be represented by politicians who can use their brains and think everything over carefully and not by imbeciles. A common saying goes, “Knit brows and you hit upon a stratagem.” In other words, much thinking yields wisdom.

In order to get rid of the blindness which exists to a serious extent among our members of parliament, we must encourage them to think, to learn the method of analysis and to cultivate the habit of analysis. In this world, things are complicated and are decided by many factors.

We need politicians who can look at problems from different aspects, not from just one. It is well known that when you do anything, unless you understand its actual circumstances, its nature, and its relations to other things, you will not know the laws governing it, or know how to do it, or be able to do it well.

But the exercise of such an approach depends on the spread of democracy in our political parties. It cannot be brought into play if there is not enough democracy in party life. Only in an atmosphere of democracy can the standards of our members of parliament be lifted.

What really counts in the world today is conscientiousness, and our members of parliament and other political leaders should be most particular about being conscientious. They must not assume that the masses of our people have no understanding of what they themselves do not understand yet.

It often happens that the masses outstrip their politicians and are eager to advance a step and that nevertheless, our politicians fail to act as leaders of the masses and tail behind certain backward elements, reflecting their views and, moreover, mistaking them for those of the broad masses.

Clearly, there is need for our politicians to link themselves with the masses. And to do so, one must act in accordance with the needs and wishes of the masses. All work done for the masses must start from their needs and not from the desire of any individual, however well-intentioned.

This demands that our politicians be taught to love the people, listen attentively to the voice of the masses, identify themselves with the masses and, instead of standing above them, they should immerse themselves among the people; and, according to their present level, awaken them or raise their political conscientiousness.

However, the problem is that our politicians often pretend to know what they don’t know. They should not feel ashamed to ask and learn from the people and they should listen carefully to the views of the people. In other words, be a pupil before you become a teacher.

We should try as much as possible to rid our politics of impotent thinking; otherwise we will continue “lifting rocks only to drop them on our feet” as the old folk describe the behaviour of certain fools.

And let’s not forget what Mandela once said, “A leadership commits a crime against its own people if it hesitates to sharpen its political weapons which have become less effective.” Truly our Parliament has become a less effective political tool as far as the people’s interests and aspirations are concerned.

Being a member of parliament has become like any other job which our people undertake to get a salary, a wage, a benefit. It has ceased to be a leadership undertaking. And this probably explains why our members of parliament seem to be just there for their own personal benefit and not for the collective good of the nation and the communities that elected them.

A lot of things need to change if our people are to benefit anything from the representatives they send to Parliament. But again, our people themselves should take blame because our members of parliament don’t elect themselves; they are elected by us, by the people. Of course, one can say these are fraudulent elections which are manipulated to falsify the will of the people.

But again, why should our people accept to be manipulated so repeatedly? It is our people’s duty to elect high calibre people to political leadership. If they fail to do so, they should have no one else to blame but themselves.

It is really a question of reaping what you sow. You can’t elect imbeciles and expect quality debates in Parliament just as you wouldn’t expect to reap oranges if what you had planted were tomatoes.

We can only hope we are learning something from all this and when it comes to the next elections, we will elect quality people as councillors, members of parliament and indeed as president of our Republic.

But this has to start from the people we choose as leaders in our political parties. If we choose idiots to lead our parties, we can rest assured, come 2011, we will have an idiot for president and idiots for members of parliament. Again, we will be complaining about their quality. But who is to blame?

Labels: MPs, PARLIAMENT

posted by MrK @ 3:46 AM