Maravi

Unity

Unity
By Editor
Tuesday July 08, 2008 [04:00]

In unity lies and will always lie the success and strength of our country. Whatever our problems, we will solve them if only we work together to build our country. And the greatest task of all our politicians and other leaders today is to unite our people in their struggle against poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, disease and general backwardness.

History shows that there is no difficult struggle that has succeeded without the unity of the people. Without working at unity, whatever good intentions, we will not achieve much for our country.

It is therefore imperative for us to overcome anything that impairs unity in the nation. The unity of our various political and social forces will be the basic guarantee of the success of our efforts to defeat poverty and backwardness. It is only through the unity of the whole nation that poverty, and all its offshoots, can be wiped out in this country.

There is urgent need for deepening unity among all our country's political and social forces. And all calls for national unity - in whatever form - deserve support.

But unity cannot just be a feeling or something abstract. Vital unity can only be sustained by a clear concept of objectives and a precise understanding of the tasks that need to be accomplished by our people at this moment.

And while we appreciate the fact that unity is not a principle but an expedience in the struggle for power, in an effort to effectively confront common difficulties, we think in the circumstances of our country today, nothing, or very little, can be delivered to our people without unity.

Lack of unity may also prevent our leaders from realising the greatness of our country and our people's unending struggle for progress. Disunity makes it impossible for our leaders to understand the complexity of our country and, above all, they disperse our people's political capacity.

Let us not forget that generally all our people - in all our provinces, districts, villages and indeed political parties - bear the same scars; all have known the same hunger, the same poverty, the same suffering, the same widowhood, the same orphanhood, the same tear caused by social and economic difficulties they daily have to endure.

We should be united through the discovery of common wounds and scars but above all, we should realise through common effort, that links are forged through collective action against life's challenges.
It is only through the unity of all our people that the eradication of poverty in our country can be achieved.

We have come together from every corner of our country and we should be good and uniting in our work not only with those who hold the same views as we but also with those who hold different views.

And whatever form of political organisation we adopt, it should, as far as possible, promote unity.
Before, the tactics of those who used to go to rule over our destiny consisted of dividing us and setting one humble section of our people against another. They set every faction of our people against the other factions as part of the international strategy of the big reactionary interest of the world. They set sister nations against each other and they set the various sectors of each of our nations against each other to serve their own interests.

They weakened the people by their practice of setting one humble sector against others. They divided the people into petty political parties that brought no guidance to the nation. They divided the ignorant and misled people into factions supporting unscrupulous and greedy politicians. Thus, they weakened the people. Thus, they confused the people.

We have faith in our people's ability to solve their country's problems if they work together. So the greatest challenge of all our leaders today is to unite our people so that they can pool together their efforts and overcome the problems facing their country.

And on this day which we every year dedicate to unity, we call on all our politicians who are tasked to manage the affairs of our country while the President is indisposed to do so in the spirit of unity.

We need unity in Cabinet; we need unity in the ruling MMD and we need unity in the nation to be able to face all the challenges that our President's illness may bring.

Leaders have a big role to play in uniting the nation and should not do anything that brings disunity among our people. Moreover, if our leaders don't show the way, don't practise politics that unite people, it will be very difficult for our people to listen to them when they start calling for unity.

They cannot call others to virtues which they themselves do not make an effort to practise. They should be aware that politics is an area of great importance for promoting unity in the nation and for mobilising our people to develop their country.

Selfishness and greed should be totally eliminated from our leadership. We say this because selfish and greedy people only think about themselves and their own particular group. And when this happens, there is division and frustration.

Unity cannot be separated from solidarity. Actually unity is strengthened by solidarity - and solidarity is a basic fact of human existence. No person is an island, cut off from others and self-sufficient. And the African proverb reminds us of this: "I am because we are, we are because I am."

And if we are to achieve meaningful levels of unity in our country, we should avoid paying exaggerated attention to accidental differences within our nation in all that we do. Therefore, the participation of all our people in the political life of our country should be guided by the spirit and desire for national unity.

Labels: NATIONAL UNITY DAY

posted by MrK @ 4:01 AM