Maravi

Integrity and leadership

Integrity and leadership
By Editor
Wednesday September 17, 2008 [04:00]

Five weeks before the 2006 elections a friend of ours, retired Col Nobly Chime, circulated a two-page circular to some church leaders and a few friends.
In that circular Col Chime stated:

“Zambia as a Christian nation has been declared a poor country! It is plain for all to see the majestic endowments that the country has been blessed with and yet many Zambians are living in abject poverty and in deplorable conditions without any hope in their sights! Why?

“The need for men and women of integrity in leadership at the political front cannot be overemphasized (Titus 1:6-9; 1 Timothy 3:1-13; and Proverbs 11:1-13). Without integrity in our political leadership, hypocrisy shall reign and mediocrity shall prevail no matter how hard the church prays! It is said that ‘action speaks louder than words’.

“True leadership is godly and hence builds, improves, multiplies, enriches, heals, prospers and generally aims to ‘give life more abundantly’. True leadership is moral and it invokes the presence of God and His blessings and protection.

“The objectives of this circular are: Firstly, to secure your support for inculcating integrity in the leadership and secondly, to seek your personal and most valuable intervention in the Zambian political arena, in order for the electorate to place integrity at the pinnacle of criteria for awarding their vital vote to a candidate: ‘Yes’ to integrity and ‘No’ to hypocrisy.

“The church in Zambia has been rather passive at best and negative or aloof in the area of leadership and its practice in the nation. Romans 12:1-2 advises that we break away from conforming to the worldly ways by renewing our mindset and doing things in a manner that shall bring about God’s good, acceptable and perfect will upon Zambia and her people. Among the many misleading and worldly norms that we need to break away from are: Firstly, keep the church out of politics – the Bible mentions God as having raised Solomon to best political leader ever!

“Secondly, politics are dirty – if politics culminates into leadership, and leadership should be moral, how then and why should they be ‘dirty’? Evidently, we have allowed too many men and women who engage in dirty practices in the political arena. ‘Dirty’ politicians should be purged and only ‘clean’ ones elected.

“Thirdly, do not personalize campaigns but only discuss issues – political leadership is about public service and must be practiced with just resolve for the benefit of the people (Deuteronomy 16:18-20). How can the electorate know whether a candidate is qualified for moral leadership or not when his ‘life is secretive’? Why should a leader be so secretive if his life is upright and does not have ‘skeletons’ to hide? If true moral leaders should lead by example and render themselves role model status, why shouldn’t they be exposed? What is there to hide other than evil intent, which ultimately hurts Zambia and her people? Expose the character of the candidates!

“Unless the character of the aspiring candidate is exposed for what it truly is, it shall be futile to teach people ‘leadership qualities’. The presidential, parliamentary and local government elections are just over five-weeks away (and five Sundays)! Is it enough time to bring the truth to bear upon Zambia and give this nation a future and a hope? (Jeremiah 29:11).

“I pray that God shall bless you and inspire you into action for the sake of His people, the majority of whom are misinformed, ignorant or misguided, or combination of these. Remember: when good men do nothing about it, evil flourishes and you are God’s steward to shepherd His people into His will (1 Peter 5:2-4). May God richly bless you. Amen.”

This is what our friend, Col Chime, wrote on August 20, 2006. So we are not the only mad people if what we had been saying on this score is bad. We have someone in Col Chime who will go with us to Calvary when the time comes for us to be crucified, to be nailed to the cross for talking about the character of emperor Rupiah Banda.

It is clear that we can’t run away from these issues, these values, these virtues if we want to construct a leadership that will be able to move this country forward. We can run away from them now but at one time or another we will have to confront these issues. It will not be possible to govern our country in a manner that is beneficial to all our people if we do not address these issues in our selection of leadership. It is better to peacefully deal with these matters now than to confront them in future.

Character is a very important issue in leadership. A leader is a custodian of a community’s interests. Therefore in choosing a leader, a lot of attention should be paid to his or her character. One must be very foolish when he is going far away to leave his wife in the custody of a man who is known to be a womaniser. Equally, one would be very foolish to ask her friend or relative of very loose morals to look after her husband while she is away. Such a friend or relative will feast on your spouse.

Similarly, one must be very foolish to pick a well-known cattle rustler to be one’s herdsman. If you wake up one day to find all your cattle gone, nobody should feel sorry for you.

Therefore, character cannot be separated from the other important issues in an election campaign. And it is difficult to understand why Rupiah and his followers and supporters are opposed to or are extremely uncomfortable with discussing issues of character. If Rupiah’s character is good, why should they be scared to display and discuss it? If one’s character is good, why should one stop people from discussing it? Isn’t it a plus for people to discuss your good character and give you credit, especially if you are a candidate in an election?

The truth, however, is that when one looks at the characters of these people, one can see their true shades and stripes kilometres away.

What we would agree with are complaints of malice where there is justification. There is no need to be malicious in discussing a candidate’s character, there is need to be factual when doing so. It is said that the truth will set you free. But it is also said that the truth hurts. The truth will only set you free if you are willing to be honest and to repent. The one who should change, the one who should repent is you and not the truth. There is no need to attempt to change the truth because what needs to be changed and what can be changed is your conduct and not the truth. The truth can’t be changed to suit you. When issues are raised about one’s character, the only meaningful way to respond to them is by truth. Any other way will not do.

There is need to give favourable consideration to the issues raised by Col Chime in his circular of August 2006 because the issues he raised then are still very valid today and they will continue to be valid tomorrow. We ignore them at our own peril.

Labels: INTEGRITY, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 3:23 AM