Maravi

Start with yourself

Start with yourself
Written by Editor

Today as we commemorate the International Anti-Corruption Day, there is need for us to reflect and meditate deeply over this issue. We need to clearly understand what constitutes corruption and its effects on us, on our country today and tomorrow.

When we talk about corruption, we shouldn’t just think about what is called grand corruption. We need to look at corruption at all levels, in all its manifestations or forms.

If we ignore what we may today consider small corruption, it will grow and tomorrow, it will become big and more difficult for us to fight it. So there shouldn’t be anything like small corruption. Big or small, it’s all corruption and it shouldn’t be tolerated.

And we invite everyone, the entire nation, to take part in this great battle, the battle against any and all forms of corruption. We all need to be involved in this battle against vices. Today, we have tens of thousands of parasites that don’t produce anything, that don’t work hard, yet are getting rich. How? By stealing, deceit, manipulation – by corruption.

In a society where those who don’t work hard live better than those who work hard, respect for work is bound to decline. And if this happens, then productivity goes down and with it the economy sinks. In a society where those who are dishonest live better than those who are honest, corruption gets entrenched and with it the economy sinks.

It is said that it is not what we are given that sets us apart from the next person, from the next community. It is how we deal with what we have that determines our progress. There are many examples of this. It is this that makes a country like Nigeria poor when it is an oil-producing country. Corruption in that country is entrenched and will take many years to address. It doesn’t matter how much a community or nation has, if it doesn’t manage its resources in an honest, transparent, accountable, efficient, effective and orderly manner, it will not achieve much.

And when corruption starts in a nation, it spreads to all its parts like a cancer. No part of a nation where there is corruption comes out unaffected. All institutions of society become contaminated. It is not only state and government institutions that become corrupt. Even institutions like the Church in a corrupt nation become infected or affected.

Nations where corruption has taken root cannot even be expected to organise free and fair elections because the corrupt elements will manipulate things and buy the result they desire.

Every time you pay more than you should for a service, you are not only encouraging corruption, you are engaging in it. And you should consider yourself corrupt. Most things start small. And as the Chinese say, a journey, no matter how long it may be, always starts with a first step. Corruption starts in the same manner.

Whenever we start to live on unearned income, we are embarking on a path that leads to corruption. We say this because living on unearned income is prima facie evidence of corruption.

And today in our country, corruption is seen everywhere. In a government office, it starts with the office orderly who makes tea, the cleaner who cleans the office. The office orderly takes home part of the sugar and tea bags for the office. He stops buying sugar and tea because he is feasting on the office supplies. The office cleaner stops buying detergents and other cleaning materials for his home because the office has become his supplier. In the meantime, the costs of running the office go up. This type of corruption is even extended to the home. If this office orderly or cleaner has an aid helping him at home, he also feasts on the sugar, tea bags or detergents he has stolen from the office. There is a chain here and corruption gets entrenched.

Managing a business in Zambia is today not an easy thing because of theft, pilfering. Every day, huge volumes of stocks are being siphoned by workers from their employers. Every day, cash is being stolen from sale proceeds. Phones, fuel and other facilities are being abused for personal purposes. The cost of this on business enterprises at the end of the day is gigantic and crippling. But we tend to look at it as small things, petty abuses. These are not small things, this is big corruption that should be fought with all the tenacity we can marshal. But it won’t be easy to deal with this type of corruption because most of our people have accepted this as normal. This is because of a lack of deep economic awareness that we have failed to inculcate in our people.

In this battle against corruption, there should be no quarter given anyone, we should call a spade a spade, and we should appeal to the honour of everyone.

And when we talk about corruption, we are not only limiting ourselves to money or goods. We are also talking about abuse of power, arrogance and lack of humility. All these constitute corruption. We are also talking about general dishonesty, deceit, lies and all other forms of fraud. People have won elections in this country on the strength of their promises which they knew from the very beginning that they were not going to be carried out. And it is true, they have never bothered to carry them out. This is corruption. Deception is always a pretty contemptible vice, but to deceive the poor is the meanest of all forms of corruption, it is the meanest of all crimes. We say this because we cannot think of a more contemptible man than the man who deceives the poor or steals from them.

There is need for all of us to change our attitude towards corruption. No form of corruption should be accepted or tolerated. We will never be able to manage the political affairs and the economic resources of our country if we don’t take corruption seriously. As things stand today, we, as a nation, are too tolerant of corruption and corrupt elements. In this country, a person with a record of electoral corruption has no problems being supported by people who claim to be honest. And these honest people, when challenged, their response is always that of supporting a better devil. And we see this in every election. We saw it in 2006 when the Patriotic Front and Michael Sata were being supported by people who were facing corruption charges in our courts of law. Some of them were even adopted by the Patriotic Front as parliamentary candidates – fortunately they lost. And last October, our so-called honest people, honest citizens never said a word to denounce or criticise Rupiah Banda’s electoral corruption or malpractices. And yet they want to claim they are opposed to corruption. Rupiah was distributing mealie-meal and sugar bought with public funds to woo voters in Eastern Province. Very few raised issues with this. And they want to say they are for zero tolerance on corruption.

This only goes to show how deep the roots of corruption are in all our areas of human endeavour. And it also goes to show how much we have accepted to live with it. But surely, is this a virus we should learn and accept to live with? We thought that type of approach was limited to viruses that have no cure.

The whole fight against corruption should start with oneself, with the man or woman in the mirror, if we are to harbour any hope of defeating this scourge in our country.

Labels: ACC, CORRUPTION, VALENTINE CHILESHE

posted by MrK @ 11:51 PM