Maravi

Rupiah, pay attention to criticism

Rupiah, pay attention to criticism
Written by Editor

In life, and much more so in the administration of public affairs, it is important to surround yourself with strong and independent personalities, who will tell you when you are wrong. Time has shown that the mark of great leaders is the ability to understand the context in which they are operating and act accordingly.

It is not possible for those in leadership, with extremely busy schedules, to know everything that is going on and respond appropriately if they are not open to criticism. If criticism is valid, it must be made.

And there is need to understand that criticism is not necessarily made to bring about a change of opinion, to create an unfavourable opinion in regard to someone. Criticism is not always intended to expose a good person to blame and to the scorn to which bad methods will expose them.

Criticism, self-criticism of criticisms is made simply to overcome errors so that those in leadership may free themselves from these errors. If we do this at all levels of our leadership, it will strengthen us, it will make our country more efficiently, effectively and orderly administered or governed. It will make our people’s faith in their political leadership firmer.

And the fact that our leaders know how to make corrections will give the political leadership of our country prestige. It will give it all the strength which people acquire when they know how to purify themselves of evils, when they know how to correct their errors, when they know how to overcome their difficulties.

We believe that our leaders serve the cause of our people to the extent to which they work well, to the extent to which they are sincere, to the extent to which they are honest, to the extent to which they have eradicated demagoguery and lying from their work and to the extent to which they have eliminated compromise and deceit.

Of course we do realise that there is need to watch out for those who are too demanding, the demagogic champions who tend to crop up from time to time in order to divert the attention from their own faults and weaknesses by unfairly criticizing others and pretending to be demanding when they are really opportunists trying to avoid being called on to account for themselves.

In fact, the seriousness of purpose of any leadership is measured, basically, by its attitude towards criticism and towards its own errors. We know that some leaders fear to be criticised and to have their errors exposed because they believe that this will cause them to lose power or popular support. Of course when one’s mistakes are exposed and criticised, political enemies will jump on them and try to make political capital out of them but they will not achieve much. When errors are made and are subjected to criticism and self-criticism, they may be used by political opponents, but in a different way than if they were not subjected to criticism and self-criticism. And this is why there is need for our leaders to develop a forthright and serious attitude towards criticism and towards their own errors.

It is this attitude of not opening themselves up to criticism that makes our political leaders commit so many errors which follow them after they leave office. When they are in office, nobody easily criticises them. Those close to them or those who support them never dare to utter a word publicly criticising them. For 10 years, the president of Zambia would be in State House without watching any critical news item about him on ZNBC television. They would never read any material critical of them in the Times of Zambia or Daily Mail.

And we are not being malicious in saying this. We challenge anyone to go to the archives and try to find out if Frederick Chiluba had ever been criticised for anything in the Times of Zambia or Daily Mail in the 10 years of his presidency. The same applied to the late Levy Mwanawasa and today, to Rupiah Banda. Even Dr Kenneth Kaunda was never criticised in these news media outlets.

And this may appear to be supportive, to be favourable to the president. But it causes a lot of damage to the individual. One starts to believe that those who criticise him outside these news media outlets hate him, are enemies bent on doing nothing good but destroying him. It is definitely questionable that in 10 years, one did nothing wrong deserving any critical article, editorial comment or letter to the editor in these news media outlets.

This is the point Moses Muteteka is making. There is no need for those working with Rupiah to pretend that they agree with everything he is saying and see nothing wrong to be critical of. People in public offices should not be allowed to get away with clinched catechisms which tempt all who become part of an apparatus. We shouldn’t tolerate hypocrisy and humbug.

It is immoral not to be honest with our leaders and with each other. We seem to live in a contaminated moral environment. We have fallen morally ill because we have become used to saying things that are different from what we think, what we thought. We have learnt not to believe in anything, to ignore each other, to care only about ourselves.

We shouldn’t fear criticism if we believe the truth is on our side. There is no better political weapon than criticism and self-criticism because with it, we are able to get rid of bad ways and keep the good. Conscientious practice of criticism and self-criticism is a hallmark that distinguishes honest political leaders from the dishonest ones. As we say, dust will accumulate if a room is not cleaned regularly, our faces will get dirty if they are not washed regularly.

Our leaders’ minds and their work may also collect dust, and also need sweeping and washing through criticism and self-criticism. The proverb “Running water is never stale and a door-hinge is never worm-eaten” means that constant motion prevents the inroads of germs and other organisms. To check up regularly on our decisions, our work, and in the process develop a democratic style of work, to fear neither criticism nor self-criticism, and to apply such good popular maxims as “Say all you know and say it without reserve”, “Blame not the speaker but be warned by his words” and “Correct mistakes if you have committed them and guard against them if you have not” – this is the only effective way to prevent all kinds of political dust and germs from contaminating the minds of our leaders and the body of our government.

In this spirit, we urge Rupiah and other leaders in government to pay a lot of attention to criticism and not to be hostile towards it and attempt to crush it. A society or government without critics is a dangerous one because it’s much more open to vices and vices spread very easily in such an environment.

Labels: GOVERNANCE, MOSES MUTETEKA, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 3:41 PM