Teaching an old dog new tricks

Teaching an old dog new tricks
Written by Editor

The Bible says a ruler without good sense will be a cruel tyrant. One who hates dishonesty will rule a long time (Proverbs 28:16). The Bible also says it is not right to favour the guilty and keep the innocent from receiving justice (Proverbs 18:5). Pride leads to destruction and arrogance to downfall (Proverbs 16:18).
Don’t commit any crime against the general public. And don’t disgrace yourself among your fellow citizens (Sirach 7:7).

Anyone who is sincere and ready to learn can learn how to be decent. It is possible to learn how to conduct oneself in a manner that is noble. We say this because good virtues do not come easily. They have to be learnt.

If good virtues could easily be attained, then a lot of people would lead very virtuous lives. Good virtue is like physical fitness. To attain physical fitness, most of us have to do a lot of strenuous exercises. If you do not exercise, you run the risk of losing good health and proper bodily functions due to lack of fitness.

When we are young and youthful, it is easy to take physical fitness for granted. This is because we do a lot of exercises without realising it. We walk more and are generally more mobile. This gives an average body sufficient exercise to keep fit.

But as we grow older and time begins to be a pressing commodity, we reduce the level of exercise to engage in. We become sedentary. Many people spend a lot of time behind a desk. And if you want to be fit, you have to take deliberate steps to exercise.

But even for young people, strenuous exercise is necessary for those who want to engage in extra activities such as sport. They need to be super fit to be good sportsmen or sportswomen. This is how life is. Nothing comes without any proper training and preparation.

What the body needs to retain physical fitness the mind also needs to retain fitness and usefulness. Good virtues cannot come without work, without a deliberate decision to strain oneself towards virtue.

We learn what may be called good virtue from being socialised in a community. This training or socialisation is important to make us responsible and profitable members of the communities to which we belonging.

But just like in physical fitness, if you want to engage in strenuous mental exercises such as leadership, you will have to be ready for the strenuous exercise that is required.

There is a lot someone needs to learn before becoming a leader. This is why our laws put limits on the age of people who can aspire to be our political leaders. Children are not expected to have developed enough to be able to lead. The contrary is also true. Adults who aspire for political leadership are expected to be trained, to be ready for the rigours of the office to which they aspire.

This is what we expect from Rupiah Banda as President. We expect that his mind should have been trained for the rigours of the office he has accepted. For a man of his age, a certain etiquette and behaviour should be natural.

One of these qualities that he should have been trained in is honesty. A man in Rupiah’s position should not deliberately mislead or worse still, tell lies to the nation.

Honesty would help his leadership greatly. The problem that we have is that it does not seem that Rupiah’s involvement in public affairs has always been honesty. It appears that Rupiah does not have any scruples. He seems ready to mislead if he can see a political benefit.

With this attitude, it will be difficult to win the confidence of the nation and others who are watching the way he is running the country.

The question is; is Rupiah trained in honesty and open dealing? Is his history able to attest to this?

The little that we have seen does not give us much hope. We say this because we have been observing the way that Rupiah has been trying to deal with public issues. He wants to twist issues in any way that he thinks will help him hoodwink the people or even the donours. Rupiah does not seem to have any commitment to the virtues that will make him a good leader. He is not prepared to train himself in the virtues that will make him a better leader.

Honesty and transparency, although painful avenues in the beginning, are the only way that anyone can hope to run the affairs of the nation in a successful way. These are things that Rupiah, even with his advanced age, needs to learn. The pride and arrogance that characterizes his presidency will have very predictable consequences.

Yesterday, when swearing in Dora Siliya, Rupiah chose to show his disregard for morality and ethics. He wanted the nation to accept that Dora is blameless in the way she conducted herself in the matters that went before the tribunal.

Rupiah knows that this is not true. He was being clearly dishonest. But he nonetheless was happy to mislead the nation.

It is not our place to start explaining what Lusaka High Court judge Philip Musonda’s decision means; whether he cleared Dora or not. For now, the question that we ask is that: Was Dora blameless in the way she conducted herself to the nation in relation to the matters that were before the tribunal? Was she cleared of all wrongdoing?

No one can argue, not even Rupiah himself, that Dora followed the law in the way she behaved in those transactions. The tribunal found as a fact that Dora did not follow the laid down tender procedures in the award of the Zamtel contract to RP Capital Partners. Dora even committed the Zambian government to a minimum of US$2 million in relation to that transaction.

Yes, the tribunal said they did not consider her misconduct to fall within the Ministerial Code of Conduct offences but she flouted the tender processes. If Rupiah was honest, he would have looked at these issues and dealt with them sincerely. But we are not surprised that Rupiah does not seem to know what was contained in the tribunal report because probably he is still studying it, as he told the nation.

Rupiah can distort matters as much as he likes. He is simply digging a hole for himself. These matters will catch up with him sooner or later.

It is not possible to be a successful leader and take on the rigours of the office without a commitment to truth, sincerity and honesty. And these virtues will not come to Rupiah unless he embraces them and commits himself to their requirements.

But even as we are saying this, we know that expecting these things from Rupiah is expecting too much. The English have a saying that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. This means that it is difficult for someone who has grown up doing the wrong things to embrace virtues in their old age. They become so set in their ways that it is almost impossible for them to even appreciate that what they are doing is wrong.

This is why Rupiah sees nothing wrong with what Dora did. Anyway, we have always said that what Dora was doing was Rupiah’s deal. Rupiah’s son was in the forefront of this deal. Could Rupiah have been far away from it?