Maravi

Mistakes

Mistakes
By Editor
Mon 26 Oct. 2009, 04:00 CAT

No one can disagree with Mike Mulongoti’s statement that: “President Banda and us in the MMD are not angels. The President and his ministers are human beings capable of making mistakes. After all he is human like anybody else…yes we have a mistake but people should understand that human beings are bound to do that at any time.”

Truly, being a man like any other and, like any other human being, prone to error, Rupiah Banda has made many mistakes, great mistakes.

But there is a distinction between a mistake made by an honest person and what appears to be a mistake when it is actually a well thought-out criminal scheme by a dishonest person.

We reached the conclusion, we are convinced, that Rupiah has been abusing the faith placed in him, in his office as President of the Republic, followed a dishonest policy, followed a policy which departed from the honest norms regarding the administration of public affairs, and that he tried to organise an apparatus to pursue personal ends.

We believe that Rupiah has had a lot to do with the conversion of abuse of public institutions into a system, the conversion of abuse of office into a virus, into a veritable sickness.

Rupiah is the one responsible for having promoted the corrupt spirit to its highest possible level, of having promoted that corrupt spirit for personal reasons, with the purpose of establishing his hegemony over all institutions of the state and civil society in our country.

He is the one responsible for introducing, in addition, a series of methods which are not leading to the deepening of our democracy but rather to a tyranny, a straitjacket.

We believe that what appear to be mistakes committed by Rupiah are not mistakes in the real sense of the word, as Mulongoti would like the nation to believe. They are rather corrupt schemes whose sole purpose is to deceive, cheat, manipulate and enable Rupiah to achieve his personal ends.

We believe that Rupiah’s actions in all these matters, in all that has been happening in our country are not the product of oversight nor are they unconscious, but rather they are deliberate and conscious.

Rupiah has simply allowed himself to be blinded by personal ambition, by the desire to stay in office for another term and to enrich himself and his family to the highest degree possible. And as a result of this, he has created a series of problems, in a word, he has created veritable chaos in the nation. As a result of this, the standing or integrity of our judiciary is today in tatters.

The integrity of our prosecution system has also been destroyed; the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has totally been discredited. The image of the police and other agencies of the state involved in investigations of one sort or another is also in shambles. This doesn’t seem to bother Rupiah as long as what he wants is achieved. He did this in the Dora Siliya case and he has also done it in Frederick Chiluba’s corruption prosecution. Rupiah today has become the champion in the defence of corruption.

We generally agree with what Mulongoti is saying. But our point of departure is on intention. Yes, every human being is prone to error, to mistakes. But as we have already pointed out, there is a distinction between an honest mistake and an intention to deceive, defraud. Rupiah’s mistakes are not mistakes. They are simply schemes to deceive, to defraud the Zambian people.

Truly, mistakes are made by all. Even the most honest, the most competent, the most experienced make mistakes. But these are honest mistakes made by honest people in an attempt to do an honest job.

We have also made many mistakes, many tactical mistakes; we wish we hadn’t made them. But we haven’t made any strategic mistakes in the course of our work; we haven’t ever gone against principles. Therefore, we don’t have any cause for remorse; and we will never be sorry for what we have done to date.

If we have to do it over, we would take the same path again. Of course, this is not to say we feel entirely satisfied with what we have done; we will always feel we could have done better. Still, we know that – not just we, but the Zambian people – have done something worthwhile. We have done an honest job despite the many mistakes we have made.

And when you have made an honest mistake, you are not scared of criticism, you are not hostile to criticism, you can’t go all out to destroy or annihilate, humiliate your critics. It is only crooks, those who are out to do wrong that react to criticism in that way.

Honest people, who make honest mistakes, don’t fear criticism because the truth is on their side, and the basic masses are on their side.
Honest people are fearless; we wish that all our politicians could honestly and courageously shoulder their responsibilities and overcome all their mistakes, fearing no setbacks or gibes.

The weapon of honest people is criticism and self-criticism. They can get rid of a bad style and keep the good through criticism and self-criticism.
Conscientious practice of self-criticism is still another hallmark distinguishing between honest politicians and their mistakes and dishonest politicians and their criminal schemes.

Honest people will not fear to have their mistakes exposed because if mistakes are made and are quickly discovered or exposed, that gives them a chance of being quickly corrected. There is need to 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 mistakes from contaminating our minds and our work.

There is need to understand that the main task of criticism is to point out political and organisational mistakes. We need to correct mistakes because this increases our capacity to do good.

If we have made mistakes, if we have shortcomings, we should not be afraid to have them pointed out and criticised because this is the only way we can have them corrected and serve the people efficiently, effectively and in an orderly manner.

Anyone, no matter who, may point out our mistakes, our shortcomings. If he or she is right, we should admit and correct them instead of fighting back and trying to destroy honest critics. If what they propose will benefit the people, we should act upon it immediately.

Honest political leaders, who base all their actions on the highest interests of the broadest masses of the Zambian people and who are fully convinced of the justice of their cause, will never balk at any criticism and will always be ready to respond favourably to criticism and to discard any idea, viewpoint, opinion or method which is not suited to the needs of the people. For them, there can never be any error that they cannot discard.

There is no need to become complacent over any success. There is need to check complacency and constantly criticise mistakes, shortcomings.

Taught by mistakes and setbacks, honest politicians become wiser and handle public affairs better. It is hard for any political organisation or individual to avoid mistakes, but they should make as few as possible. Once a mistake is made, they should correct it, and the more quickly and thoroughly the better.

All that we are trying to say in all this is that whereas it is true that all human beings make mistakes, are prone to error, there is a distinction, there is a difference between the mistakes committed by honest men and women trying to do their jobs in the best way they know and the designs of dishonest men and women trying to manipulate things, trying to deceive their way through things and trying to cover all this under the banner or umbrella of mistakes.

Exposure of mistakes by honest people does not attract a vicious or violent reaction. But the exposure of crime attracts violence from the criminals. And that’s what we are seeing today in our country, in Rupiah’s government in the way they react to anyone who stands in the way of their criminal schemes.

Labels: MIKE MULONGOTI, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 6:21 AM