Maravi

Preacherman practice what you preach!

Preacherman practice what you preach!
By Editor
Wed 28 Oct. 2009, 04:00 CAT

DOUBLE standards are very dangerous in any society and they should not in any way be tolerated or allowed to be the norm in our day-to-day dealings. We say this because we have observed a terrible pattern by our political leaders, especially Rupiah Banda and his friends, where they are trying to hold different people accountable according to different standards.

It is very clear that one has to sing Rupiah’s song or dance to his tune to be considered politically correct. Any other song, however good the lyrics might be, is unacceptable.

George Kunda is advising mayors not to make political statements because they are civic leaders. George says when one becomes a mayor, they become a city or municipal father or mother hence political partiality cannot be entertained.

George made this statement in reference to Kasama mayor Fidelis Chishomwa who recently said Rupiah would receive a hostile welcome in Kasama because people are not happy with his style of governance.

Now this is what we call application of double standards. If this mayor was singing praises for Rupiah or George, it would have been acceptable for him to be political. But since he was siding with the Patriotic Front (PF), a political party to which he belongs and on whose ticket he was elected councillor, it has become a problem.

Just a few weeks ago, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources, Teddy Kasonso, applied to be adopted as parliamentary candidate for Solwezi Central.

Kasonso was even quoted as having said he would only relinquish his position after being adopted. Now this man has not been adopted and he will continue working as a civil servant, a public service worker, despite his open political affiliation. And MMD acting spokesperson Mike Mulongoti says Kasonso has a ‘constitutional right’ to belong to any political party.

But at the same time we are aware that civil servants are not supposed to participate in politics. So how do Rupiah and George reconcile this situation? Suppose Kasonso applied to stand on the UPND ticket, were they going to keep him and help to uphold ‘his constitutional right’?

It is shameful for George to actually attempt to school mayors on virtues or rules that he and his friends are not adhering to. We are aware that some MMD chairman in Lusaka is a civil servant and it is not so long ago that some MMD party officials were appointed to work in the civil service at permanent secretary level.

We strongly believe that the same yardstick George is trying to use on mayors should also be used when appointing people to the civil service as well as to those that are already serving. You cannot call others to virtues that you yourself are not ready to practice.

That is utter nonsense.
And these double standards do not just end with the civil service. They have been extended to other areas, political or otherwise. Recently, there were people that held a press conference to attack PF leader Michael Sata on the issue of the convention and a group of suspected PF cadres attacked and allegedly abducted those who convened the press conference.

We have not forgotten how these suspected cadres were picked by the police and kept in an unknown place for days and later appeared in court.

There was condemnation on the matter from government officials for days. Even useless elements, paid activists and hired clergymen were being given expensive airtime on state-owned and government-controlled television, paraded to condemn the suspected cadres.

We cannot also forget Namwala UPND member of parliament Major Robbie Chizyuka’s press conference which was disrupted by suspected UPND and PF cadres. There was serious condemnation on the incident and even Rupiah talked about it in Livingstone where he had gone to officiate at the pass-out parade for the Zambia Air Force.

While Rupiah and his friends have been quick to condemn these acts of violence, our reporters have suffered at the hands of the MMD cadres sometimes in full view of the police. Our reporters were being chased from covering Rupiah and we had complained over this behaviour on several occasions.

Strange enough, this violence was even being endorsed by people like Ronnie Shikapwasha and Rupiah. We did not see any of those hired guns denouncing the violence against journalists on state-owned television. Just last Sunday, Kafulafuta MMD member of parliament George Mpombo was attacked by the ruling party cadres during a discussion organised by the Press Freedom Committee of The Post at the Lusaka Playhouse. What have the people in the MMD said about this thuggery, this hooliganism, this barbaric, unholy and outdated act? They are quiet because in their narrow view, Mpombo is politically wrong. If he were singing their song or doing something which appeared to be in their favour, they would have gone to town, boring the nation with empty statements. These are the double standards we are talking about and that is why people cannot take them and their statements seriously.

George and Rupiah should not even attempt to advise people on issues on which they themselves are faltering and seriously so. It is not so long ago that Chitimukulu, the paramount chief of the Bemba, made racial remarks against PF vice-president Dr Guy Scott. Had those remarks been made in a meeting with the PF or UPND, we would have been bombarded with comments and international conventions on discrimination would have been cited. But because Chitimukulu is politically correct, to them, they have not said a word and they did not even rebuke him or try to distance themselves from those remarks.

They do the same with the Church. They have pastors or reverends in their ranks like Shikapwasha; they have pastors who come to their defence on various political issues. But they are always very opposed to leaders of other churches who question their decisions or actions. They tell them to join politics instead of hiding behind the pulpit!

We cannot continue to operate like this. These double standards should not be entertained. We cannot have one law or rule that is applied differently, depending on one’s political standing or affiliation. It is actually shameful for George to even talk about political impartiality when he and his friends cannot apply that. Right now, George, Rupiah and their friends are public servants on the taxpayer’s pay but they do not strike us as such. Their political line is very clear even on matters that are not political at all.

Theirs is not about public service. It is about politicising issues, be it health, legal, economic and so on and forth. So what do they expect the mayors, be they from their party or the opposition, to do? They are merely learning from the best political crooks.

They will take the same partisan lines that are practiced right from the top. This is the culture that our political leaders have promoted for a long time and they should not even cheat people that they are doing the right thing. Whenever they go to election campaigns they are the first to say ‘vote for the ruling party if you want developmental projects’. One cannot help but wonder whether they are just elected to serve their party cadres or to serve Zambians of all political persuasions.

We actually think that this message George was preaching to mayors should have been directed to himself and his own colleagues in the MMD government because they are the worst culprits on this score.

Labels: GEORGE KUNDA

posted by MrK @ 4:01 AM