Maravi

Where is Rupiah taking this country?

Where is Rupiah taking this country?
By Editor
Sun 08 Nov. 2009, 04:01 CAT

Making some observations on Rupiah Banda’s governance, Fr Augustine Mwewa asks the question: “Where is he taking this country so that people can follow him properly?” And he added: “We need a clear plan about the future of this country. President Banda is busy consolidating his hold on power at the expense of providing social services. He cannot listen to those with opposing views; he thinks they are his enemies.”

Although Rupiah today appears confident and seems to be enjoying being President, many problems lie ahead. As Fr Mwewa has correctly observed, Rupiah doesn’t seem to know where he is headed and that is very dangerous. Rupiah’s greatest achievement during the first 12 months of his presidency is directionless leadership: he appears to be confident and in control, but no one, including himself, seems to know where he is leading.

Rupiah has failed to define the purpose of his government. We perceive no outlook roots. We can detect no sense of direction. Rupiah has a strong sense that he can undo what Levy Mwanawasa did. But he doesn’t seem to understand why it was right to do it. He doesn’t seem to accept the politics of freedom and choice that lay behind the agenda that was being pursued by our country over the last seven years or so. Rupiah grasped that he had to adopt Levy’s rhetoric. But he will in the end be judged not on what he says but on what he does.

Rupiah is being guided by the wish to destroy Levy’s legacy; and by the determination to be re-elected in 2011. That is not a recipe for governing well. You cannot run a government forever on that basis. Rupiah’s group, we mean himself and those around him, is a motley assortment of contradictory elements brought about to win power in last year’s election and use it to keep their jobs and have access to government resources. That will to win power and use it for personal benefit is the one idea that Rupiah and his minions hold in common. But with the passage of time, that will prove insubstantial glue. The signs of division may today appear very small, but they will grow.

To be successful, a president must assume a wide range of roles, tasks and responsibilities, but none is more important than the role of leader. And Rupiah is seriously lacking in this role – that of leadership. Leadership is the process of influencing and inspiring others to work to achieve a common goal and then giving them the power and the freedom to achieve it. Without leadership ability, a president can never rise above mediocrity. Yet, leadership is not an easy role to learn; the skills needed to do it well are many and are constantly changing. A lazy person like Rupiah who is just enjoying travelling and braiis will not be able to master them. Gone are the days when presidents relied on fear and intimidation as their primary leadership tools. Today the Zambian citizenry is more knowledgeable and demands a more sophisticated style of leadership.

A lazy and visionless leader like Rupiah will not take this country anywhere because you can’t lead anyone else further than you have gone yourself. The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet. It is said that a mediocre teacher tells; the good teacher explains; and the great teacher inspires. Rupiah can neither explain, demonstrate nor inspire. Rupiah is a president who stands for nothing in terms of public good. And because of standing for nothing, Rupiah falls for anything, for things like cheap and questionable but highly damaging deals like that of RP Capital and the acquittal of Frederick Chiluba.

Leaders must invoke the alchemy of good vision. And this is why it is said that the rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man’s foot enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher. It is said that the first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. The first task of a leader is to keep hope alive. And the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing. And Rupiah does not have this only thing we are talking about. There is no example Rupiah can give.

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character; being able to do what is right when no one is watching and putting first things first. Rupiah has put his leisure, personal aggrandisement above the interests of his people.

And because of this, Rupiah has not been able to be honest with the Zambian people. Being honest is the best technique a president can use. Right up front, tell people what you are trying to accomplish and what you are willing to sacrifice to accomplish it. But all that we see from Rupiah is abuse of power – for personal glory and to free his friends like Chiluba from justice. It is said that the highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it. It takes tremendous discipline to control influence, the power that you have over other people’s lives. Power is the ability to do good things for others. And this is why it is said that leadership is action, not position. Ethics must begin at the top; it is a leadership issue and the president must set the example, have a basic integrity and a firm sense of principle.

Clearly, leadership is the ability of a single individual through his actions to motivate others to higher levels of achievement. And for this reason, leadership is practised not so much in words as in attitude and in actions. Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there. This is what Fr Mwewa is talking about. This is the type of leadership that will take our country forward in long strides.

There is need for Rupiah and his friends to realise that they are leading the country into a ditch in all sorts of ways, politically, economically, socially and otherwise. And one of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognise a problem before it becomes an emergency. This is a test Rupiah has consistently failed. We have all made mistakes in our careers. But few have been consistently wrong on all the great issues that have faced our nation over the last 12 months as Rupiah has done – violence, acquittal of Chiluba, fuel shortage and so on and so forth.

The character of Rupiah is also an issue that is impeding progress. The man is stubborn for nothing. And he boasts of being stubborn, thinking it’s a good thing, a virtue. However, of all the properties which belong to honourable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character. It is said that tough times never last, but tough people do.

What the last 12 months have taught us is that leadership is very vital to the future of our nation. But in the end, putting aside all the theories and concepts, good leadership will be achieved, not by the formality of structures, but by the integrity of the participant and by the willingness of the individuals to work together and be inspired by a larger vision.

And as Wangari Maathai has correctly observed, many people have come to understand that while it is necessary to hold their governments accountable, it is equally important that in their own relationships with each other, they exemplify the leadership values they wish to see in their own leaders, namely justice, integrity and trust. This is the only way to proceed if we have to construct a leadership that will meet our challenges and help us see a reversal of fortunes in our country.

Labels: AUGUSTINE MWEWA, CORRUPTION, NEOLIBERALISM, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 11:35 PM