Maravi

Know how your money is used

Know how your money is used
By Editor
Sun 27 Dec. 2009, 04:01 CAT

Without the lifeblood of citizen action, we will not have any meaningful democracy in this country. If citizen participation in the affairs of our country is not strengthened, even this democratic opening that we are today witnessing will start to weaken and disappear.

It is therefore important for the Zambian people to pay a keen interest to the call being made by Kalungu Sampa of Transparency International Zambia for them to take a keen interest in knowing how public funds are being used. Truly Zambians should be curious about what is going on in their country.

As we have stated before, having democratic institutions and even a democratic Constitution and other laws guarantees us nothing by itself. It offers instead the opportunity to succeed as well as the risk of failure. This is then both a promise and a challenge. It is a promise in the sense that as free human beings, working together, we can govern ourselves in a manner that will serve our aspirations for personal freedom, economic opportunity and social justice. It is a challenge because the success of the democratic enterprise rests upon the shoulders of its citizens and no one else.

Probably this is why government of and by the people means that citizens of a country share in its benefits and in its burdens. As free human beings, when we fail, we shouldn’t blame anybody else but ourselves. It is us, individually and collectively, who finally must take responsibility for the fate of our country, a country in which we ourselves have chosen to live. In the end, we get the government we deserve.

Each one of us as citizens of this country, has a duty to hold accountable those who we have tasked to manage the affairs, the resources of our country. If we don’t do that, it means we are failing in our duties as citizens; we are behaving in an irresponsible way.

To try and hold accountable our representatives in government and other state institutions is not a crime, should not be criminalised – it is not treason. Even the most trusted government, the most trusted politician – be it a Mandela, a Kaunda or a Fidel – needs to be held accountable. The Russians say “trust but verify”. How public funds are spent is a matter that needs verification all the time; and all transactions involving public funds need to be subjected to public scrutiny.

Moreover, there is no government that can be said to be a good one if it does not rest upon the principle that governments exist to serve the people; the people do not exist to serve the government. In other words, the people are citizens of the democratic state, not its subjects. While the state should protect the rights of citizens, in return, the citizens should give the state their loyalty. But under crooked, corrupt and tyrannical governments, the state, as an entity separate from the society, demands loyalty and service from its people without any reciprocal obligation to secure their consent for its actions.

Citizens in a democracy enjoy the right to participate freely in the public life of their society and to question the decisions and actions of their representatives, whether elected or nominated by those they have elected. At the same time, citizens must accept the responsibility that such participation entails: educating themselves about the issues, demonstrating tolerance in dealing with those holding opposing views and compromising when necessary to reach agreement.

Broadly speaking, these responsibilities of citizens entail participating in the democratic processes to ensure its functioning. At a minimum, citizens should educate themselves about the critical issues confronting their society – if only to vote intelligently for candidates running for high office.

The essence of democratic action is the active, freely chosen participation of its citizens in the public life of their community and nation. Without this broad, sustaining participation, democracy will begin to wither and become the preserve of a small, select number of groups and organisations. But with the active engagement of individuals across the spectrum of society, democracies can wither the inevitable economic and political storms that sweep over every society, without sacrificing the freedoms and rights that they have sworn to uphold.

Active involvement in public life is often narrowly defined as the struggle for political office. But citizen participation in a democratic society is much broader than just taking part in election contests. Whatever the level of their contribution, a healthy democracy depends upon the continuing, informed participation of the broad range of its citizens. In this sense, democracy can be said to be a process, a way of living and working together. It is evolutionary, not static. It requires cooperation, compromise and tolerance among all citizens. Making it work is hard, not easy. Freedom means responsibility, not freedom from responsibility.

Democracies embodies ideals of freedom and self-expression, but it is also clear-eyed about human nature. It does not demand that citizens be universally virtuous, only that they will be responsible. As American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr said: “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.”

Clearly, democracy is anchored on common good, on love and truth. Truth needs to be sought, found and expressed for people to have meaningful participation in the affairs of their country, but democracy in its turn needs to be understood, confirmed and practised in the light of truth. In this way, not only do we do a service to democracy enlightened by truth, but we also help giving credibility to truth, demonstrating its persuasive and authenticating power in the practical setting of social living. This is a matter of no small account today, in a social and cultural context which relativises truth often paying little heed to it and showing increasing reluctance to acknowledge it’s existence.

Truth, by enabling men and women to let go of their subjective opinions and impressions, allows them to move beyond cultural and historical limitations and to come together in the assessment of the value and substance of things. Truth opens and unites our minds. Without truth, citizen participation in the governance of the country is confined to a narrow field devoid of relations. It is excluded from the plans and processes of promoting human development of universal range, in dialogue between knowledge and practices.

And democracy without love will not work, will not deliver anything of value. To love someone is to desire that person’s good and to take effective steps to secure it. Besides the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good. It is the good of “all of us”, made up of individuals, families and intermediate groups who together constitute society, constitute our nation.

It is a good that is sought not for its own sake, but for the people who belong to the social community and who can only really and affectively pursue their good within it. Therefore, to desire the common good and strive towards it is a requirement of democratic action, and indeed of justice and all citizen participation. To take a stand for the common good is on the one hand to be solicitous for, and on the other hand to avail oneself of, that complex of institutions that give structure to the life of society, juridically, civilly, politically and culturally. The more we strive to secure a common good corresponding to the real needs of our neighbours, the more effectively we love them.

Every citizen is therefore called upon to participate in the affairs of our country, of our nation in a manner corresponding to his vocation and according to the degree of influence he wields. We therefore join the call made by Sampa and urge all Zambians to reflect deeply about participation and about taking a keen interest in the affairs of their country on how public funds are being used.

Labels: CONTRACTORS, PROCUREMENT SYSTEMS, TIZ

posted by MrK @ 8:58 AM