Maravi

Politicians don’t want to be checked by enlightened citizenry – Mpundu

Politicians don’t want to be checked by enlightened citizenry – Mpundu
By Ernest Chanda
Mon 28 Dec. 2009, 04:01 CAT

LUSAKA Catholic Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu has observed that the country has not done well in the provision of quality education because politicians do not want to be checked by an enlightened citizenry.

And Archbishop Mpundu has said the Catholic Church does not care about information minister Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha’s refusal to apologise for accusing the church of genocide. Reviewing the year in an interview, Archbishop Mpundu said any leadership should be judged by the quality of education they provide to the citizens.

“Have we performed well this year? Have we performed well in the last two years? The answer is no. Look at education; every child has a right to education. Until we realise that we shall never grow out of poverty. Every child should be given quality education, at least up to grade 12. If we are not aiming at that, not in the near future, we can as well forget, we should forget about government,” Archbishop Mpundu said.

“It is an educated citizenry that can refuse to be manipulated by unscrupulous politicians, but hold to account their representatives in the Legislature because they are informed; they’re educated; they will put them politicians to task. An educated nation will not tolerate corrupt and selfish leaders; they will chuck them out. They are not going to be intimidated to say, ‘no we know what you have voted’, no; they will know that their vote is secret. They will not be manipulated into voting for someone who they don’t want to vote for. Now we look around, are we giving quality education to tomorrow’s leaders? This is the benchmark by which the performance of any leaders should be judged.”

He said the country could only develop if government invested a lot in education, including the training of quality teachers. Archbishop Mpundu urged the government to stop depending on foreign investors, saying no country had developed as a result of foreign investors.

“Education is the key to any meaningful and sustainable development. Until this country realises that, until the leadership realises that we need intellectuals in practice we will not develop. You go to developed countries, teachers are not paupers; teachers are rewarded, adequately rewarded. And because they’re adequately rewarded the teaching service attracts quality intelligence. Not for someone else who does not qualify to be a teacher then you make them teachers, no.

Teachers there are well trained and impart quality education. And we do not mean academic production units as in most of the private schools where the rest of education is left to parents at home,” he said. “The pupils are there simply to pass exams, this is not education.

We’re talking about all-round education; this is what is important. It is an educated and well-informed population that can bring about the development of Zambia. Not the so-called investors, those who come to invest in Zambia; wherever they come from. I couldn’t care less whether they come from the UK United Kingdom or the United States, or India, or China. They are not going to develop our country. It is we Zambians to develop our country. How can we develop our country if we are illiterate or we’re just semi-literate? This is very important; when you look at the schools, the standards… someone else will tell me the standards are going up. But the truth is the standards are going down.”

And Archbishop Mpundu said while Lt Gen Shikapwasha would not be in government for long, the church will be there always. He said the Catholic Church had suffered at the hands of successive governments because of its strong stance against social injustices.

“You see, people are deceived into believing that it is only at this time that the relationship between the Catholic Church and the government is sour, no. The truth of the matter is that there has always been some co-existence, some cooperation between the government and the church, the Catholic Church in particular. But because of where the church stands you can never hope to have wonderful relations in the sense of always very high, no, because of the prophetic stance, the prophetic role of the church,” Archbishop Mpundu said.

“The church will come out and say this is not right, and those who govern us are not always happy. And this didn’t start with Shikapwasha. Shikapwasha came yesterday, tomorrow he will go, the church will continue. If he doesn’t apologise for what he has said it is only his own shame, that’s all. If he were someone who wanted really to say ‘something went wrong there, maybe I should make up’, but he doesn’t want. The church couldn’t care less, it is only to his own discredit, that’s all.”

He said the church had received scorn from successive governments whenever it had tried to advise on social issues.

“In 1991 we ushered in a new government through elections. In 1992, then Republican president Frederick Chiluba at St Dominic’s spoke to the Bishops of Eastern Africa, AMECEA Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa. And he said, ‘the church was a mid-wife in the birth of a new democratic dispensation here in Zambia’, much to the applause of everybody. But soon after that the Bishops issued a Pastoral Letter where they said ‘Ah, The Future is Ours!’.

That Pastoral Letter talked about the hardships of the people, it talked about corruption,” he said. “The government was very unhappy, even some so-called Catholics who were anonymous; they called themselves concerned Catholics. They were very much against that. But the Bishops said ‘look we’re not going in the right direction. If we were going in the right direction we would be taking everyone on board. And corruption must be fought’. The Chiluba government did not like that.

In 1996, in May, the Mwanakatwe Constitution Review Commission had made its findings and made recommendations. 80 per cent of the recommendations were dismissed by the Chiluba government. The Bishops went to State House to try and talk to the administration, the President and senior minister. President Chiluba did not even allow us to speak. Now we don’t even go telling everybody about that, I’m just underlining the fact that it is very difficult for the church leadership at all the time to be in such bosom friendship with the government.”

He said while the Catholic Church had always been ready to talk with government on several misunderstandings, the government had not been ready.

“It was the same during the Kaunda time when, if you remember, they wanted to introduce scientific socialism. And you remember in 1986 when we said to the government of the time that they had to do something about the poverty of our people. It was a social reflection and government wanted to deport some of our Bishops from the Catholic secretariat because they are white. Kenneth Kaunda in 1990 after that attempted coup, the Bishops wrote a Pastoral Letter and the government said we were inciting the people,” said Archbishop Mpundu.

“Then the people said, ‘no at least someone has spoken, some tension has gone out’. The time of president Mwanawasa it was the same thing. Even about the ongoing constitution making process, we went to State House we wanted to say something. We were not given a chance to speak. We had some issues to raise with the president, he gave a 90-minute lecture on law; what can we say?

So, the accusations of Honourable Shikapwasha are ridiculous and they should be considered in that light. He didn’t apologise, well we don’t mind, we don’t mind about that. He will go tomorrow, the church will continue. We are not worried, we’re prepared to talk, but apparently Ronnie Shikapwasha is not prepared to talk. But we have always been ready to talk, always.”

Labels: EDUCATION, TELESPHORE MPUNDU

posted by MrK @ 4:05 AM