Maravi

Trivia and mediocrity dominate our politics

Trivia and mediocrity dominate our politics
By The Post
Tue 23 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT

The quality of politics in our country calls for deep meditation from all citizens of goodwill. We make this call because we feel the kind of discourse that politicians are engaging in will not help us solve the many problems our people are daily facing.

We should not allow the politics of our country to be relegated to trivialities chosen precisely because they salve the consciences of the powerful and well-to-do and conceal the plight of the poor and powerless.

And we agree with Reverend Matyola Malawo, the executive secretary of Zambia Council for Social Development, when he says that Zambian politicians are behaving more like children. Rev Malawo further observes:

“The current politics happening now, those of us in the development profession, we feel like some of these political debates are done at the expense of development. It’s more like children who are playing. We want to see development issues, how we have developed the country’s national development plan.”

We cannot have a trend where non-issues are the order of the day as far as discourse is concerned. This practice is unacceptable and needs to be changed.

Our nation’s politicians, both in the government and the opposition, need to take stock of their contribution towards the development of our politics and democracy. What is it that they have done to make politics an honourable and dignified service?

It is such conduct that makes politics appear to be a “dirty game” when it should be seen to be a genuine way of being at the service of others for the integral development of our country. As citizens, what is our role in ensuring honest politics in our country?

Our people are facing numerous problems and challenges. Poverty now stands at 64 per cent. Most of our people both in urban and rural areas can barely manage to survive. There are many people in Zambia who each day cannot meet the basic needs necessary for a decent human life. It is a strict duty of justice and truth not to allow fundamental needs to remain unsatisfied. Our nation is richly endowed with natural resources, but our people live in abject poverty.

The unemployment levels still remain very high, over 80 per cent, and most of our young people continue to walk the streets without any opportunity for jobs.

The country’s education and health sectors are saddled with numerous problems, ranging from the quality of service provided to poor remuneration of workers.

Strikes are perennial because this is the only way workers can get some little benefit from this system. And very little benefit is the coming from the mining sector, from extraction industries.

We are told that the country last year earned US $77 million in tax revenues from copper sales of over US $2.9 billion. The government has not even projected how much they intend to raise in form of taxes from the expected copper sales revenues, with the abolishment of the 2008 mining fiscal regime.

Apart from the revenue from the mining sector, the conditions under which our people work in some of these mines and their wages leave much to be desired. And one cannot help but wonder why the government has left our people at the mercy of the so-called investors.

We have been grappling with the issue of the new constitution for many years as a country and our people are nowhere near getting a document that reflects their wishes and aspirations.

With every constitution-making process that is embarked on, the people’s wishes are just ignored and the circus continues. Yet we all know very well that the constitution is at the heart of the nation-building process.

Many of our fellow citizens still suffer and die from preventable diseases like cholera; even some diseases that we had wiped out are re-appearing.

There is no future development without healthy and educated people. One cannot claim to uphold the sanctity of life if there is no provision for minimal health care for all.

Life is sacred, a gift from God to be valued from the moment of conception until death. Our road infrastructure leaves much to be desired and something seriously needs to be done.

Even the roads in the affluent residential areas of our main cities are a nightmare for most motorists. With modest rains, Lusaka is in floods because of very poor drainage. What have the leaders been doing all these years?

We have issues of poverty and HIV/AIDS, which have subsequently brought about a rise in children on the streets. While the battle against HIV/AIDS ought to be everyone’s battle, it needs quality or very high calibre political leadership.

In the midst of all these problems and challenges, our political leaders have embraced corruption, destroying the social structures of our country. We have a mission to promote transparency, accountability and honesty in society.

Corruption is robbing our nation of scarce resources. Those who pay bribes, those who protect and defend very corrupt elements like Frederick Chiluba and his tandem of thieves facilitate and perpetuate an already dysfunctional system. We invite all Zambians to avoid corruption at all costs and condemn it whenever and wherever they see it.

All these are the issues that should pre-occupy our politicians and dominate their discourse. No one would complain if they went for each other over these problems. Now we cannot have a situation where people turn non-issues into the most dominant issues.

Sadly, trivia is what interests our politicians. It is even laughable that at times the same leaders who perpetuate these non-issues accuse the media of being petty and yet the media is just a mirror of society; it reflects what is happening in the country - be it desirable or undesirable.

It is surprising in our country that people and institutions - especially the Church - are accused of insulting or crudity of language when they articulate issues affecting our people.

People are labeled for taking their government to task over national challenges and problems. Our people need to demand better from those who govern them.

The politicians need to understand that the situation in the country will not improve as long as they continue to make trivia their only discernible preoccupation.

No one will develop our country for us. And politics need to be taken very serious because it is the instrument by which people cooperate together in order to achieve the common good. Political leadership is needed to guide the energies of all towards the common good.

For these reasons, politics need people with high credibility; people with substance whose every word, every act and every policy conforms to the people’s interests.

No one will come and lecture us on the necessity for visionary and hardworking political leadership that is imbued with the desire for change that is anchored on democratic governance and patriotism to our nation.

No one will come and remind us that political leadership should come with requisite knowledge, motivational force, managerial ability, flexibility, acuity, organising capacity and forthrightness.

We are responsible for our own destiny and we will continue to wallow in poverty and underdevelopment if nothing is done to eradicate the mediocrity in our politics. Our people have a responsibility to take political leaders to task and demand better performance from them at all times.

The status quo as far as the quality of politics in the country is concerned should not continue if we are to harbour any hope for development as a nation.

Labels: INSULTS, POLITICS

posted by MrK @ 7:04 AM