Mercenary, corrupt students

Mercenary, corrupt students
By The Post
Mon 15 Mar. 2010, 04:10 CAT

HONESTY and integrity are increasingly becoming rare commodities in our country and among our people. And those who possess these commodities have something more valuable than gold, diamonds and all these other highly valued things.

One can’t go wrong with honesty and integrity. Of course, like everything else that is valuable there’s a high price to be paid for being honest and for having integrity in one’s life and dealings. But it is a price that is paid for something of extremely high value, something very valuable and durable. It is a price worth paying.

And in this sense it is very important for our young people to appreciate the importance of incorruptibility as part of the essence of self-respect. The advice Duncan Nyirongo, the outgoing University of Zambia Students Union president is giving to those who are going to succeed him is of extremely great value and must be heeded.

Those who can be hired by politicians with deep pockets and used like mercenaries in their political campaigns do not deserve the respect of anyone and will never be respected by anyone, including those who have hired them. Dogs hired to go and bark at someone will never be respected; they will remain nothing but hired dogs.

Students and other young people, all over the world, have an important role to play in the affairs of their communities, nations and countries. All over the world, it is students and other young people who are actually involved in the struggle to eliminate oppression, exploitation, tyranny, dictatorships, corruption, abuse of power and other injustices.

They are the ones who most quickly identify with the struggle and the necessity to eliminate the unjust, unfair and inhuman conditions that exist. And for this reason, students and other young people who are concerned with the affairs of their community, nation and country deserve respect and support.

If one is not moved by injustice when they are students, when they are young, quite early in their lives, they will never be in a position to be moved with indignation when they witness such evils later on in their lives.

If one is not a revolutionary or a progressive person in his student days, in his days as a youth, he will never be a revolutionary or a progressive in his later years. If one is insensitive to injustice, to the crimes committed against other people as a student, as a young person, they will continue to be indifferent to the plight of others in their later years. For this reason, students and other young people should be encouraged and allowed to be very revolutionary, very progressive in their early years or else, they will never be good citizens.

Our young people should not be taught or encouraged to be indifferent to the suffering of fellow human beings, fellow citizens. Of course, we say this bearing in mind that indifference can be tempting – more than that, seductive. It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes.

It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person’s pain and despair. Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbours are of no consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless. Their hidden or visible anguish is of no interest. What matters is what one gets; what is his or her cut in it.

If they have to join a cause, a struggle, they have to be hired and be paid by someone in the same way mercenaries are recruited and engaged. Indifference reduces the other to an abstraction. In a way, to be indifferent to the suffering of others is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can sometimes be creative.

One does something special for the sake of others because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it; you denounce it; you disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. Indifference is not a beginning; it is an end. And for this reason indifference always benefits evil and wrongdoers and never the victim of injustice.

It is for these reasons that we urge our students and other young people to be quickly moved with indignation whenever an injustice is committed against anyone in this country, against anyone in the world wherever they may be and whoever they may be. This type of thing cannot be done by students and other young people who are mercenaries for hire by political opportunists and other evil and corrupt elements. This requires a high level of honesty and integrity among our students and other young people.

It is evil to abuse students and other young people by corrupting them with money and other benefits to obtain their political support and youthful militant action required in election campaigns.

The fact that university students in this country can be hired to support greedy and unscrupulous politicians is a testimony to an unfinished job. The rewards of independence and democracy must be measured by the dignity, happiness and welfare of our students, of all our young people. There can be no keener revelation of our nation’s soul than the way in which we treat our young people. We say this because the true character of a nation is revealed in how it treats its young people.

It is important for our young people to realise that there are no durable benefits in accepting to be bribed, to be corrupted, to be abused by crooked politicians. Their participation in the politics of our country should be something that arises from their own consciousness; from their own understanding of what is going on in their country. One of the first things our students and other young people should learn how to do is to see things for themselves, listen for themselves and think for themselves and then act on the basis of this. In this way, they will come to an intelligent decision for themselves; they will not be manipulated and in this way they will maintain their honesty and integrity.

And with this, they will win their respect because no one respects a hired mercenary, no one respects someone who has accepted to be bribed or to be manipulated. Respect, relationships, serious analysis and understanding are only possible among people who are honest with themselves and with others. And if you are honest, truly honest, you won’t be corrupted, you won’t be bribed, you won’t be manipulated and be hired to support unscrupulous and corrupt politicians. If you have a clear understanding of the worth of people and of yourself as a student, as a young person, you won’t be corrupted. There’s need for all our students to heed the advice of Nyirongo and maintain eternal vigilance about this at all times.

We have more respect for a person who is honest, who is not manipulated, who is not hired by anyone but is acting out of personal convictions, one who lets us know where he or she stands, even if he or she is wrong, than one who comes up like an angel when he is nothing but a devil.
Every time you let someone stand on your head and make decisions for you, manipulate you and pay you to do what he wants and you don’t do anything about it, you are not acting with intelligence and should not be on this planet and you won’t be on it very long either.

Our students and other young people should realise that corrupt politicians are very good at manipulation and deceit. They make you think they are very kind, generous and loving people so much that they make you think they are angels when they are nothing other than sinful little ogres. Yes, we understand the desperation of some of our students and other young people and their urgent need for money. But please, don’t rely on dishonest money; it will do you no good on that day of disaster. Stand up for what is right even if it costs you your life. Nothing that comes from bribery or injustice will last. Money that has been obtained dishonestly is like a stream that runs full during a thunderstorm, tumbling rocks along as it flows, but then suddenly goes dry. Acts of honesty and integrity are as lasting as eternity.

We need young people to actively and consciously participate in the politics of our country because this country is theirs, as well as ours, but in the last analysis, it is theirs. Our hope is placed on them. The world belongs to them.

Zambia’s future belongs to them. Bribing them, manipulating them, deceiving them should be considered a very serious crime because it does not only jeopardise their future but that of the nation as a whole.