Maravi

Rupiah’s dogs

Rupiah’s dogs
By Editor
Mon 22 Mar. 2010, 04:00 CAT

No one person possesses the sum total of all wisdom and knowledge.

Indeed, there is no genius in any of us except the collective genius. It is a fallacy to believe that one person holds all the solutions to all the problems that our people face. The solutions to the problems of our people reside with our people. All the 12 million people who reside in this country called Zambia hold the key to their own problems. Nothing but a collective approach to the myriad of problems that we face would drive this country anywhere.

We say this because it seems there are some of our people who think that they are the only ones who know what our country needs. These people think that they are the only ones entitled to dictate to the rest of us what the solutions to the problems that we face are. We would not be so desperate if we felt that such friends were acting in what they thought was the best interest of the country. But this is not the case. These people act in what they think is their best interest and any benefit that accrues to the people is almost always unintended.

This is the kind of leadership that we have in this country. This is the leadership that Rupiah and his minions represent. It is difficult to believe that they ever act in the honest belief that their actions are in the interest of the people that they claim to work for. To them, everything is politics.

They spend 90 per cent of their time scheming how they are going to destroy their perceived enemies, five per cent on tactics and the rest of the time they pretend to be working.

It is no wonder our country is in the mess that it is. We all keep wondering why we are living as though we have been at war.

Corruption and abuse of office is a common currency for conducting government business. We are a rich-poor country, a contradiction. Not until the day comes when our leaders will be truly accountable to us and run government is the best interest of all the 12 million or so Zambians, we will continue wandering in the wilderness.

The challenges that this country faces cannot be surmounted by childish and outward-looking approaches to very complex problems. This is what Rupiah and his minions seem to miss. They think that they are going to sort out the problems of this country by aimlessly and most times rhetorically rehearsing the virtues of foreign investment and its value to our country. It is possible to attract all the foreign investment that we dream about and still remain very poor as a country. This is what Rupiah Banda and his friends are not worried about. They don’t care about the sufferings of our people and whether the actions of their governments will improve the lot of our people.

Why is there so much carelessness about national interest? This is what happens when people who are not patriotic to the plight of their people ascend to the highest offices in the land. Rupiah has no time to worry about national interest. The business of governing is too complicated and uninteresting compared to the quest and struggle to retain power. Rupiah is not interested in improving the lives of our people. He just wants to retain power for what he can get out of it. This is why he has no shame with being an absentee President. Rupiah has shown that he will not let pass any opportunity to take a trip away from home. Inside a period of 30 days, he took close to 14 days to travel to China, another day to Malawi and now he is taking four days to go to Namibia.

Just where does Rupiah find the time to reflect and think about the many complex problems that our country has? When does such a kamwendo munjila find the time to engage his ministers and ensure that they are developing and implementing policies to benefit our country today and in the years to come?

It seems Rupiah is an explorer and nothing much else. The only time he is interested in what is happening at home is when he thinks his hold on power is threatened. The people around him know this very well. His handlers understand him. We would not be surprised to find out that they are the ones who are always looking for trips for him.

The party cadres are not very far behind. They also know what is important to their President. This explains the behaviour of William Banda at the MMD card renewal exercise held recently at Mulungushi International Conference Centre. A President who is serious about running government and attending to the affairs of the state could not tolerate the kind of nonsense William Banda was spewing.

In not so many words, William Banda told the whole world that he understood what was important to Rupiah. It was not whether the people who are living in the flood devastated areas of Lusaka are looked after or whether the ministers serving in his government are working. No!

The issue to them is how to retain power. This is why William Banda could say, without fear of reprimand, that he and other party cadres were going to be sorting out ministers who they felt were not supportive of Rupiah’s quest to retain power. To Rupiah, his hold on power is unquestionable and anyone who aspires to unseat him commits treason. His minions understand this. That is why they could threaten ministers publicly.

What William Banda said publicly leaves us to ask the question: what is happening privately? Can ministers afford to have an opinion different from Rupiah’s? Can they afford to fight for the interests of our people when those interests stand against what Rupiah wants?

This is why you hardly hear any minister talking with any real confidence. They have all been bullied into silence and they have to make sure that whatever they say is consistent with their master’s wishes. How else do you explain a grown-up man such as community development minister Michael Kaingu comparing himself to a dog in a bid to prove his loyalty to Rupiah? How can a man who thinks he is a dog defend our interests and speak on behalf of the voiceless Zambians?

Kaingu’s posture clearly demonstrates what is going on in Rupiah’s government. You must have the submission of a dog to its master to serve in Rupiah’s government.

But we all know why dogs are submissive to their masters. It is because it is the master who feeds the dog. Having domesticated it, the master is obliged to feed his dog. Kaingu’s analogy comparing ministers in a government which is supposed to be of the people, by the people and for the people is one of the most shameful capitulations of public responsibility that we have ever heard a government minister express.

Kaingu is not Rupiah’s dog. He is supposed to be the people’s dog. He is supposed to be loyal to Zambians, the people who pay his salary. As our dog, Kaingu is supposed to protect us from Rupiah and anybody who threatens public interest. That is why we have ministers. Ministers are not there to serve the President. They are there to serve the 12 million Zambians.

But the comedy is that Rupiah’s government doesn’t end there. Some ministers are calling themselves dogs while others are calling Rupiah God. How can you compare a mere mortal with God?

Local government deputy minister Moses Muteteka said the other day that he could not comment on the obviously insulting remarks made by William Banda at the card renewal exercise because, according to him, Rupiah was like God and since Jesus – referring to Andrew, Rupiah’s son, had spoken, he could not talk. What nonsense is this? Since when did Rupiah become deity?

This is the nonsense that our politics is. Some ministers think they are dogs while other think their boss is God. What hope is there for our people if they are represented by dogs? What hope can we have if we have a Cabinet led by God?

This kind of thinking explains why our country is in the mess that it is. The thoughts expressed by Kaingu and Muteteka, although shameful, are representative of the way that our politics are run. The chap who ends up President thinks he is God and those lucky enough to be given jobs by him think they are dogs. If God is your boss, how are you going to criticise him? Indeed, we have never heard of a dog criticising its owner. This kind of self-deprecation is what makes our presidents despotic in character. They end up with no one capable of telling them that they are going the wrong way. It is difficult to imagine that anyone in Rupiah’s government can tell him that he is headed the wrong way. After all, they are all Rupiah’s dogs!

Labels: CORRUPTION, MICHAEL KAINGU, RUPIAH BANDA, WILLIAM BANDA

posted by MrK @ 3:47 PM