Maravi

Politics is not dirty

Politics is not dirty
By The Post
Fri 19 Nov. 2010, 04:00 CAT

The scourge of corruption is one of the most virulent ills that our country is facing today. Unless we recognise the full extent to which corruption, abuse of office and all sorts of plunder of national resources is responsible for our poverty as a nation, we will not be able to develop to our full potential.

Integrity and honesty are some of the most important qualities that our country needs in order to make progress. In other words, we will not move forward in a way that benefits all our people, especially the very poor, unless the principles of honesty and integrity form the bedrock upon which our governance systems are developed.

Many people ask the question: why are we so poor as a people in the midst of such abundant resources? Why does our country make other nations rich by giving them resources which they transform into goods and services that we later pay a high premium for? Is there something wrong with us? Are we cursed to live under this yoke of poverty and deprivation whilst possessing vast resources?

The reasons for our poverty are complex and we cannot pretend to be the experts that can fully explain why we are where we are.

But it is possible to understand some of the reasons why we find ourselves in the quagmire that we are currently in. The problems that we face as a nation affect all of us in one way or the other. The pervasive poverty is a cancer that afflicts every citizen to varying degrees. We are either directly infected by this cancer of poverty or we are affected by it. Even those who think they are rich and therefore should not concern themselves with the poverty that surrounds us as a nation because according to them, it is a political matter that does not concern them, should stop and think again. We say this because it doesn’t matter how rich you think you are, your wealth is in danger if you live in a country where the vast majority of your compatriots are poor, and this not out of laziness or lack of initiative but as a result of a failed system of governance.

There are many of our people who think that politics is a dirty game with which they need not concern themselves. The only problem with this kind of reasoning is that it is this same dirty game that affects almost every aspect of our lives.

This dirty game determines whether we have good hospitals or bad ones; it determines whether we have good schools for our children or bad ones; it also determines whether we drive on good roads or bad ones. In many ways, politics decides whether we have food to eat as citizens or none. The quality of politics determines the quality of our lives. It is therefore naïve to think that we can somehow insulate ourselves from this so-called dirty game for fear that if we participate or make our positions known on issues, we will be victimised.

It is true that politics in a developing democracy like ours can be a very expensive adventure for those who participate in it. The system of winner-takes-all ensures that those who lose are punished by those who win. But this is so because many of our people have not yet begun to fully accept that politics is about them; politics is about their welfare. Any politics that ignores the people and their needs is not politics but crime. This is why we see the kind of politics in our country that are predicated on feeding the hungry vultures that participate to the exclusion of our people.

This culture of indifference to the politics of our country breeds a fertile ground for corruption and abuse of office. Those who are brave enough to join this so-called dirty game feel entitled to reap the benefits of their adventure.

But things need not be this way. We need to get to a time when it is not only those who are extraordinarily courageous or uncaringly criminal in their mentality who get into politics. It must be a game played to benefit every citizen. We must make sure that it is not rewarding for criminals to get into public office. To this end, it is good that institutions like Transparency International are pushing the agenda that makes it difficult for criminal politicians to continue stealing from their people with impunity.

The issue that Transparency International is raising is not a matter that is far removed from our domestic problems. It is good that they have adopted the declaration calling on governments to act decisively on the repatriation of stolen assets.

We say this because the keepers of our people, their leaders have become their butchers. Unfortunately, this butchery does not end at persistent violation of rights and denial of meaningful participation in their politics, but it extends to the plunder and wanton pillaging of national resources.

The brave crook who manages to survive the rigours of the unforgiving African political scene is left to loot the national treasury without the fear of any reprisal. This is the experience of many countries in Africa. Our country has suffered this same fate. It is therefore good that international solidarity in the form of Transparency International’s declaration on repatriation of stolen assets is coalescing international opinion in favour of poor countries that suffer at the hands of the thieves, the kleptocrats who run our countries. They need to know and understand that the world is watching. The age of impunity needs to be brought to an end.

But it is not only organisations like Transparency International that are going to bring about this change. International solidarity can help to raise our morale as we fight to stop those that are supposed to be our leaders turning into vultures that plunder our resources. But we also need to do something for ourselves. No effort should be spared in ensuring that our people understand the full extent to which corruption and abuse of office is responsible for their poverty; they need to understand that accountability from those that govern them is not a nice sounding word which can be ignored at will by our governments. Accountability or the lack of it is what makes the difference between a child dying due to malnutrition or surviving because of adequate nutrition. Accountable governments ensure that resources that are meant to service the public are used to do just that.

But governments that are not held accountable are prone to self-aggrandisement and abuse of government systems for personal benefit. It is we the people that should hold the government to account. If we fail in our job, we reap the consequences of such failure.

And we are all familiar with what those consequences are: poor health services, bad sanitation, non-existent roads and the list could go on. We need to understand that unless an increasing number of our people wake up to their obligations in holding this government and any succeeding governments to account, this country will remain poor for a foreseeable future.

It is only because our people allow Rupiah Banda and his minions, for instance, to claim the right to amass inexplicable wealth, that they feel confident to challenge common sense and pass laws that make it legal for them to abuse their offices, acquire wealth and not be accountable for it. Because they feel that our people do not have the immediate means to stop them, they continue in their stiff-necked pursuit of shameful benefits from the corruption of political processes that should be used to benefit our people. Parliament should be passing laws that protect citizens from the sticky fingers of crooks who occupy public office. But now, Parliament is being used to create an enabling environment for corruption. This is what Rupiah’s legacy in the fight against corruption is going to be: the president who created an enabling environment for thieves!

Labels: CORRUPTION, TIZ

posted by MrK @ 6:00 PM