Maravi

Heed Mazombwe’s advice, vote for capable leaders

Heed Mazombwe’s advice, vote for capable leaders
By The Post
Thu 10 Feb. 2011, 04:00 CAT

It is important to always bear in mind that the people are not struggling for ideas, for things in one’s head. They are struggling to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children.

And for this reason, we agree with Cardinal Medardo Mazombwe when he says that “as we go for elections this year, let us look at those people who are capable of delivering materials that are going to help us develop…to some significant degree, some are capable of delivering, some are not.

But we don’t only need people who are capable, but people that have a heart for humanity because God created us to have life and to have it in abundance and anybody who destroys lives has got no share in our development”.

To realise the development Cardinal Mazombwe is talking about, we must vote wisely in this year’s elections and only for people who are known for their honesty, integrity, ability, dedication and concern for the welfare of all.

Crooks, selfish people and corrupt elements cannot bring development to our people. We must vote for politicians who base their politics on morality.

Let us try in a new time and in a new way to return to morality and remove crookedness, selfishness and corruption from our politics.

Let us teach ourselves and others that politics should be an expression of a desire to contribute to the material wellbeing and happiness of the community rather than of a need to cheat or rape the community.

Let us teach ourselves and others that politics can be, not only the art of the possible, especially if this means the art of calculation, intrigue, secret deals and pragmatic manoeuvering, but that it can be the art of the impossible – the art of improving ourselves and the world we live in.

We had an opportunity to develop our country and our people in a very big way under Frederick Chiluba.

We had the sympathy of the world with us. International aid flowed into our country and our debts were written off.

But the possibilities of development opened by all these were squandered by selfishness, greed, vanity and corruption of the Chiluba regime – corruption that has today become deep-rooted in our country.

And when we talk about deep-rooted corruption, we are not only talking about Chiluba’s corruption and that which has today consumed Rupiah Banda and his regime. We are talking about all of us.

We have all become used to this corrupt system and seem to have accepted it as an unchangeable fact and thus help to perpetuate it. In other words, we are all – though naturally to differing extents – responsible for this corruption that is today robbing our people of opportunities to develop; none of us is just its victim: we are all its co-creators.
Why do we say this?

It would be very unreasonable to understand the sad legacy of the last almost 20 years as something alien, which some distant relative bequeathed us. On the contrary, we have to accept this legacy of corruption as a sin we have committed against ourselves.

If we accept it as such, we will understand that it is up to us all, and up to us only, to do something about it.

We cannot blame Chiluba and even Rupiah for everything, not only because it would be untrue but also because it could blunt the duty that each of us faces today, that is, the obligation to act independently, freely, reasonably and quickly.

And as we have stated before, let us not be mistaken: the best government in the world, the best parliament and the best president, cannot achieve much on their own.

And it would also be wrong to expect a general remedy from them only. Freedom and democracy include participation and therefore responsibility from us all.

If we realise this, then all the horrors of the corruption of the Chiluba and Rupiah regimes will cease to appear so terrible.

If we realise this, hope will return to our hearts. The positive results of the fight against corruption that was waged under Levy Mwanawasa have been reversed by Rupiah in his efforts to save his friend Chiluba from going to jail and losing his loot.

For Rupiah, all is about retaining power, being re-elected.

Let us not allow the sympathies of the world under Levy be lost through our becoming entangled in the jungle of corruption and skirmishes for power.

Let us not allow the desire to serve oneself to bloom once again under the fair mask of the desire to serve the common good.

It is not really important now which political party or individual will prevail in this year’s elections.

The most important thing is that the winners or winner will be the best of us, in the moral, civic and political sense, regardless of their political affiliations.

The future policies and prestige of our state will depend on the personalities we elect.

We want a president who will speak less and work more.

We want a president who will not only look out of the windows of his airplane but who, first and foremost, will always be present among his fellow citizens and listen to them well.

Let us dream of a republic independent, free and democratic, of a republic economically prosperous and yet socially just, in short, of a humane republic which serves the individual and which therefore holds the hope that the individual will serve it in turn.

Let’s dream of a republic of well-rounded people, because without such, it is impossible to solve any of our problems, human, economic, social or political.

Let us dream of a republic where the leaders say what they think and what they mean and not something different.

The corruption of the last two decades has dehumanised us to a point where we do not seem to believe in anything, we have learned to ignore each other and to care only about ourselves.

Concepts such as love, friendship, compassion, humility or forgiveness seem to have lost their depth and dimensions among us. Our country is not flourishing as Rupiah and his minions would like us believe.

The enormous creative and spiritual potential of our nation is not being used sensibly.
This is not a recipe for development.

We can only remedy the situation by voting in this year’s elections according to the advice of Cardinal Mazombwe when he says: “The responsibility is with us to know who up until now has shown that he or she is capable of delivering development for this country from what he or she says, from the kind of person they are and how they are living so.

From that we are going to be able to decide and say there is reasonable hope that this person can deliver.

We want each one of us to fulfil the responsibility to participate to whatever level.” Good elections require intelligent and responsible participation of all voters.

Our vote is a powerful weapon for development, unity, an instrument of liberty, justice and peace.

On our voting, on the quality of it, the discernment behind it, depend the progress and peace of our country.

Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS, MERDADO JOSEPH MAZOMBWE

posted by MrK @ 7:45 AM