Maravi

There'll be no manna from St Michael

There'll be no manna from St Michael
By The Post
Wed 06 June 2012, 13:25 CAT

MICHAEL Sata is not a magician who will play abracadabra, hocus pocus, hey presto, open sesame and we will wake up one fine morning to find our lives changed and we have everything we need in a developed country. It won't work that way. Things are not going to be that easy. Nobody should think that things are going to be easy. We will make some progress but it won't be easy.

We must be prepared to meet difficulties. We have difficulties now, and we will have even greater ones in the future, even if we do things the right way -and we should do them the right way, even if it calls for our greatest efforts. We have to cope with the objective problems that we find ourselves in as a country. It will not be the story of moving from rags to riches overnight.

And chieftainess Malembeka of the Lamba people of Mpongwe district is very right when she says that it is practically impossible for Michael's government to satisfy everyone's demands within a short period of time.

She says that although she is optimistic that Michael's government is going to change a lot of things, there is need to give them time to do things for us.

But there is a danger in thinking Michael and his government will do things for us, will rain manna for us and give us the good life we all desire. Michael and his government, in themselves, guarantee us nothing. What they give us is a promise of happiness if we work hard under the environment they are trying to create for us.

What they give us is then both a promise and a challenge. They give us a promise in the sense that, if we work together and govern our country in a manner that will serve our aspirations for economic opportunity and social justice, we will be able to move our lives forward and live better in peace.

It is a challenge because the achievement of all these things that we yearn for rests upon our shoulders as citizens of this country and no one else.

Michael's government is a government that was freely elected by the people. It can truly be said to be a government of and by the people. And this means that we as citizens of this country should share in its benefits and in its burdens. And if we fail to achieve what we have set ourselves to accomplish, we should blame nobody but ourselves.

If a government of the people, by the people, for the people fails to deliver, it blames nobody but the people. We, as citizens of this country, must finally take responsibility for the fate of our nation, a country in which we have chosen to live.

We have repeatedly said that leaders lead and the people govern. This is the true meaning of democracy. It is a growth in the confidence in the power of ordinary people to transform their country, and thus transform themselves. It is a growth in the appreciation of people organising, deciding, creating together. It is the growth in fraternal love.

Let's always bear in mind that what we can't do for ourselves, no one will do for us. But everything has to start with organisation, with leadership. And this is where the role of Michael and his comrades comes in, and is much needed. One of Kwame Nkrumah's favourite slogans to his supporters was "organisation decides everything". Spontaneity has its limitations.

Things have to be arduously organised and the character and commitment of leaders is absolutely decisive. We have to learn from mistakes of the past when we thought the political leadership can deliver us everything and our job was just to wait and see when the manna will fall.

We should avoid repeating the same mistakes. It is not possible for us to develop our country without the participation of all. It won't do to wait and see what the government will do for us. Government and all of us have to work together.

The political leadership leads and we ourselves govern. The success of this enterprise rests upon our shoulders as citizens. We have to be demanding, and continue to be demanding, but we shouldn't forget that we also have responsibility.

Our responsibility as citizens does not begin and end with casting the vote. Democracy calls for participation in the development of our country. We all have to work together like beavers, shoulder to shoulder with the rest of our people.

We need economic development and committed political leadership. And judging by the record of the past, the two most decisive factors affecting the future consolidation and expansion of our democracy will be economic development and political leadership. We say this because economic development makes democracy possible; political leadership makes it real.

As for the political leadership, we need to know where it is leading us. And it is important for them to at all times make us know where they are leading us.

The leadership should not make the mistake of neglecting its own people. It should make us understand what it is doing or where it is going. The political leadership should take time and trouble to explain. Of course, sometimes it is dangerous to explain, but it is still more dangerous not to explain.

Those who lead us should not go their tortuous way, over-confident that they only need to speak and the masses will follow. Let them explain everything they are doing on our behalf. In this way, people can be able to participate and refine or purify what they are doing or what they are thinking of doing.

The workers, peasants, students, men and women should know very well what is being done in their country. We shouldn't cheat ourselves that we have always acted wisely and that we have always made the best decisions.

No one doesn't make mistakes. But we should with all the honesty in the world detect in time any error, any wrong decision and recognise it, and carry on; because even when you travel through the mountains with the help of a compass, from time to time there can be some drifting away from the right path just as ships sailing on the ocean occasionally drift off course a little, but you always keep going ahead in the right direction.

Let's be positive like chieftainess Malembeka and recognise the fact that if we all work together, a lot of things are going to change for the better in our country.

If we are going to laze around, avoiding participation and responsibility, thinking messiah Michael will deliver everything we need, we are cheating ourselves and we have no right to be here or we won't be here for too long. There will be no manna from St Michael.

Labels: JOBS, MICHAEL SATA, UNEMPLOYMENT

posted by MrK @ 2:58 PM