Maravi

A decent society is the future, build it now!

A decent society is the future, build it now!
By The Post
Wed 08 Aug. 2012, 07:30 CAT

"We want to reconstruct this country. We want to have a country of decent men and women. We want to have a country of selfless leaders. We want to have a country of leaders that shall come into public life to come and serve the people of Zambia. There is an impression created that when the party talks about corruption, it is only referring to the MMD or to the politicians that served under its regime.

Corruption is a challenge even in our own political party as PF. And if we don't fight this cancer even within PF, corruption is going to eat our very fabric and norms of our party and we shall fail to deliver to the people of Zambia. We have reached a point now where we are not short of members. We are looking for clean members. We just don't want any member.

The party has observed that some former MMD members who had committed crimes while the MMD was still in government and were covered by it think that now that PF is in power, they could go PF and have their crimes covered by the ruling party." This is a message on corruption from Wynter Kabimba, the secretary general of the Patriotic Front. They say justice begins at home. And the leaders and members of the Patriotic Front, as a ruling party, must be the first to give witness.

They cannot call others to virtues which they themselves do not make an effort to practice. We therefore ask Wynter and his colleagues in the Patriotic Front to respect themselves and to be exemplary in their daily lives, especially on issues of corruption.

The Patriotic Front cannot preach against corruption to others if it does not practice this itself.

What Wynter is preaching is something rooted in a straightforward view of society, in the understanding that the individual does best in a strong and decent community of people with principles and standards and common aims and values. And the task of the Patriotic Front leadership is to apply their values and norms to the nation. There is need to call for a new politics if they really want to "reconstruct this country".

Today's politics is about the search for justice, fairness, humaneness in a changing world. And our political parties must build a strong and active membership and leadership that can provide it. This should be our collective project for Zambia.

We must do it together. We cannot buy our way into a corruption-free society simply by hoping for it or expressing a desire for it. We must work for it together. We must plan for it together. We cannot protect the ordinary against the abuse of power by leaving them to it; we must protect each other.

This is the insight Wynter is providing. The people of this country are looking to the Patriotic Front for the delivery of such a society. They want them to make a start. And they want us with them in the task head and heart. This is so because this can only be done together. Leaders lead, but in the end the people govern.

We have to change our ways as a nation. And change is an important part of life. Those who don't change stagnate and decline or even die.

If the world changes, and we don't change, then we become of no use to the world. Our principles cease being principles and just ossify into dogma. But we shouldn't change to forget our principles, our values, our norms. We should change to fulfil them; we should change not to lose our identity but to keep our relevance.

And for those in politics, there is need for them to realise that change is an important part of gaining the nation's trust. They cannot continue to deal with corruption in the same old rhetorical way without any practical deeds. Without changing, leaders and members of the Patriotic Front will soon be involved in the same corrupt activities in which the leaders and members of the MMD were involved and were removed from power for.

Abuse of office was rampant under the MMD government of Rupiah Banda and that of Frederick Chiluba. There are people in this Patriotic Front government that benefitted from the MMD abuses before crossing over to the new party.

There are people in this government of the Patriotic Front who are out to enrich themselves through unlimited access to government business and contracts. There is talk about their companies being everywhere, seeking government contracts. And in many cases, they are said to be getting those contracts.

Some of them are even said to be boasting about recovering the money they lost in the election campaigns through government business. Such politicians are not fit to be in government because they cannot be said to be offering a selfless service to the people. They are in government for themselves and for their businesses. They have no love for anyone for them to offer a selfless service. Decisions are being made to satisfy self-interest rather than the benefit of the people.

It is just a matter of time before some of these things come in the open. And Wynter is right when he says that "corruption is a challenge even in our own party as PF. And if we don't fight this cancer even within PF, corruption is going to eat our very fabric and norms of our party and we shall fail to deliver to the people of Zambia".

It seems our law enforcement agencies have got a serious deficiency in terms of pursuing the corruption of those in power. The corruption of those in power is only dug out and exposed by our law enforcement agencies when there is a change of government. The corruption of the Chiluba regime only came out to be prosecuted when Levy Mwanawasa took over government. And the corruption of the Rupiah regime is only being prosecuted now after a change of government. Where have our law enforcement agencies been all this time?

If they had investigated these matters and they were only stopped from prosecuting them by the political authorities, they would have taken them to court immediately after the change of government. But it's only now that they have started investigating the corruption that took place under the Rupiah regime. We wonder when they will start following cases of possible corruption under this PF regime!

There is need to send a clear message to our people through action on all fronts. There is need for action on the political front against any cases of corruption involving leaders and members of the PF and its government.

It will be difficult for the PF government to convince people that there is no corruption in its ranks when the people see it with their own eyes and are talking about it every day. And even Wynter is confirming it that corruption is a challenge even in the PF. But where are the prosecutions?

This is the question people will soon start asking persistently, and corrupt elements from the Rupiah regime will try to hide under. And moreover, the rule of law is anchored on the right to equality before the law, or equal protection of the law. Whether political ally of the party in power or opponent, all should be equal before the law and under no circumstances should politics impose additional inequalities; all should be dealt with evenly and equally.

There is need to intensify action on the legal front and ensure that our law enforcement agencies step up their activities and go for wrongdoers wherever they may be as long as the law allows them to do so. We don't want whatever corruption may arise under this regime to only be investigated and prosecuted after a change of government. We want the next government to find that all cases of corruption arising under the PF government have been dealt with by this regime. In this way, the prestige of this government will grow and together, our people will be able to deliver what is required for their country to move forward.

Let us not forget that the clean society, the corruption-free country the PF leadership is seeking will not be built in the future. It will be built on what we do today. The future is not built in the future; it is built on the threshold of what we do today. If our future lies in us creating a decent society, let us create it today. A decent society is the future, let us build it now!

Labels: CORRUPTION, MMD, WYNTER KABIMBA

posted by MrK @ 3:12 PM