Maravi

Siamunene on Hakainde
By Editor
Mon 11 Nov. 2013, 14:00 CAT

" THERE is need for HH to realise that the country is much more important than him," says Sinazongwe UPND member of parliament and commerce deputy minister Richwell Siamunene, accusing Hakainde Hichilema of championing selfish interests.

Many people have accused Hakainde of being self-centered and too full of himself. They say with him, everything is 'me this, me that'. Hakainde seems to be in politics because of ambition or pleasure and not to fulfil a sacred duty to his people and his country. José Marti, outstanding hero and forerunner of Cuba's liberation, said that "All the glory in the world fits in a kernel of corn".

What a penetrating thought! How unassuming! What modesty! That's what Marti had. You will never catch him talking about his personal image. He was always dedicated to work and thinking of the people and their future.

Therefore, we should be unassuming and limit ourselves to doing our duty to the best of our extremely limited possibilities.

As we have stated before, if you have had an opportunity to come into close contact with history and analyse this issue, you will realise that humans tend to make a fool of themselves if they think too much about personal interests, personal glory, about the positions they should occupy in things, in life.

We would say it would be wiser to aspire to a modest, simple, even anonymous place in things, because, if you have a true measure of the power of people as individuals, you know it's so fragile and such a small thing that it really doesn't make sense to magnify one's role as an individual, no matter how intelligent, brilliant or able one may be. There have been many able, intelligent, meritorious figures in the course of our history.

And a strict sense of justice should keep us away from toying with the idea, from being consumed by ambition and a spirit of self-importance, of occupying prominent or highest positions in things. We should a thousand times rather think of the place life will assign to the causes and ideas we are promoting and defending, to the rights of humanity and to people's happiness in the world of the future.

There is no power on earth that can neutralise the influence of a high, simple and useful life. It is said that he who has done his best for his time has lived for all times. Selfish hearts, hot heads and cold hearts have never solved anything. The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality.

A Hindu proverb says, "There is nothing noble about being superior to some other man. The true nobility is being superior to your previous self." And this is probably why it is said that leadership is action, not position.

A good political leader should have largeness of mind and should be staunch and active, looking upon the interests of the people as his very life and subordinating his personal interests to those of the people. A good political leader should be more concerned about the masses than about any individual, and more concerned about others than about himself. Only thus can he be considered a good political leader. Hakainde needs to learn this and change his attitude towards others.

Every politician in this country, including Hakainde, must be brought to understand that the supreme test of his words and deeds is whether they conform with the highest interests and enjoy the support of the overwhelming majority of the people.

At no time and in no circumstances should a political leader of his people place his personal interests first; he should subordinate them to the interests of the nation and of the masses. Hence, selfishness, seeking the limelight and so on and so forth, are most contemptible, while selflessness, working with all one's energy, whole-hearted devotion to public duty and quiet hard work will command respect.

Hakainde seems to be ready to oppose anything, frustrate everything that those in government are doing, no matter how good it may be for the people as long as it doesn't benefit him personally, politically and otherwise.

A good political leader wishes his country the best in everything, with or without him participating in delivering that or gaining any credit for such progress or success.

A good political leader must be ready at all times to stand up for the truth, because truth is in the interest of the people; good political leaders must be ready at all times to correct their mistakes, because mistakes are against the interests of the people. Hakainde is ready to support and defend wrong things simply because he believes there is something to gain politically from that. It is for this reason, and probably no other reason, that Hakainde is defending Rupiah Banda and his corruption.

It is all simply in the belief that doing so will gain him the support of Rupiah's 'people'. Hakainde will perpetrate a lie even where he knows very well that what is being said is not true against a person he detests, simply because doing so is politically beneficial to him. The truth matters less to Hakainde. What matters to Hakainde is his personal interests. The dignity and interests of other citizens, especially those who don't support him politically, doesn't seem to matter at all.

Politicians, if they want to be good leaders, must always go into the whys and wherefores of anything, use their own heads and carefully think over whether or not it corresponds to reality and is really well-founded; on no account should they follow blindly and support or defend clearly wrong things.

Good political leaders should set an example in being practical, as well as far-sighted. For only by being practical can they fulfil their responsibilities, and only far-sightedness can prevent them from losing their bearings in the march forward. They should be the most far-sighted, the most self-sacrificing, the most resolute, and the least prejudiced in sizing up situations, and should rely on the majority of the masses and win their support.

Liars, people full of themselves, selfish elements can never be good leaders. And this is why if Hakainde really wants to be a political leader of us all, he has to move away and move away very quickly from these vices. It's not us pointing out these weaknesses in Hakainde. These are weaknesses that have been highlighted by many people in his party, publicly and privately. He needs to mull over things and meditate deeply over these issues if he really wants to one day be president of this country.

Labels: HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, RICHWELL SIAMUNENE

posted by MrK @ 4:57 PM