POLITICS: A DUMPING GROUND FOR THE SCUM (EDITORIAL COMMENT FOR - TopicsExpress

POLITICS: A DUMPING GROUND FOR THE SCUM (EDITORIAL COMMENT FOR THURSDAY 23RD OCTOBER 2014) It is very clear that the Patriotic Front will not be able to continue the fight against corruption. Fighting corruption requires a leadership that is up to it. The current chief executive of the Patriotic Front, Edgar Lungu, cannot be expected to champion the fight against corruption. Lungu may even have difficulties mentioning the word corruption. We say this because Lungu is in a very weak position when it comes to the issue of corruption. He was stopped from practicing law as a result of dishonesty with clients’ money. And nothing works without honesty. It is difficult to understand how the Patriotic Front, a party that strongly committed itself to fighting corruption, can find itself being led by an individual who is not in a position to fight corruption because of his own compromised position on the issue. If a person can abuse his clients’ money, what can one expect from such a person when it comes to public funds, or even party funds? Our economy is not providing for the basic needs of our people. The great majority of our people go without the basic services because they cannot afford to pay for them. Children go without education because their parents are too poor. Some are even committing suicide because they cannot secure government bursaries. Why is this so? The main cause is the waste of public funds. Every kwacha misspent is a kwacha taken away from our children and from the needy. Our economy is influenced by external factors in the world market, where we have little or no influence. However, it depends even more on internal factors, which we do control. Corruption, embezzlement, fraud and outright theft are now rampant everywhere, in all parts of our society, high and low. Dishonesty is destroying us. But we don’t seem to learn the fact that dishonesty is dangerous to the progress of our nation. Every now and then, we are picking dishonest characters and entrusting them with the running of public affairs. It seems Zambian politics has become a dumping ground for all garbage. All those who have failed in other walks of life come to politics for resurrection. Lawyers who have been disowned, repudiated, excluded from practicing law by the Law Association of Zambia easily find their way into politics and become ministers of government. And one of them is today even the chief executive of the ruling Patriotic Front. Pastors who have failed their congregations in one way or the other switch to politics and prosper. Elements who have been fired here and there for dishonest behaviour of one form or another find refuge in politics. This is as if our politics don’t need credible people, honest people, people with high levels of integrity. And with such people dominating our politics, what can we hope for, what can we reasonably expect from them? You take Lungu, who has failed to run a law firm in an honest manner, who has chewed his clients’ money, you make him a minister, a key leader of your party! What message are you sending? Zambia had an experience with another lawyer, Remmy Mushota, who the Law Association of Zambia had excluded from practicing law because of dishonesty with clients’ money, stealing clients’ money. Mushota joined politics and became a minister. What did he do? One day, he went with two trunks to the Bank of Zambia, trying to cash a cheque from a government account, trying to steal money from a government account. It was only alert Bank of Zambia staff that stopped him. Truly, as the Bembas say, uwakalema taleka; the Luyanas say wasaye kasiyenene; and the Chewas say wakake sakaleka. They will pretend to have repented, to have changed and regretted their bad ways. But it is just for a short time and they go back to their dishonest ways. In 2008, we warned the Zambian people against voting for certain corrupt elements. Where are those people today? Are they not in the courts of law, facing corruption charges? Weren’t we accused of malice when we pointed out their corrupt backgrounds? This country is rich and blessed with resources which hard work can develop for the benefit of all: there is no blessing in ill-gotten gains. Only what people have worked for and earned by their own honest effort will make them prosper in the long run. People live beyond their means; then they have to make shortcuts to maintain their lavish lifestyles, the addictions to gambling, which is not really supported by genuine productivity, and keep this house of cards from collapsing. Everybody wants an even greater share of the national cake; too few make a genuine contribution to enlarge this cake. As a result, a few get even richer, while the majority get ever poorer in real terms. This leads to social tension and eventually, even brings about civil strife. We elbow and push each other out of the way in the general scramble for a share in the shrinking cake. Prosperity thus achieved will never be secure and will always be in danger from those who have fallen by the wayside and are envious of our luck. We must progress and prosper, all of us in solidarity. There must be genuine growth which benefits all. We must restore among our people once more the virtue of honesty everywhere: in public administration, in politics, and so on and so forth. We must stop demanding bribes and stop paying bribes, whether as a businessman, industrialist or politician. We need to restore the moral health of our nation. Many of our political fights today are about access to resources and economic power. In the process, we waste so many things, including the economic wealth of our country. A leader with a sense of responsibility recognises his duty to answer for his administration and give a final account for the people who elected him. Leadership is very important and it should only be given to the best among us – the best in the moral sense. Once making money or getting into power becomes an obsession, honesty is thrown overboard and dishonesty does enormous harm to the community. In fact, honesty as a desirable quality is officially abolished and replaced by dishonesty.