One of the greatest US presidents, John F. Kennedy, in his inaugural address to the nation, inspired children and adults to see the importance of civic action and public service.
“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country,” those were his profound words that helped shape the thinking of most Americans.
It’s now 60 years after our independence; what do have to show for our freedom? Zero! We can’t produce our own toothpicks; we’ve to look to China for simple things as needles, razor blades or matches! We can’t even grow our own food – Ukraine to grow us wheat for our bread, we’ve to wait for fruits from South Africa and let our mothers constantly travel to Tanzania for our potatoes and onions. Our university graduates can’t even manufacture a scooter or bicycle and yet you think we can develop!
In this country, we tend to think it has to take singular efforts of one particular individual sitting in State House to develop this country. Resigned to such warped thinking we don’t bother to do anything for our country at all. Shall we ever develop like this? Maybe in another 100 years! We’ve no culture at all. What is culture? It’s simply a way of doing things, which we pass on to generations to come.
Take for instance the “Keep Zambia Clean Campaign…..;” there’s no doubt there’s only one person in Lusaka, Simon Mwewa passionately doing something about it. Each day, he assumes the role of Sheriff around Simoson building area ‘enforcing’ cleanliness as well as educating the masses on the dangers of littering. And in case you are thinking it’s only those from the shanties who have this terrible habit of indiscriminate disposal of waste, then you’ve your bearings wrong bwana! Wait until you’re on the Highway……. you’ll see all manner of rubbish flying from the windows of SUVs, Mercedes Benz and Ford Rangers! Can we develop our country with this sort of behaviour?
We once had a privilege to attend a meeting at the Civic Centre where a Parliamentary Committee was gathering views from the public. As the enthusiastic small crowd was making submissions, you could see some of our MPs were fast asleep, yawning or busy fidgeting with their handsets. The moment the Chairman announced the meeting was now adjourning, their faces lit up instantly! They swiftly jumped to their feet; it was time to claim their allowances for them to go and enjoy gourmet menus at the hotel and, of course help themselves to countless gallons of alcoholic beverages and empty in the toilet afterwards. What sort of good laws can such a bunch of characters help formulate?
When introducing one of his flagship projects – the Constituency Development Funds (CDF) President Hichilema saud he was taking the money away from the big thieves in Lusaka and taking it to the people in the districts, shanties and villages. But lo and behold, it seems we equally have small thieves away from Lusaka. Reports of abuse of CDF in Kalabo as revealed by Finance Minister, Bo Situmbeko Musokotwane are quite heartbreaking. However, we aren’t perplexed. This is the order of the day countywide! Members of Parliament and their Councilors, District Education Board Secretaries and their Heads of Schools and Council officials and the contractors are all suspects! Daily they’re conniving with each other to ‘chew’ this money by procuring goods and services at inflated rates! And you think we can get anywhere as a country?
Consider the embarrassing conduct of our traffic police officers….. When they report for work each morning, what seems to preoccupy their minds isn’t what they are going to do for our country to ensure safety on our roads, but rather how much they’ll pocket in terms of bribes! They’ve even become more sophisticated now; when they slap you with any traffic offence, they’ll take you to an office where a person in charge will ask you whether you want a receipt or not. No receipt means paying a lesser amount which doesn’t obviously go to the government coffers, but ends up in their pockets to buy sausage or hungry lion! Is there any patriotism in this? Can a nation surely develope in this way?
Perhaps Cabinet ministers, Permanent Secretaries and MPs can learn one or two lessons from global revolutionary icon, Che Guevara! When the Bolivian dropped-out of medical school to assist Fidel Castro in the Cuban Revolution, he wasn’t motivated by material things. Once the country was finally liberated, he continued living in a modest house, driving a small car and pitching up for work in his military fatigues. When heard about the troubles in Angola, he resigned from his positions as Minister of Industry and President of the Bank to go and help out in the liberation struggle. Don’t be motivated by huge salaries and allowances, let the money go to the people.
One day, we found ourselves in the bathroom at a newly commissioned, One-Border-Stop complex constructed at a huge cost to the tax payers. It doesn’t matter whether the money was from within or abroad; what’s important is that colossal sums of money were spent to come up with such a marvel to watch. It was rather disappointing to find graffiti strewn on the wall using feacal matter while fittings such as door handles, latches and switches had all been ripped off! Can we develop with such a mentality?
Perhaps, the President should consider introducing a Department of Culture in one of the ministries as this will go a long way in inculcating good cultural values in our people. We also require our Ministers to be radical in their approach.
During era of MMD for instance, we had our people spitting anyhow in public, relieving themselves on every tree or wall fence or smoking indiscriminately. Immediately Micheal Sata, as Local Government Minister then introduced by-laws stipulating stiffer penalties for the culprits, all the nuisance petered-out!
Please, share your views.
Until next time……
Prince Bill M. Kaping’a
Political/Social Analyst
We do have a culture, albeit one of dishonesty, laziness and a sense of entitlement.
What is killing our nation is the extremely low levels of integrity. People never tell the truth, they lie even when it is totally unnecessary. They say they will do this and that and when you call upon them, they are nowhere to be seen.
The “uubomba mwibala alya mwibala” mentality is deeply ingrained in our psych. Our leaders are thieves and always looking for an opportunity to lay their sticky fingers on national resources and to cap it all, we celebrate thieves to the extent of “alebwelelapo”. Our values are upside down.
It is always “boma iyanganepo”. Very little sense of dignity and independence. We have no sense of shame to beg or be recepients of alms.