By Masuzyo Chakwe
THE biggest complainers are always the stone throwers who for some reason always seem to have the shortest memories, says Vernon Mwaanga.
Mwaanga said the observations and comments made by former Attorney General Musa Mwenye and many others on the now much publicised ‘hypocrisy’ remark by former president Edgar Lungu after the burial of former president Rupiah Banda were “indeed thought-provoking”.
“An Angolan proverb has a very apt saying that best describes this apparent ‘loss of memory’ for what one might have done to others in the past: ‘The one who throws the stone forgets; the one who is hit remembers forever’,” he said. “Is it not indeed intriguing when it is supposed to be the other way around…! But such is the paradox of life – the biggest complainers are always the stone throwers who for some reason always seem to have the shortest memories.”
Mwaanga said they often forget the very profound wisdom that was packaged in the old adage: “Do not forget what it is like to be a Sailor simply because you are now a Captain.”
He said when one becomes a captain, it was because they were once a sailor.
“But because we all know that no one remains a captain forever, we always strive to remember what it is like to be a sailor, because we will one day revert to that role. If and whenever we do forget, reality and society will strongly and quickly remind us. It is never wise to forget what this adage teaches us while we are still captain,” said Mwaanga.
After the burial of Banda last Friday, ZNBC journalist Franklin Tembo Jr had a brief interview with Lungu while he was leaving Embassy Park.
“If we learn to dialogue with one another as we have experienced during the days of mourning, probably we can get somewhere as a country. Dialogue, genuine dialogue between all of us. Those who were in government before, and those who are in now. But what we are seeing is hypocrisy,” said Lungu. “Where people say good things and then do bad things. And if we can expunge the hypocrisy from our lives and just say it as it is, between now and embarking into the future, it’s a lesson we are learning from Rupiah Banda’s legacy. People have said a lot of good things. May those good things become part of us.”