Hichilema will realise that ignoring people’s demands and criticism  isn’t strategy — it’s self-sabotage- Fred M’membe

THE WISE HAVE SPOKEN

The wise from the religious, traditional, civic, and intellectual leadership of our country have spoken. They said everything or almost everything that needed to be said about Mr Hakainde Hichilema’s unyielding determination to amend the Constitution.

In politics, one must not be too stiff-necked, too harsh and unyielding.In politics, and in life in general, yielding is legitimate and essential in two cases: when the yielder is convinced that those who are striving to make him yield are in the right (in which case, honest political leaders frankly and openly admit their mistake), or when an irrational and harmful demand is yielded to in order to avert a greater evil.

Mr Hichilema has failed to learn to listen. When a leader stops listening, he stops leading. In politics, unyielding and arrogance  don’t show strength; they actually signal a decline.
Soon, Mr Hichilema will realise that ignoring people’s demands and criticism  isn’t strategy — it’s self-sabotage. Listening and yielding to people’s legitimate demands and criticism is strength and wisdom, not a weakness.

Over reliance on power doesn’t just corrupt — it isolates.
Good leadership depends on the courage to hear and yield to what’s uncomfortable.
When decisions on very important national issues like the Constitution are made in isolation, failure is a matter of time.

Mweo wa muntu, waba mu kutwi – the life of a person is in the ear. One who is willing to listen avoids a lot of trouble.

Cula cintomfwa, apulikila mulemba mu kutwi – the frog who did not listen burst his ear drum. The unheeding person comes to grief.

Icikutilwe tacumfwa ndibu – an idiot does not hear the warning bell. A senseless person does not heed good advice.

Amano uli weka, tayashinguluka ulukobo – alone, your brain is not a sufficient source of knowledge. Even if you are intelligent, you can’t always know everything and still need other people’s knowledge or insights.
It’s not too late to yield.

Fred M’membe
President of the Socialist Party