It is getting increasingly harder for me to restrain myself from continuing to believe that there is an unholy baptism that occurs between the campaign platform and the door to political office. Why else would people of good conscience go barefooted on a selfish path. They exhibit indisputable signs of good nature, inter alia, thoughtfulness, compassion, intentional, hardworking, purposefulness and discerning. They say the right things and those attractive characteristics cease to exist the moment they step into their new political portfolio. They quickly slide down the forget them hill. Thereafter their job description gets reduced to one sentence, "Filya bacenjele."
After analyzing the political stench, you can't help but begin to wonder why nations organize governments at all.If all they would do is defend their ideology, in the case where they have some, or shamelessly hop from one political party to another, where they have none, the usefulness of government is brought into question. This conduct may be the reason why some people think and say politics is a dirty game.
I am not quite sure that characterization is fair. Is not politics simply a divergent of views of how to address a societal concern? in some countries, increased dependence on government to find solutions to such concerns creates an ideological rift between people giving birth to political parties. In other countries, however, divergence of views does not exist; political opponents emerge because they too want to be called "leaders."
So they lie, cheat, steal, scheme, and kill if they must, just to be called "leader" of some sort. They turn into this cunning beast which casts spellbinding smiles upon the electorate by the day and turns around and spew mind numbing pungent smelling manure by the night. In the privacy of their own minds, they are not responsible to any one but themselves. They have a chance of a lifetime; put an end to their poverty on the backs of the hardworking men and women in their countries. We don't have to get into the specifics but each one of us has questions about how people go into politics and no sooner do they open the door to their new office than they amass so much wealth. And there we are thinking politics is not supposed to be a business.
To fully appreciate why politicians find it hard to let go of their positions, go to the extent of lying, cheating, stealing, scheming, and killing when they deem it necessary we must demand full disclosure of their pays and pecks. We need to know what makes Zambian politicians so stubbornly arrogant to the point that they feel they hold title to the piece of real estate called Zambia. We must know first whether they are qualified for the job. Then we need to know how many automobiles they get from the government, how many domestic staff they are allowed to hire, where they live and how much they get in housing allowance if they live in their own houses and how much rent the government pays on their behalf if they don't have their own, how much security detail and how much does it cost the taxpayer, do they get a percentage of loan or contract they negotiate on behalf of the people of Zambia, who puts gasoline in their assigned automobiles and how often, how many cell phones they have and who pays for their talk time, how much they get per trip and who approves them, where do they take their kids for education and who foots the bill, if they have a home that they did not have before how did they acquire it and can such an acquisition be supported by their pay, what do they do to deserve such a pay anyway?
As you can see, I can go on and on about waste and lack of self respect and responsibility and responsiveness in government. Would I be wrong if I stated that our government is top-heavy and therefore unable to live up to its expectations? How may ministers and how much are we wasting on them? As if there was no shortage of jobs in the country, some of them are both cabinet ministers as well as members of parliament - which is a conflict of interest in and of itself. But nobody seems to care! They go about their fake duty like we don't matter, we are only there to generate revenue for them to they can live comfortably on our backs!
The people of Tunisia had been pushed to their last thread and had no choice but to push back. Eguptos felt they had enough of that political garbage, they pushed back. Niger just caught the fever and people there too are saying they can't take it anymore! I hope Politicians in Zambia are taking notes.
The rate of unemployment in Egupto is 40%. Zambia's is 60%! It would not take much to bring the country's economic machine to a halt. The cost of living in Zambia continues to escalate, the gap distance between the rich politicians and poor Zambians is vast. Many Zambians are hungry and by extension angry. Again, it would not take much to ignite the Zambian population into furious mob of protestors.
Many people would like to see a similar fire alight in Zambia. But I don't and I have a good reason for that. My late parents taught me that "Uwa mano asambilila pa cipuba." I may be naive about this one, but I have a strong feeling that Zambian politicians will look at the events in north Africa and choose to stop being arrogant. They don't own Zambia. If they want to last long and continue to receive a salary for the work they have not done, they need to start listening to the concerns of the people. Here are some of the issues that they need to begin giving a serious thought:
1. Sell off ZNBC - it has been a political mouthpiece for politicians in office. Plainly it costs a lot yet it yields no benefits to the people.We can do without reading/watching the adventures of fat cats.
2. Sell off Times of Zambia - Zambia Daily Mail and ZANIS. Like ZNBC, these institutions are being run at the expense of healthcare and education services. We need all the children to go to school.
3. Reduce the size of government - Some ministries are not necessary. We have made these recommendations over the years and politicians act as if they are the ones that make the money which fuels the government machinery. What arrogance!
4. Reduce the power of the President - That position has too much power. The president has more power than the whole government system. This has to stop. For instance, it must not be up to the president to decide when elections would be held. We need a fixed day when we will be holding elections every five years. That can't cost money to change.
5. Make housing allowance an integral part of the civil servant's pay - An employer's responsibility should end with remunerating a person consistent with their pay. Unless under special circumstances when a person works in less than normal settings, the employer is not supposed to dictate the cost of a person's abode. This practice is paternalistic and has to end.
6. Keep cabinet ministers out of parliament - they don't belong there. It is conflict of interest!
7. Reduce the number of ministers to 12. - Only 12 ministries have relevance in Zambia.
8. Rein in Fringe Benefits from ministers - stop wasting taxpayers money on people who do not add vale to the quality of life of Zambians. Impose a pay cut, one automobile for office use only, no security detail, no rent, one cell phone, limited travel and more importantly - have a semi-annually performance evaluation.
9. Don't increase the number of MPs - what is the current crop failing to do? The question, you may want to ask is, WHY? Increasing the number of ineffective people is not the solution. And in fact when you increase the number of MPs, you will be taking resources away from services. We need improved services and better delivery methods.
10. Fix Roads - Have you no shame?
11. Unbundle ZESCO - It is about time the inefficiency and ineffectiveness that is impeding economic growth was eliminated. Why are you forcing us to accept interrupted power supply (IPS) as normal? The government's failure to recognize the catalytic importance of electric power in Zambia defies commonsense.
12. Post government spending against budget on the internet - we want to take part in monitoring who is performing and who is not.
The intent of the above recommendation is to make politics unattractive to lethargic thinkers, keep good for nothing politicians out of government. Zambia has serious problems. She needs serious people to solve them.
