THE INSULTS OF LEADERSHIP: How Zambia’s Leaders are failing the people.
Campbell Lumbila March 24th, 2010
I’ve watched with fascination and frustration the political discourse in my native country. I’ve stayed silent about it because in many respects, I didn’t want to add another voice to an arena with so many players and voices claiming to have a solution to our country’s woes. However, I think that my silence and those of others serves no one. So in this article am attempting to voice someof the concerns that Zambians have.
For starters, our Leaders have lost the heart of leadership. Leadership has become a way for people to enrich themselves at the expense of others. The heart of leadership is to serve the people with integrity and making their welfare the first priority of what a leader says and does. Unfortunately, you don’t have to look further than our newspapers to find a daily chronicle of character assassinations and personal insults that have come to characterize our political discourse. We need a change in the way our leaders carry themselves. We need OUR leaders to think of US again and not themselves. We need OUR leaders to SERVE US again, the people who elected them.
Furthermore, Leadership is about vision- a clear picture of a preferred future-but where are the ideas? Where is the vision and foresight? Where do our leaders see Zambia in the next 15-30 years? We are yet to see and hear a concrete plan to create jobs and deal with our broken education system. We are yet to hear of how our leaders plan to stimulate the business sector and create opportunities for Zambians.
Yes, some progress has been made but we’ve been waiting for 20 years to see some tangible results; to see change come to the common man. Enough with the talk and statistical progress. Leadership is about results and the absence of results simply means the Leadership has failed.
Though the ruling party and government take most of the blame for what is happening in our country, what is the opposition offering? Its very easy to sit in the grand stand and watch the game on the pitch and have ideas of how the players can do better and score. However, the opposition has offered nothing concrete in dealing with the challenges. How many jobs will they create if elected to power? How will they reform our education system? How will they help Zambians to create wealth? Talk is cheap and until these parties come up with very REAL solutions and a VISION, they do not deserve to be elected into power.
Last week on Zambiablogtalkradio.comI was asked to share my thoughts concerning the formation of another political party (NAREP) in Zambia and whether there was a justification for another party. My answer in nutshell was that as long as the ruling party had failed to change Zambia and that the current opposition parties offered no solutions, there was certainly justification for another party. We are waiting to see what NAREP proposes and so we’ll leave judgement for another time.
Leadership must be confident. It must display power without being forceful. It must exhibit strength and courage without constantly reminding people of whose in charge. Leadership must have quite strength and command respect without stepping on people’s rights and ideas. This, however, has not been the case in our young democracy. Over the last 10 years we’ve gone back subtly to some very dictatorial tendencies. The watershed moment for me was when the government threatened to regulate the media.
First of all, what does that really mean-to regulate the media? To me that is another way of saying do not challenge us or else you will cease to exist. This is a backwards step and our leadership should not have entertained this line of thinking. Democracy thrives on free and open communication of ideas and opinions. Democracy believes that in our disagreements we’re made stronger, not weaker. Frankly, this was a display of timidity and insecurity and a lack of leadership savvy on our leader’s part. Can we agree to disagree? Can we have a robust debate without insults and still see ourselves as Zambians wanting the best for their country? Our leaders need to grow up and someone must be the bigger person. Frankly, I hope our leadership elevates the level of the political discourse so that we, the people can benefit. Mr. President we’re waiting for your leadership.
Charisma in Leadership only goes so far. There must be a turning point that ushers in transformation. We’ve been waiting for that moment for almost 20 years. We the people also have a part to play in our nation. We need to hold our elected leaders to the fire and ask the tough questions. We easily fall prey to politicians with silver tongues promising the world but we have to ask them; how do you plan on achieving your goals? What kind of a nation are we handing down to our children?
WE must demand that they speak our language and not the common ambiguous political jargon that leaves us scratching our heads and my uncle’s friend in Mbeleshi cannot understand. WE must demand that they manage our resources well. WE must be an active citizenry. WE also must realize that our leaders will not do everything for us; we have a part to play. WE must be innovative and demand that our leaders create an atmosphere in which our innovative spirits can thrive. WE must be active participants in the creation of our national destiny.
The politics of insults don’t help anyone and they certainly don’t help our nation. “Everything rises and falls on Leadership”. Will the real leaders please stand up?
