ASKING GOVT TO FULFILL ITS PROMISES IS NOT BEING DISRESPECTFUL - MUSA MWENYE
ASKING GOVT TO FULFILL ITS PROMISES IS NOT BEING DISRESPECTFUL – MUSA MWENYE
…Praise Singers Are Destroyed Hichilema
Musa Mwenye the immediate former Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) Chairperson has said its not being disrespectful to remind government on its unfulfilled promises.
In a message below Mwenye a former Solicitor General under President Michael Sata said the flip side of the respect due to government, is the responsibility that Government bears:
We must accept that there is one President and one Government at a time. That President and government deserves to be respected but, they must not be feared.
The flip side of the respect due to government, is the responsibility that Government bears. It is not disrespectful to hold one’s government to account. To remind government of the promises it made, to point out where those promises were broken and to ask how the government intends to fulfill those promises is not vitriol or disrespect, it is simply holding one’s leaders to account.
When we ask these hard hitting questions, the questions must not be rhetorical. We must be attentive to the answers of our leaders! And once we have listened, if those answers are not reassuring, it is our patriotic duty to ask follow up questions.
There is also nothing wrong with asking questions of those who ruled us in the past and when they answer truthfully, to listen to them attentively. Why listen? Because they would have learnt something from their experiences and mistakes, and the lessons they learnt can benefit us. As the old adage goes – experience is the best teacher.
Of the former leaders I have had the privilege of interacting with in Africa, those that came to an unhappy end, invariably wish they had listened more to their critics and opponents, while they wish they had ignored the echo chamber created by the sycophantic praises of those who would eventually destroy them.
History has shown us that, in what ever office we hold, the only title after ‘current’ is ‘former’ and, at all levels, we must conduct ourselves as transient leaders, who will one day have to account for our time in office.
