One of those things is my God. I do not care to argue about Him. He is the reason I am. The only way I would entertain an argument about His existence is if you have done for me even half of what He has done for me. The other thing is my political stand point. I don't even like it being called a political stand point. It is meant, and this is my strong opinion, to be called a leadership stand point.
It would be wrong for me to say that I do not have strong and very negative feelings towards our current crop in parliament. But then it got me thinking yesterday, aren't we the same people who put them there? We can only complain if they forced their way in (and some definitely did) but we stood in line, some of us from 6 in the morning, fighting cold and with unwashed bodies and we voted for the people who are currently embarrassing us in the world's political and economic circles.
But can you blame them? They have been brought up in a society that applauds cops being beaten on the street in broad daylight and complain about hardened criminals being shot. Our society does not care about tomorrow. Our political, social and economic standing is as fickle and shifty as the breeze. We are dictated by hype instead of values. So what do you expect of our leaders? Do we expect them to rise above our society's values and become better than us? We might as well ask a foreigner to come and run our country.
Our society teaches us that it's every man/woman for themselves. We step on everyone along the way to get to the top. We will sell our co-workers souls to get the next promotion. The corporate world has taken to a new level entirely. Reach the top by any means necessary. Steal, kill, destroy and then run a half baked CSR campaign to smooth the waters. We politely call it office politics....
Only in the past century an a half or so has leadership been so equated with politics. We are not raising leaders, we are grooming politicians. And that is why we seem so dissatisfied. We cannot seem to differentiate between a good leader and a good politician.
In my humble opinion, a good leader does what is best for his people and himself in the best possible way and in the shortest time possible. Most CEO's and MD's who run the fortune 500 globally and most Blue Chip companies locally are great leaders. They do little talking and a lot of doing. They promote image and expect everyone else to promote the same image. Leadership by example. The best kind of leadership.
Now, a good politician, is a bit different. He cries when you cry, he throws stones when you throw stones, he screams when you scream and when you have sufficiently served his interests, he switches camps and moves onto the next person. A politician plays victim and uses emotions as his tool of choice. Whether anything useful gets done is besides the point. At the very least, he is entertaining and exciting. At the very worst, he is useless and frustrating. Politics by example. The worst kind.
Now, when we see our leaders being arrested on the streets like common criminals and throwing stones at police, when we have them fighting each other physically in parliament, when we have them trading insults publicly and using hard earned public funds to try and rile up the masses in support of yet another ridiculous notion, then we do not elect leaders, we elect politicians. We stop becoming a well-oiled economic machine, but a pot of idiotic declarations and political weirdness.
The saddest thing is that we keep electing the same disappointing bunch term after term. Our roads get worse and our water never quite reaches the taps and yet come the next election, we go pick the same disappointments and pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. Shame on you. Shame on our sovereign republic. We are what make people revert back to dictatorship. At least then we cant blame our failings on our own democratic stupidity.
Last week, on the front page of one of the dailies reported how some county's CDF money has been sitting in the bank while people are starving in parts of this country and in places where the roads are just so bad that we can't even reach them with relief food and medication. Has it become so bad that the politicians don't even want to steal that money anymore? That they'd rather watch money rot in the bank than help those most in need? And yet come next election, first thing on the agenda will be how they need to up their salaries. SHAME ON YOU...
It is ridiculous, it is sad and it is embarrassing. Not only our government and our parliament. But it is embarrassing us. As the people who put them there for a second, third, fifth or even tenth time in a row. You know what the scariest thing is though? For me, it is that, even the generation that I am in seems not to be learning. God forbid that we are grooming politicians instead of leaders. The results in the next couple of years will be disastrous at best.
So now, as we head to the next election, I am making an informed political choice. It shall not be based on tribal lines, it shall not be based on second hand information and neither am I basing it on false promises and utter nonsense. It shall purely be based on the PROPER AND INFORMED POLICY PLATFORMS that the aspirants shall stand for. It needs to be about issues that matter and using solutions that are viable and that will work. We need to address the IDPs, we need to address the drought, we need to address the dilapidated agricultural sector, the growth of the financial and technology sector, our education system, energy and electricity, being competitive in the world market.... there is just so much to deal with.
I am making a decision to refuse to vote for the man with the biggest insults and who drives around with the biggest entourage. I refuse to vote for someone who uses our problems to pump up his image. If you have not done anything of note for anyone in need within the last 5 years (even visiting a children's home), then I refuse to vote for you. If the first time I am hearing your name is in the buildup to August 2012, then no, you do not get my vote. If I heard you in the forefront of "No, MPs cannot pay taxes" then Hell No, am I entrusting you with my country. I'm not even going to entrust you with my county.
We need to be very careful. We need to know who and why we vote. Our future highly depends on it. Our children, our jobs, our health, our homes....they depend on how and with whom we entrust with every level of power. From councilor to president. It is time to stop basing our vote on emotions that involve ridiculous notions like "young turks" and "targeted communities" and think critically and logically about who we want to lead us. Kwani tutaomba serikali mpaka siku gani?
hear hear!
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