CORRUPTION DEBATE

ZAMBIANS should reject negativity and the new mantra of corruption. Negativity is corrosive, morale sapping and certainly against creativity, thrift and enterprise. It is an antithesis of everything that is good, progressive and wholesome. It preys and thrives on calumny and abusive name calling. Intellectual midgets like Chishimba Kambwili, with no iota of analytical acumen thrive on negativity because it does not demand any intellectual rigor. Like his kindred in spirit they are hell bent on miring this country into a meaningless and highly vexatious spiral of debate around the emotional subject of corruption. Mr Kambwili is shallow, crude, and shameless. He sees nothing revealing toilet tissue and bathing soap intimacies allegedly shared with a sister in need. He will do it for political expediency. This is how cheap he is. This myopia is reflected in his persona which sees corruption at every turn because that is his mindset. He has no sense of confidentiality or propriety. Little wonder late President Michael Sata kept him at a distance, never for once leaving any substantive power with him. Cerebral individuals are not shrill, they are deliberate and contemplative, always offering meaningful solutions to community problems and never set themselves as the all-knowing messiahs. Any fool, with nothing to offer, will seek relevance in claims of corruption in the hope of gaining public traction. It does not require any amount of intelligence to spew negativity, it only takes rumbustious cantankerousness to spread inanity. Interestingly, people like Mr Kambwili who dish the muck, will not themselves accept robust criticism but seek shelter in litigation against those that offer equal measure. Mr Kambwili has learnt from the modus operandi employed by the cartel which thrived on the staple of self-righteousness indignation over corruption. With time it has been proved that the same righteous cartel was the most corrupt stealing from public institutions and failing to remit public funds in form of taxes. The Bible in Ephesians 4:31-32 states that: “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outbursts, and blasphemies, with all malice, be taken away from you. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.” Mr Kambwili is a menace to this country because he panders to the naïve and gullible. He is for example advocating for a higher pay award for the public service, claiming that in his time a 300 percent award was made to the Civil Service. This is a populist stance, because it defies the nature and spirit of the public reform programme. So far more than 50 percent of public revenue goes to consumption through emoluments. This is not healthy and should not be encouraged because it will defeat the economic gains made by the country in the last few years. Perhaps, Mr Kambwili should attend the post budget debates sponsored by KPMG and other relevant policy institutions to appreciate the challenges that this country faces which will not be wished away by cheap political posturing. Zambia will only develop through serious and well thought out policies which will sometimes require hard decisions. The nettle must be grasped however painful because the time for instant gratification and political platitudes is long gone.