CIVILITY AND DUTY
SOME of the words that capture “civility” are “Politeness, Courtesy, Good Manners, Respect, Graciousness, and Consideration. The one word that summarises the opposite meaning is “Rudeness.”
You can therefore do a very quick test around your environment and be able to tell who is rude in any situation. You can also tell whether “rudeness” is good for any entity – particularly those entities working in the public space. It is also possible to tell whether a person is rude or not.
Similarly, you can tell whether an act is rude or not. For these and many reasons, it is not advisable for a diplomat for instance, to turn to the social media to express “personal views,” outside official channels.
Please note that it is possible to pretend that one is civil, when in fact not. Again, it is very difficult to conceal real intention of the true picture of certain action. Everything, is but for a season!
On the other hand, “duty” has the following synonyms and attributes; Responsibility, Obligation, Sense of Duty, What you have to do, Job, Function and Contribution. The opposite
Duty in my view, is non- performance and in this respect, pretence is quite difficult.
If your duty is to deliver Pizza to particular homes, you cannot be getting lost all the time. (Take note that it is not all the time that when you goof repeatedly, people do not notice the danger you pose. They may just be putting up with you for a reason; and this is a topic on its own!)
Now, non-performance and its attendants such as indolence or incompetence are very big problems. They stare many of our citizens, straight in the face. Just look at how the whole lot of many people in our country had been taking the Covid-19 outbreak lightly! How can you honestly, if you have fully embraced civility, politicise the Covid-19 pandemic?
Is this not an opportunity for opposition political parties to cooperate with the very government machinery they seek to control? Seeking relevance is inevitable in politics but this inevitability, must be informed by commonsense over pettiness.
Instead of staying at home, people are gallivanting without following guidelines religiously.
Instead of dealing with the problem of Covid-19, we are pointing fingers. Government this and government that! Hell not. Who is government? Is it not you and I, irrespective of political persuasion?
There is nothing wrong in travelling or moving to deal with a necessity. Such incidents of responding to a necessity are not an everyday thing. It is expected that when one moves, he or she also takes the necessary measures into full account.
These two value laden words mentioned are key and germane to the way human beings relate to each other. It is no wonder therefore that as part of a democratic process, the rule of law, which is the soul of societal sanction in a democracy, is so critical.
I apologise for talking about the “rule of law” over and over. I do not think that I will ever stop because the “rule of law” is relevant to civility and the rock- bed of my public engagement.
For instance, an argument for a total lockdown in light of Covid-19 as presented by some sounds plausible but equally plausible; and recommended for Zambia’s geo-political situation, is a flexible but firm stance, exhibited by the aggressive medical posture directed by the Republican President.
I personally commend President Edgar Lungu for leading as a Statesman and showing concern for both life and living. This is the very reason why you cannot compartmentalise human rights. Life is important. So is living and its trappings! (A Statesman tells you what you must know or do and a politician tells you what you want to hear).
Moving on; the Rule of Law is critical, because as others also know too well, the Court system is not always the best route for
resolving disputes. There exists the Court backed “Alternative Dispute Resolution” (ADR) mechanism.
It is very useful for Commerce and Trade. Those who for one reason or another find themselves dealing with managing and developing contracts, stating or outlining how a dispute must be resolved is critical. (The Court must be the last resort; and ONLY when a relationship is “irretrievably broken”).
When and if you have contractual obligations, it is your inescapable voluntary duty, to discharge them as agreed. Apart from standard contracts, (and even then, there is space for choice) no Contract is ever forced on anybody.
Therefore, failure to discharge contractual duties as agreed, will lead to a breach, which is a bigger problem that affects the important aspect of privity of contract. (The privity doctrine limits interest and benefit of the contract to the parties, but the law accommodates interested parties – again, depending on circumstances)
It is important to emphasise that a contract or agreement imposes duties and responsibility on parties. (The fact of entering into a valid contract means issues
of capacity have been considered).
Consequently, it is the duty of each party to communicate effectively and act in good faith at all times. It is about civility.
It is about responsibility and above all it is a matter for equity and in the case of a country, a case of National Pride, which captures several aspects of governance.
For purposes of emphasis and clarity, this includes national interest and national security. (Collapsing or squeezing the Treasury or mass redundancies; are examples. It does not matter which party is in power!).
The power of civility and duty is similar to the computer language of “garbage in – garbage out.” What do I mean? In my view, our engineers at industries like TAZAMA, INDENI, the Mines and Zesco are a major and admirable in-put to national development.
The entire Zesco teams of engineers, is Zambian and a major input to national development. But what are we giving our engineers? We are in-putting the garbage of destruction, through illegalities such as vandalism and unwillingness to manage equity.
On the one hand we want Government to do this and that, yet on the other we are entertaining irresponsibility and wastage!
At political and policy levels, all the way to about 50 years ago, we have as a people displayed collective irresponsibility through successful political administrations.
We failed to get to the point where we must agree to do the right thing - pay cost recovery tariffs for electricity! Now fingers are unreasonably being pointed at President Lungu; that his government does not care. Really!! This is clear misinformation.
Have we already forgotten the process of subsidy removal, we went through during the time of our last President? Have we forgotten how some Zambians were against the introduction of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), which in my view is a good vehicle for growing and sustaining our economy? Trust me, Zambia needs to prioritise industrialisation.
As I said last week, we live in interesting times where and when duty is calling. Civility is standing by the side! Can we, for once do the one right thing?
The right thing is to agree as follows: (a) deal with National issues as reason requires of any citizen (b) deal with Partisan issues as the season demands.
I am mindful of challenges of managing any democracy, but comforted by the fact that human beings are generally, with a few exceptions, expected to relate with each other with reason. National building requires consensus and much as democracy is important, democratic discourse must be within the confines of national priorities as determined by, in this case, Zambians.
One extremely unproductive endeavour that offends duty and undermines civility is the talk of nonexistent, but “emotionally driven ethnic chatter.” It is cheap and adds absolutely no value to either stability or Zambia’s GDP.
If you are a perpetrator or merchant of this vice, stop it. There is zero benefit to it! Civility and Duty, stare you in the face, while soliciting for a progressive and responsible reaction.
Here is another thing which we must squarely deal with: The integrity of Zambia! Zambia has 10 political jurisdictions all of which; without exception are endowed differently (our strength).
The stories of success we read and hear about from other countries are not an accident. They are a product of pro- activity and serious planning. Duty, Civility and a combination of many considerations; are a point of reflection requiring us to act responsively.
Since duty and civility are an integral factor of development, it is a Zambian duty; and our collective responsibility, to move each part of the country to a better and higher level.
The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic is a good measure of how respective regions/ administrations are responding. It is how residents/leaders of each region respond to this national problem, which in many ways, will show the collective resolve of Zambians to deal with common issues.
We can all point to how the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) in the office of the Vice President, has been responding to disasters. I am not too sure anyone can point fingers that DMMU did not respond to a particular disaster of the many serious country- wide disasters.
If your duty is to deliver Pizza to particular homes, you cannot be getting lost all the time. (Take note that it is not all the time that when you goof repeatedly, people do not notice the danger you pose. They may just be putting up with you for a reason; and this is a topic on its own!)
The stories of success we read and hear about from other countries are not an accident. They are a product of pro-activity and serious planning. Duty, Civility and a combination of many considerations; are a point of reflection requiring us to act responsively.
See you next week. Comments: ngandem12@ gmail.com Cell/SMS 0977776191