Daily Nation Newspaper

Critical thinking:

Whose mind are you using to chcose what is important to you?

- Dear Editor MPANDASHAL­O EVANS MWEWA. WhatsApp: +260 977 430702.

UNTIL you start objectivel­y correcting your leaders, you remain nothing but a brainwashe­d political cadre. How can you see nothing wrong with this statement but instead attack a person who brings it to you for your comment?

"It was discussed on Thursday that I had won the election. They said I couldn't be president because I am Tonga. Where do you want us to go? I was not there when my father was loving my mother. It just happened. You are punishing the wrong person," Mr. Hakainde Hichilema said at a press briefing in Lusaka at Cresta Golf View Hotel after losing the 2015 presidenti­al by-election.

Your failure to condemn this statement qualifies you immediatel­y to the rank of Major-General in Cadreship Military Regiment. There is absolutely nothing wrong with admitting that your political leader is wrong on a specific topic. If anything, such objective feedback makes our leaders to rethink their political paths.

My point is clear and all my peers understand me in that vein; the current political system does not promote objective politics. It has reduced even the most intelligen­t minds to be blind followers.

How do you plant lemon seeds and expect to have orange seedlings? Why are we attacking Yo Maps? Let me help you understand the simple fact behind the social media misplaced arsenal by the UPND.

People tend to assess the relative importance of issues by the ease with which they are retrieved from memory, and this is largely determined by the extent of coverage in the media.

Frequently mentioned topics populate the mind even as others slip away from awareness. In turn, what the media choose to report correspond­s to their view of what is currently on the public’s mind.

It is, therefore, no accident that the not so obvious but still authoritar­ian UPND regime exerts substantia­l pressure on independen­t media with divergent but factual views.

Why is Mpandashal­o Mwewa blocked on Mr. Hichilema's page when he does not insult? Why is Yo Maps now a threat? Well, it's because public interest is most easily aroused by dramatic events and by celebritie­s, with media feeding frenzies. We are a threat to a regime that has no verifiable developmen­t agenda to sell.

I am still challengin­g you, UPND intellectu­als to tell me what is wrong with pointing out the weaknesses in Mr. Hichilema's separatist politics.

This idea of being nice to other people when they please us and nasty when they do not, statistica­lly means we tend to be punished for being nice and rewarded for being nasty to the ruling party, forgetting that we must only replace a system with a better one failure to which we must continue with the system!

Is it, equally, not strange that Mr. Hichilema has seen nothing good about the Edgar Lungu-led PF government? Is he being honest? I leave it up to you to judge.

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