PATRIOTISM DEMANDS OBJECTIVITY

Dear Editor, PATRIOTISM in essence require a citizen to exercise responsibility and allegiance to the state and resisting the temptation of allowing their personal interests or ambitions to make them betray the nation. In a democratic nation such as Zambia, while the citizens have every right to seek public office, they should not lose a greater picture of having a Zambia that is sustainable and that would be a proud host for our successor generations. In his speech that signified as his come back to the party that he founded, former Information Minister Chishimba Kambwili took time to give a hint on the unnamed political leader who takes pleasure to see Zambia back to its knees and in turn increase his chances of becoming President. This is sheer greediness and lack of patriotism to seek political fortunes at the back of failure by the government of the day.  The revelation extremely makes sad reading and it is a wake-up call that political leaders should constantly be reminded that we only have one Zambia, our sole home which we must guard jealously. The misfortunes knows no political affiliation hence we should in unison make collective contribution to defend the country’s integrity. It is in public domain that there are politicians who are so desperate to even cast our peace asunder for the sake of acquiring political power.  All they want is to influence public opinion and raise discontent among the citizens while projecting themselves as the viable alternative. Not too long ago, Zambia was among the countries that had challenges in honouring their debt obligations on the contextual date. It was inevitable to engage the creditors to renegotiate the possible deferment on the date for the accruing interest that were due on the debt. Some took it as a political and not a national issue with negative sentiments being thrown in the airwaves and waging a blame on the administration. We do not recall any effort made to engage the parties involved with a view to securing Zambia’s interests which were endangered. A reasonable citizen would have taken ownership and responsibility of what had befallen us.  If possible, even engaging the relevant government functionaries on how tenable it was to remove Zambia from the hook of debt default. We will take the revelations cautiously and leave it to the people of Zambia to conduct an appraisal and make an informed decision.  Zambia’s problems will only be solved by patriotic citizens. MARVIN CHANDA MBERI, Lusaka.