National moral compass

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 15:25:33 +0000

Our country has lost its moral compass in difference to Machiavellianism.

Our leaders have adopted the Machiavellian principle of Governance where expediency justifies the open abuse of laws through illegal decrees to maintain and sustain power.

 Machiavelli believed that force, violence and cruelty were justified in serving the greater cause of and interest of society. He believed that crude means were sometimes necessary to arrive at an intended goal that would be beneficial for the society.

He advocated among other things the elimination of political rivals, to coerce resistant populations, and to purge the community of other men strong enough of character to rule, who will inevitably attempt to replace the ruler.

In line with this principle it has now become acceptable for the Government to suspend constitutional rights, promote fraud and fraudsters, and encourage state violence by the Police all in the interest of ensuring national security.

The Machiavellian operating principle suggests a complete divorce from the normal and conventional standards of morality and therefore justified expediency, guile, cunning, unscrupulousness and outright illegality as acceptable tools for retaining power in the name of serving public interest and preserving national security.

Power, it suggests must be held at all cost using the cruelest and often illegal means.

Unsurprisingly Machiavelli has been denounced as a man inspired by the devil, as an immoral writer, an anti-Christian, an advocate of cruelty and tyranny and a deliberate teacher of evil.

A normal moral compass must be able to discern what is right from what is wrong. It must reflect a sense of integrity, responsibility, compassion, forgiveness and propriety.

Morality in politics eschews the notion that it is a cut and thrust activity where everything goes and nothing is sacred. It embraces the vile notion that “reasons of state” surpass any consideration of laws- that in fact necessity knows no laws and morality. The state must therefore do everything within its power to preserve itself. The security of state takes precedence over all other consideration.

Machiavelli subordinated moral standards to the dictates of power play. He prescribed ruthlessness as aggressive exercise of power as a strategy to achieve compliance and therefore absolute control.

He believed in a strong state that invariably would serve the best interest of the society. Indeed there are many politicians in Africa who believe that the means justifies the means therefore they will have no sense of shame or indeed twinge of conscience if they oppress their people with ruthless policing and security systems that crush dissent and alternative view points.

  Fighting for justice, fairplay and decency is not for the faint hearted.

We feel for one of PF’s founder members Chishimba Kambwili who must now run the gauntlet with sponsored youths and party cadres accusing him of corruption soon after he denounced the use of cadres to denigrade senior party leaders.

He seems to have incurred the ire of a senior party functionary who is determined to drive the fear of the devil in any party member seen to harbour any independent view over the growing thuggery and abuse of youth to harass such governance institutions as the Anti Corruption Commission.