New Cultural Icons
Jubilee Centre November 19th, 2008
Newly appointed MMD parliamentary Chief Whip, Vernon Mwaanga said there is no greater honour than to 
be asked to serve Zambia. He is right. Every Zambian appointed to a position of public leadership must consider it a great honour. However, the appointment is a great honour because it should be given in recognition of someone who is already serving Zambia honourably.
Mr. Mwaanga pledged to do his best to justify his appointment through commitment and hard work. When headlines tell stories of divisions, tensions, violence, police harassments, the AIDS pandemic and desperate poverty, you don’t appoint people who seek justification. You appoint people who have a track record of commitment and hard work in addressing these issues.
Take for example the position of Ministry of Health. A person should be appointed who has demonstrated that he or she has gone for HIV and AIDS Voluntarily Counselling and Testing. The appointee should be a person who has shared publicly his or her HIV and AIDS status. The person appointed to this position must have displayed dedication in fighting stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV or AIDS. Such a person should be a case study of mobilizing his or her constituency in the fight against malaria, cholera and other preventable diseases.
Zambia’s current ethics in public service are low because people are appointed for their loyalty to the reigning authority rather than to the cause. When did you hear of a person being appointed to public office because of strong ethical behaviour, a person who refused to compromise virtues to get ahead? How many Zambian politicians have quit their position as a matter of principle because they learned that their government department was engaging in activities that did not promote the well-being of Zambians?
The truth is Zambian culture has never been put to test. Our cultural icons are politicians who believe 
that the only way to become successful is to become politicians rather than putting in a daily minimum of eight hours of hard work. How can we expect ordinary citizen to act otherwise? The lack of ethics in the appointing of people to public office has created depressing spiritual, economic and political implications which threaten the survival of our peace and prosperity as we know it. But this is where Christians must make a difference.
The church must model integrity in the way it elects or appoints leaders. In First Peter 5
we are told, “To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed. Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers - not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.” We need new cultural icons in the nation. Are you shaping new cultural icons?
