2. My new responsibilities require me to read the global
landscape as it impinges on the vision of God's kingdom of unity, peace, justice,
and abundant life for all people. While Zimbabwe will remain important
from my personal orientation, it ceases to be the main source for my public
theology and engagement.
There are, however, three issues that I must mention in
these parting words.
3. First, I encourage us not to give up on the value of
participatory democracy in our nation-building agenda. Democracy (a) allows all people to choose the leaders
they want on the basis of accurate information, (b) allows all people to
meaningfully participate in their national affairs without fear or coercion,
(c) ensures the equal protection of the rights of all
citizens, and
(d) it ensures that all our engagements are regulated and
protected by laws. This creates order, predictability, and protection for
everyone.
4. Democracy has
been under threat for some time now, but right now, it is at the throes of
death because of two main forces. The first is the force of capital. Capital
eats democracy for lunch because it knows no nationality and can get what it
wants since everything has a price. It is my hope that God's people will say,
"Not everything can be sold for money."
The second challenge for democracy is that it has not been
consistently applied and has not always contributed meaningfully to the
well-being of the people. Therefore, it suffers a credibility challenge. It
doesn't have a great track record, yet it remains the best alternative system
of governance. Any system that denies people meaningful participation and
freedoms is not sustainable even if it appears successful for a time.
5. I am not talking about democracy only at the national
level, although that is the ultimate
aim. I am more concerned about democracy and good governance within the
political parties and institutions. If there is no democratic culture in the
political parties and the other spheres of society, it won't miraculously come
to life at the national level. The levels of mistrust in our current political
environment makes broad participation not attractive. Followers prefer
ready-made answers while "messianic" leaders are impatient for
meaningful engagement.
6. Second, nation-building requires self-respect.
Self-respect as a virtue means that we can not treat each other with indignity
and expect the world to respect us. We need to treat each other the way we want
other nations to treat us. Self-respect also means that we choose the best
among us to carry out representative tasks. We need to honour merit and
competence.
7. Since the liberation struggle, we have relied on one attribute as the basis
for leadership, namely, courage. One
needed courage to fight the settler colonial regime because it was risky. One
needed (still needs) courage to confront the post-independence despotic systems
because it was risky. Courage and sacrifice are important values.
Actually, without them, we will never break some important new
ground. Yet, courage alone is not enough. We need know-how and competence.
Self-respect means that we are not afraid of people who are better than us in
some areas. At the same time, we don't get intimidated by differences if we
respect ourselves.
8. The third, since nation-building is my calling, I WILL
BE BACK!! Rev Dr Kenneth Matata writing on X
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