BY SEAN TSADZO KAMPONDENI
As the new year progresses, it is worth reminding one another that at the core of the Tonse movement is the value we place on internal voices of dissent and public debate on national matters.
We must continue to insist that those in power do not have a monopoly on good ideas or patriotism. The last thing we need is a return, dare I say regression, to the diabolical spirit of entitlement we just disabused ourselves of.
We must reject at every turn every incident of anyone in power displaying the nauseating attitude that they have a birth right to exercise state power or to spend our taxes.Tonse means Tonse. The country belongs to all Malawians. The state machinery belongs to all Malawians. Public offices belong to all Malawians. Public funds belong to all Malawians. Anyone entrusted by Malawians to use these public assets for the common good is fair game for public scrutiny.
Similarly, any member of the public who advances a point of view on how public service should be done or how public resources should be used is fair game for having their point of view criticised.
There are no sacred cows in the Tonse Era. The government and its institutions are no sacred cows, but servants of the people that must be held accountable for all their actions on the people’s behalf.
Similarly, critics of the government are themselves not sacred cows, but public voices that must be held accountable for the ideas they advance regarding how our shared government should conduct itself. If public funds pass through the banks, the banks must be scrutinized and held to public account.
If hospitals use public funds, their management must be scrutinized and held to public account. If private businesses win public contracts, their business operations must be scrutinized and held to public account.
If political parties seek to hold public offices, their integrity and agendas must be scrutinized and held to public account.
If a media house assesses the performance of public officers, its own assessment must be scrutinized and held to public account.
Whatever we do, we must insist that in this Tonse Era, everyone is accountable to everyone else for their ideas and actions on public matters.
We must also insist that those who support the Tonse government are not being mutinous when they critique that government, nor are members of that government being treacherous when they critique their own support base. It is but the Tonse tenet of shared accountability.
Sustaining this tenet will not be easy, for it demands a level of maturity that evades those who love pettiness, and it goes against the dark forces within and without that still want this country molded into an us-versus-them paradigm based on political parties and regions.
But it is this paradigm that must be fought at every turn, for it is built on two pernicious lies, the first being that the winners of an election should take all and do with it as they please, and the second being that the errors that need to be corrected in our country exist only in the public service.
The truth is that we are all in desperate need of reconfiguring and we all have something to contribute to the reconfiguration. We are in this together, for better or worse. (Kampondeni is a State House Director of Communication but writes in his personal capacity)
