By Mwongyera Eustakio
Moral advocate.
Since time immemorial corruption has outweighed the virtue of good conduct. Everyone asks why. Maybe the answer lies within you. Corruption goes hand in hand with too much pride, selfishness, hate, deceit, and malice. On the other hand, humanity is characterized by good morals that each one of us holds.
Traditionally, our forefathers, cognizant of the essence and significance of morality, in their crude way knew that human behavior needed to be regulated through human moral norms which dictated the acceptable and unacceptable conduct.
Right from marriage to leadership, vetting was a vital component of choosing credible marriage partners and leaders. In marriage for example family heads had a right of vetting for the right partner for their son or daughter. This was to avoid the penetration of vile and badly behaved individuals in the clan or family.
Among the banyankole vetting was done through an individual commonly known as “katera rume” literally meaning the emissary or go-between. Such a person would be well versed with the character traits of the person he or she was wooing for you. Such would help you to end up with a good marriage material, especially in matters concerning good manners.
In religion, leaders and priests would be picked from families with a history of good conduct. One would be measured to the needed level of good conduct and reverence. This was one way of mitigating the entrance of ill-mannered individuals into the church.
In leadership, it was a very critical role of clan leaders to ensure that credible people who would lead the society would be scrutinized before they took leadership positions. This was typical vetting.
All the above efforts by our forefathers gave birth to a well-behaved society that was obedient to the parents, and leaders and loyal to the basic moral norms that governed the entire society. Unfortunately, with the coming of modernity, everything has changed. Things are no longer the same. Only God knows where we are heading towards!
The introduction of foreign human rights especially women’s emancipation has done more harm than good in the sense that it has paved the way for absolute moral erosion. Courtesy of the above there has been a culmination of a generation of radicals.
It has created a society of impune and corrupt majority that has replaced the traditional way of living. The present day women and children have been given a lot of freedom which has paved the way for indiscipline, corruption, and radicalism.
Unregulated freedom is a bad thing. Contrary to our traditional culture, we now have a carefree generation that solves problems with other problems. We now have a generation of rioters disguised as peaceful youth demonstrators allowed and supported by the imported ideological human rights.
The world is at stake. Things have already gone berserk. The remedy to the current peace crisis in the world is almost next to impossible.
In the sequel to the above, I have sat on my couch, pondered, cogitated, and come up with a modest proposal. Let there be vetting teams at both local and national levels done by the remaining genuine religious, political, and civil society leaders and people of goodwill.
This will help our innocent and naive electorates to choose legitimate and scrupulous leaders from a list of the lucky few who will have been vetted by the aforesaid vetting team.
Needless to say, is that the situation now is very intricate and peculiar. Who will blame who? Who will check who? Who will punish who? The new breed of radical, corrupt, and ill-intentioned leaders is the result of moral erosion. This needs to be dealt with expeditiously.
Let anyone take his or her independent analysis to compare either a politician, civil servant, common man, or religious leader of thirty years ago and that of today. You will meet face-to-face with the depth of moral erosion that has attacked us. There is no way the government can get rid of corruption without fighting the overly disgusting immorality. There is a need for moral revival if we are to put an end to corruption and radicalism.
Back to vetting, the vetting team should include senior, credible, retired men and women of higher integrity. These should be chosen by remaining people of goodwill in our communities. The vetting teams should be nonpartisan, nondenominational, pro-peace, and development-oriented characters. The recommended vetting individuals should also be first vetted by a team of other vetting people of higher integrity and understanding.
The district vetting team should work with the national vetting team. No team should vet in its district. The vetted individuals should thereafter be the ones to contest in their respective districts. In this way, the corrupt, ill-intentioned individuals will be avoided.
In conclusion, let us commit ourselves to vetting responsible and well-groomed leaders with sound morals for the good of our country and the world at large. Otherwise, the youth demonstrations we see now claiming to be fighting for a corrupt free society may not have good intentions.
The wave of corruption being exhibited by those in leadership and the parliament is unbelievable. If nothing is done, the efforts of the NRM heroes who shed their blood for the liberation of us all will have suffered in vain.
