Opinion / Columnist
Lords of the flies, lords of lies
11 Sep 2016 at 07:43hrs | Views
The Economist says we are living in a world of "post-truth" politics.
We are inclined to agree.
The Economist's basic argument is premised on the manner in which the 2016 US presidential race is panning out.
The magazine says this is a campaign where one of the major party candidates, Mr Donald Trump, has emerged as "the leading exponent of 'post-truth' politics—a reliance on assertions that 'feel true' but have no basis in fact".
Of course, the author (evidently anti-Trump) of the article neglects to speak of Mrs Hillary Clinton's storied brush with truthfulness.
But the basic premise is what we are concerned with: the increasing tendency of many politicians and their naïve followers to accept what feels to be true over what actually is true.
It is this negation of fact that has brought us to the doorstep of the age we find ourselves about to enter here in Zimbabwe.
It is an age we are blindly stumbling into and it is not Huntington's clash of civilisations or Fukuyama's end of history.
It is a post-truth world.
This is a world where millennial politicians can glibly write off fact by alleging media agendas.
This is a world where when a millennial politician is caught with a hand in the cookie jar he or she claims the cookie jar surrounded itself around the hand.
It is a post-truth world.
Truth doesn't matter anymore. Truth is the god that Nietzsche said was dead.
What matters today more than anything else is survival over integrity, winning over principles, and wealth over values.
It is as if we are living on Golding's lawless island, where we weep for the end of innocence and the darkness of man's heart.
Let us get to the point.
We take great exception to Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Saviour Kasukuwere's statement last week vis-à-vis land earmarked for housing for young Zimbabweans.
He wanted to know what was happening to youth land allocations in relation to a report we had carried earlier pertaining to alleged opacity in the matter.
Instead of seriously confronting an issue that is of existential interest to millions of young Zimbabweans, the honourable minister chose to say "vakanga vashaya zvekunyora".
Surely, can a whole national paper, the biggest weekly in the country for that matter, sit down to conspire to dream up a story just so as to fill up space?
The Sunday Mail does not inhabit a fantastical realm, a phantasmagorical plain where non-existent Tadyanemhandu beheadings occur.
When we raise issues, when we publish stories, it is not in pursuit of personal agendas or maligning individuals.
It is because there is a matter of national concern that needs redress for the good of the citizenry.
We have neither the brief nor the time to immerse ourselves in whatever personal score settling may be taking place between some individuals in Government or the ruling party.
Can our politicians and public servants simply address the issues at hand?
It is not that we are targeting Minister Kasukuwere.
For instance, the chair of the Civil Service Commission Dr Mariyawanda Nzuwah also feels that us reporting on his alleged US$200 000 taxpayer-paid phone bill has nothing to do with The Sunday Mail.
Really?
Several other public officials have taken issue with reporting on their alleged mismanagement, sometimes bordering on flagrant abuse of office and graft, because they feel they should not be held accountable by the public.
We cannot indulge them. We can do no other than stand by the people who elect them into office and pay their salaries.
They in turn must stand on integrity, principles and the values enshrining public service.
As long as we allow the kind of behaviour where post-truth politics trump the national interest, where service is sacrificed for expediency, and where communication is estranged from fact, we are embarking on a journey that takes Zimbabwe to Hell in hand basket without anyone giving a toss.
Source - sundaymail
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