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DESIRE TO BE FIRST

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Of late, I have been worried and asking myself why it seems a lot in our government is falling apart?

I got an answer from a very unfamiliar source. I, most of the time, get inspiration and ideas by listening to other people talking. Due to his philosophy of non-violence, which I also subscribe to, I listen to the late Dr Martin Luther King Jr. In one of his sermons, ‘The Drum Major Instinct’, he states that it is this desire to be first that has caused a lot of problems in the world. In our elections we say the person who comes first is the one who will go to Parliament. This is irrespective of the fact that the person may not be qualified for the position he wants to occupy. However, a person going to Parliament should be someone who is qualified, at least to be able to read and write English and at least interpret the law in its basics. This should be a person is articulate so that he is able to make his submissions in the House.

He should be able to also speak with members of his constituency. But then our elections say the person who is first, in terms of being voted for in numbers, is the winner and all human beings have the drum major instinct, ‘the desire to be first, the desire to lead the parade’. Dr King says this desire leads the whole gamut of life. So because a person has to be first, he or she will do anything to achieve that. This is the reason why some people even tend to murder others so that they may be first and will use any means to achieve that. In the speech I also discovered why we are faced with the scourge of corruption. Unless we are able to control this drum major instinct, we are going to struggle with corruption because people want to be first. People want to be first to own a certain car, a certain house, certain clothes etc but they do not have the means to earn those things. So the best way to achieve these is to engage in corruption.

A person will go to great lengths in trying to satisfy his or her own ego to the detriment of the whole service delivery within government. This same desire leads to collusion as people are prepared to scheme to get whatever they want to satisfy their egos and service delivery will suffer as sometimes poor quality will be approved in order to gain a lot of money ( I do not want to say profits because that is something gained legally). I also got an answer to the question why those in power do not want to hear certain topics being discussed. It is this reason that led to the prime minister being at loggerheads with some Members of Parliament. This also goes to the status of the formation of our government which is a no go area. The problem is that we fear that if the status quo is changed, some people are not going to be in leadership positions. Some people know that they are not even supposed to be holding those positions but their ego will not allow that they be demoted to occupy appropriate positions. This desire to lead may also be a problem in prioritising even the projects we get into as a country. The Drum Major Instinct does not affect people only but governments as well. We want our government to lead in this field. We want to be a country regarded to be first in this and that.

While trying to satisfy this ego we will plunge this country into debts that are unnecessary. We will decide to invest money into things that can wait. Instead of focusing on the needs of the people, we will be focusing on being first in doing certain things in regions. We want to be a better country as compared to our neighbours. Martin Luther King said this instinct was a good one if used correctly. The problem is the perverted use of the Drum Major Instinct as it has very detrimental results. People will suffer because someone wants to be first. The economy will suffer because we want to surpass our neighbours. Civil servants will not get a salary raise because we want to do certain capital projects so that we are considered better than our neighbours.
The desire to be first if considered and well planned will be good because it may help the people. But it must not come first to the detriment of the people.

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