- the role of the monarchy
- qualities required from a minister
- graft and corruption
Qualities required from a minister: there is significant criticism of the PM's selection of Lineo Molise as assistant minister of home affairs. Other than the peripheral issue of her not winning constituency elections the two main issues that have riled most people seem to be:
- the assistant minister is too young
- she is alleged to have been appointed to the post as quid pro quo for sexual favours granted to those power.
A disturbing issue has been the extreme misogyny that was demonstrated in the forums, I posed a question, and pose it again: would this be such a big issue if the appointee was a man?
Graft and corruption: a petition to boycott certain filling stations because they are allegedly owned by current and former cabinet ministers and that the said business does not pay taxes in Lesotho was widely circulated. The proponents of these allegations have failed to substantiate any of them, and have also refused to take their claims to the appropriate authorities, they have instead chosen, in my view, to undermine the rule of law by failing to report a crime that they claim to have been committed. Not paying taxes is a crime. Laundering money, which is what the proponents claim the business does, is a crime. Circumventing financial regulations and fiddling tenders are also crimes. Perpetrators of such crimes should be brought to book and evidence should not be hidden. Corruption continues because none of us will speak out, when we do find our voices we fail to use them effectively.
Doing my bit
The Chinese say the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. We have taken that step, we have acknowledged that all is not right in our kingdom, we have found our voice. Make your voice count, stand-up for what you believe in. I am planning to set-up a wiki with three main goals:
- consitutional review and comment
- review of current electoral laws
- development of parliamentary and civil service code of conduct
7 comments:
Yes, I will take the journey with you, I suppose we will have direction and point of respect and constructively contribute towards the development of Lesotho.
I am quite interested in this blog, however, I have gone through this posting I am just wondering how will the following be dealt with in such a way that we don’t end up with the insults that have spoilt most forums. Or are you simply hoping those who will participate will have made up their minds that they do so because they want to be engaged in constructive debate?
The role of monarchy: don’t have much to say except that if they also don’t wake up to show us why they are needed they might be drowning their legacy. Personally, I would have loved us to maintain it as part of our history, use it on various situations e.g. for tourism purposes for example. However, they should really work hard to earn it by being highly engaged in various activities that may see them generating some kind of income for the poor and the needy or the nation at large. However, I don’t know whether there is any law that maybe restricting them to expand their goodwill e.g. setting up some foundations which could be funded solely by well-wishers in the country and outside the countries.
Qualities needed from a minister: While I don’t condone with the style of choosing the PM’s I also don’t condone the abusive words and insults that are directed to Lineo Molise, who by the way I don’t even know. One of the issues that people are complaining about I actually think it is a bonus, that she is young and she is female. Are we not the ones who are actually advocating for a change, in my opinion that change can only come if we mix the old stock with the young so that while they dwell on their experience but we also have the young who can bring in fresh ideas into the whole system. That the cabinet is full of males is a fact why not welcome on board the other species that now can have a different thinking, approach and handling of matters.
I do not want to dwell much on the sexual favour issue because it may be true it may not be true. But for argument’s sake, let’s just take it that it is true, can’t weeven give her chance to see whether indeed she has brain or all she has that property alone. How many now men have gotten their jobs through one favour or another but were never crucified because of that. It is a pity for women it will always be because of sexual engagements and of course morally that sounds worse than someone who was backbiting to gain their way wherever.
This also kind of makes me wonder are we actually a nation that is more excited about sex matters that we can blow everything out of proportion or does it actually mean we are actually the nation that is very hypersex active hence why there are these rumours plugging our leaders? Please help me on this one.
And yes, I think first and foremost it is a serious need in this country if we want to see ourselves somewhere to have a set of guidelines as to what kind of qualities are needed for the MP’s. While the issue of sex scandals may not be so easy to set but there should be a standard. If it is clear beyond reasonable doubt that the encumbent is suspected of having sex with the PM or whoever is in a position to appoint him/her that clearly calls for the public to really thouroughly check the two before such an appointment can be honoured.
Another important aspect should be that of wealth, I have followed with interest that some people believe that M24000/month is nothing but I think these are the people who have removed themselves from the realities of the poverty in Lesotho, the civil services low salaries and poor performance as a result of that amongst others. Indeed that may be too little for people who are really aiming at being rich on the taxpayers sweat that is why we will see a lot of corruption in different forms e.g. merc scandal, corruption unit which cannot be independent because it will uncover too much.
Craft and corruption: my response is that you may be right that if people don’t come forward to expose the government corruption they are not helping, but you somehow also seem to have distanced yourself from the reality of this country. Why do you sincerely believe people who will come with any evidence of corruption will be taken serious if the merc scandal happened right infron of everybody’s eyes, or was that not corruption at its highest level. Which judiciary system are you proposing to use or do we have a different independent one in this country that may address people’s concerns without the government’s influence. I may be asking all these because I am naïve I wouldn’t mind to be taught of ways that can really work to make most if not all cabinet members pay for corruption, ABC leader not excluded.
I am not so sure I will be able to walk with you on this path although I must say these are quite interesting issues you are proposing and are at the core of remedying the stagnation that we seem to be in as a country. However, my contribution, not intellect as they maybe they might one way or another add a small value to your efforts. Keep up the walk, I hope you have people to walk the journey with.
well the first part of my question has been answered, how you are going to control abusive words and insults....
You can't contribute to the development of Lesotho by simply being an anonymous writer on the web, like myself - I disagree.
However, I commend you on the well written articles. I may not agree with the opinions and analysis in some instances, but the logic flows well enough.
ke monna oa mosotho fela tjena ea iphelelang malawi mona. ke na le selemo ho le joalo. bothata baka ke hore ke tala haholo lipolotiking(ke hore le cooking oil e tlilo nkhalika ha e so etsoetsoe sekupu ho hang), leha ke na le bokhoni ba hu utloa lintlha tsa bohlokoa tse beoang ke motho ea nang le litaba tse ahang.
ke kopa u ntumelle ke u lebohele/lebohise ha u hlokometse hore topix.net ha e na motsoka sephali ka hona oa etsa maoala a ho etsa setsiketsi sena(blog), u be u nthuse hore lentsoe lena setsiketsi ebe lebitso la semolao la sesotho le bolelang blog. linthla tseo u li behang mona li na le moelelo oa motho ea ratang naha ea habo mme ea reng lesotho pele joalo kaha t. mbeki ane a cho.nnete ke hore re keke raba libapali kaofela papaling ea bolo mme ha ho bolele hore ha re sa bapale, ke hobane re sa tsebe bolo. ke leka hore mmuso o ntse u hloka batho ba litsebo tse pharalletseng tsa puso ka thoko bao e leng balebelli e le hore ho ke ho be le ea hanyetsang hobane ka bomalimabe pusong ea lipolotiki rea lihelana, le ha re ntse re utloa litaba tse sa tsitsang re rera ho lumellana le bo mphato oa rona hore fela ebe le lumme kapa ''house'' joalo ka ha e le tloaelo.
khato ena eo u e nkileng ke e phethahatsang bolebelli bona boo ke buang ka bona bo senang leeme litabeng tsa naha. ka bomalimabe majela thoko a ka ho le letsehali(ABC) ba khetha ho u ferefa ka hore u le LCD, mme ma LCD a nka u le mmuelli/moeletsi oa oona kaha mmuso oa bona o sena katamelo e ntle sechabeng. mohlala ke moo u entseng setsoantso sa mosali buileng hore mmuso ha oa ka oa netefaletsa sechaba hore se bolokehile ha se ka ikela mosebetsing mme staway ea ebe taba ea moikutloa pelo.
litaba tsena li ngata mme tsoela pele ntso eso ka ho aha sechaba. ka tsatsi le leng o tla hlahela sechabeng re u tsebe mme taba tsa hao tse ntle li tla u latela.
rasebutsoela.
Mooa Khotla, we meet again at a more disciplined setting to discuss the issues corcerning the Mountain Kingdom, Yesterday on my way home I was listening to SAfm's interview with Motumi Ralejoe, Mr. Ralejoe has indicated that the motive behind the stay away is to get attention on issues pertaining to the proportional representation for NIP. As Mr Ralejoe stated his side of story, he stressed that the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA)ruled against NIP before they even got the judgement from the High Court, fair enough, the irregularities of the court, but what does the constitution say about election disputes and the courts of law? was it legite for NIP (other fraction) to take the matter to the High Court something to think about, What really bothers me is that such issue were due to be addressed by the IPA which was dissolved by the government but the IPA is no more it was dissolved by the government in favour of the ruling party, which Mr. Thabane and the other ABC pioneers were members then, my other biggest worry is why is ABC cadres BNP and MFP are in the forefront to fight NIP battles? these parties do not have majority votes but they want to rule, what they are doing, to oust LCD out of power at the expense of NIP is exactly what the LCD has done, to protect itself against loosing the election, NIP is the grass while LCD and ABC/MFP/BNP are the big two elephants, I have nothing against Ntate Thabane as a person, he was a very close friend of my two uncles before they passed away, he still does courtesy visits to my uncles'houses, so is Molebatsi Khaile, he is my uncle too, I just have beef with them as politicians, thwy are shrewed, a lot of you will rememeber how excited I was when the political veteran Mr. Thabane pioneered the All Basotho Convention (ABC) the mode was high because the original mandate was to address issues around an impending economic collapse, escalating corruption in the public service, rampant and uncontrollable crime, a massive loss of skills through Basotho students who migrate to South Africa and other countries, and mass demoralisation among the people either because they are not from known families or do not have friends in high places and therefore, threatened by the LCD and its policies which favour their memebers only, or because they are rich and consequently forgotten because the LCD is too busy protecting the cabinet and parliamentarians privileges. These things are happening but we still need to acknowledge the good deeds as well.
A massive propaganda campaign has been conducted on the issue of irregularities around the 2007 elections, in many instances without any regard and respect for the truth or evidence.
However, I personally feel that LCD and IEC should have discussed this matter with the opposition parties because of the serious concern, radically to bring down the repetition of post 1998 elections. However, what is necessary is that anybody genuinely committed to this goal should make an objective study of this problem and avoid the serious distortions which result from this exploitation of this issue for partisan political purposes.
Such a study for example will show that for Indipendent Political Authority (IPA) was very effective towards the 2002 elections and the complaints were very minimal. Facts and figures actually cannot be brought forward the notion that there has been a rapid irregularities during the elections can we please do what is good for this country, stay away is nothing but a crippler of our already crippled economy. Think again.Mba.
oa lireng, I have read your comment and the main thing I take from it is that the IPA was an important legitimising institution that should probably me rescucitated. I promise to address this issue after I find out why it was disbanded.
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