Long, long ago, before democracy triumphed, someone came up with a slogan, that merits critical investigation:
UNITY, LOYALTY, OBEDIENCE, DISCIPLINE.
Let’s take a look at each of these four mottos.
UNITY:
In a modern country, there are many different groups and individuals. And each is worth the same as a unique human being. We are Chewa, Tumbuka, Lhomwe or Tonga. Or maybe Indian Malawian, or Caucasian Malawian. We are male or female, straight or gay. Young, old, educated or less educated. We are in our mother village, or at the other end of the country. We have a lot of diversity in the country. We do not need to push everyone in the same mold. Diversity enriches us all. The illiterate can learn from the PhD holder, and the PhD holder can learn from the illiterate. The Chewa from the Tumbuka and the Indian Malawian from the Tonga. Not unity but DIVERSITY is what enriches the country.
LOYALTY:
Loyalty can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the circumstances. But we should not let loyalty go before justice. After the 20 July protests, Vuwa Kaunda sided with Bingu, saying: He brought me from nothing to where I am, I owe him loyalty.
This is putting loyalty over justice, when twenty people had been killed. No-one is above the law, and no-one should place loyalty above justice.
OBEDIENCE:
Obedience inherently means that someone is higher in a chain of command and needs to be obeyed. But we were all created equal, we are all (supposed to be) equal before the law, and before our maker. We should be so equal that no-one owes obedience to someone personally. We all should be in line with justice and law, but not be commanding someone to be obedient.
DISIPLINE:
Discipline can be a good thing, if we have self discipline. But we should not be disciplining someone else. Again, we are equal before the law and before our maker, and no human can decide better than our Maker in which position we should be. Which means that the only one we can discipline is ourselves, the rest is beyond our authority.
This leads to the list:
DIVERSITY
JUSTICE
EQUALITY
SELF DISCIPLINE
That is the slogan we should follow, not the top-down ideas that we overruled in democratic elections in 1993.
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