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Following our last memo on Maureen Mwanawasa As Zambia’s First Female President a lot of interest was generated as to what the qualifications for the CEO of the Zambian Enterprise should be.
First of all, we wish we could say it was all about the academic and or professional qualifications that should dictate one’s ascension to the highest office in the land. Unfortunately that’s just not the case …
There are a lot of variables in play that make up the right mix to that ascension, however, and we would like to explore some of those in this week’s memo.
There are only two primary qualifications; one being one’s age and the other one’s nationality as dictated by our current constitution. Others are predicated upon a fundamental concept of systems theory, a way of thinking about the world, a model that is followed wherever party politics are practiced.
With the above in mind the rest are up for the grabs and whoever can work the system to the fullest extent apparently ends up being the president of the Zambian Enterprise. We say working the system because that’s exactly what it is. A system is a set of interacting or interdependent entities, real or abstract, forming an integrated whole.
Being man-made systems, democracies normally have certain purposes and or objectives. They are designed to work as a coherent entity and whoever aspires to the office has to have a good understanding of their operational capacities.
Systems are determined by choosing the relevant interactions we want to consider, plus choosing the system boundary and or, equivalently, providing membership criteria to determine which entities are part of the system, and which entities are outside of the system and are therefore part of the environment of the system.
There are also closed systems and open systems but in a political environment one has to work within a closed system called a political party. It is no wonder no one wakes up and says he would be president tomorrow because a system has to be in place for one to achieve such an objective.
Now, within a closed system are also other variables to consider such as membership, name recognition, positioning, timing, synergy and a whole lot others. While membership and name recognition are the basic requirements, positioning and timing feed on each other to be functional.
Synergy on the other hand is group determined, in other words the people within the system decide to choose leadership based on the maximum good for the collective. It is at this stage that they look at one’s qualifications; academic, professional and or otherwise as the best sale for their franchise.
What we see in the first lady is her ability to work the system if she wants to be the next CEO of the Zambian Enterprise and with all operational capacities in place, the MMD as a franchise can provide her the nomination which is hers for the taking unless of course she is not interested.
So, with all the bluff and fluff about qualifications, it is all back to the basics otherwise we could have had the most educated and or professionally qualified person as the president of the Zambian Enterprise by now.
Lastly, any such person wanting to make the grade can only be successful if they realized the importance of working within a system and that’s this week’s memo from us at the Zambian Chronicle … thanks a trillion.
Brainwave R Mumba, Sr.
CEO & President – Zambian Chronicle
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November 12, 2007 at 7:21 pm
this is well written, very insightful … great work
November 12, 2007 at 7:24 pm
it is all about the system, nothing works outside it; if you can’t beat them, join them
November 12, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Kangwa,
… thanks a trillion.
Phiri,
… your quote, “…it is all about the system, nothing works outside it; if you can’t beat them, join them”
… my response, you are right about it being all about the system but you don’t have to join them to beat them, you can alternatively create a better system from the ground up such as great alternate political party with a competitive edge … thanks a trillion.
Abo,
… thanks a trillion.
November 12, 2007 at 11:10 pm
it is hard to create an alternative, doable but really hard
November 12, 2007 at 11:24 pm
I think it should not be like that, we should be able to come up with the best qualified individuals possible without using systems.
I believe that it is because of all these issues that we end up with some of the worse candidates as president.
November 12, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Phiri,
… your quote, “…it is hard to create an alternative, doable but really hard”.
… my response – the late Anderson Mazoka (MHSRIP) was able to do that, he created UPND from the ground up and came in second in 2001 even though there are still some disputes there …
An already existing party can be rejuvenated with the right leadership to be able to accomplish the same but all successes are nothing but a derivative of an organized system … thanks a trillion.
Miriam,
… sad as it may seem, the story remains that if those individuals who feel are more qualified to be president need to make any significant impact, they have to operate within a given system.
… if they are really smart and qualified as they would like others to believe, then they must understand the smartest thing for them to do is seek membership that would position them for leadership … thanks a trillion.
November 13, 2007 at 3:35 am
a lot of this stuff sounds like we are on fantasy island but I will give you credit for highlighting the facts.
too many a time we have some overzealous fellas running around wanting to be president without knowing how it gets done.
November 13, 2007 at 3:38 am
Kevin,
I agree with you totally, if only we worked the system, there would be less heartaches around.
I know a lot of people who have been burnt trying it the hard way and today they look like failures and laughing stocks to the public.
Thank you brainsplus for this insightful article.
November 26, 2007 at 12:49 am
[...] instance, the MMD performed exemplary well among the illiterates to the semi-literate segments of the population [...]
March 19, 2008 at 2:56 pm
A curious article, well written article. But I believe it leaves out one fundamental, and obvious, question: ethinicity.
I am a person of mixed race, father white and mother black. By birth I have dual nationality (British and Zambian). I love both countries… and when I stumbled across this article I asked my self: Can some such as myself (irrespective of qualifications) become President???