A nation without a conscience

As the calendar turns to January, we’re filled with hope that this year is going to be different, that things are going to be better. Every year we hope things will be different. When I think of a conscience I am reminded of my mother’s words, “Letsoalo la hao, ebe molisa ngoana’ka,” which means “let your conscience be your guide my child.” This can be helpful advice if you have a conscience that has been trained to discern right from wrong, but if the conscience has not been developed then it may not be reliable. The English word “conscience” is derived from the Latin word ‘conscientia’ which refers to “knowledge within oneself, especially in a moral sense.” The conscience is that faculty of the mind that provides an inner sense of right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives and urges one to do right and restrains one from doing wrong. As I moved around Maseru this festive season I noticed that we are a nation that has lost its conscience. Everywhere in Maseru in the streets I came across young teenagers who were engaged in drinking alcohol. My friend Qoboko Makhakhe named it “Monkey see, monkey do,” he then made a helpful submission, “do as I say, not as I do? Children, it turns out, will actually do both. Children learn and imitate behaviours by watching and listening to others. This is sometimes called observation learning. This is exactly how we post every day. We advertise alcohol, we normalise excessive drinking and yet we are surprised when our kids do as we do.” It did not happen overnight but was a slow, steady growth of bad influences that have established a culture that our forefathers would not recognise. Our kids have become drunkards like us. Corruption runs in the system, it has become our way of being. Our people have given it a nice name “drink.” You would think they are thirsty, no they are corrupt to the core. The political correctness of tolerating everything has milled decency and national conscience into a gruesome mixture of vulgarity, disease and immorality. What used to be common sense now offers an absurd, senseless morass. While we consider ourselves a Christian nation, our national conscience does nothing to confirm that attribute. Basotho continue to exceed immoral shades of evil darkness. While searching our own national, self-centred mirrors can we not see ourselves through the fog of greedy corruption that portray us to the world? Thus, who is destroying our nation from within? Those who wrongly educate or adjudicate? Those who knowingly take undeserved public grants? Those who purposely bury their conscience in ungodly darkness to foster amoral attitudes? Politicians who claim to clean the corrupt system yet they are corrupt to the core? Civil servants who have forgotten how to serve but use every opportunity to enrich themselves? The police who have turned into parasites, who suck money out of every car they stop? Yes, all of those, while many governmental leaders betray us; while many new leaders become too cowardly to fight the quagmire they stepped into. Do we require new kinds of political institutions? Can we cope simultaneously with massive unemployment and massive inflation? Can we exercise enough self-discipline to tailor economic growth without self-interest? Can social services reach those who need them without destroying initiative and ambition and without bankrupting the country? Are the existing priorities of the government budget acceptable in a nation that still has millions of citizens who are ill-fed, ill-housed, ill-clothed and ill-educated? Undeniably, we all make mistakes at some point. We are human and it is natural. What our conscience ought to tell us about corrective action after a misstep is to take responsibility for our actions, be honest with ourselves and others and move on. Mistakes are opportunities for growth and I am a firm believer in education versus punishment to enable development. Each person is born with a conscience. It’s like a candle burning in the inner depths of your heart telling you the difference between right and wrong. I do not know about you but for me my gut often tells me very precisely the difference between right and wrong. I also believe that most Basotho have a pretty reliable conscience when given the opportunity to look inward and ask themselves if they know right from wrong, efficient from wasteful or productive from destructive. It is the choices we make, by either knowingly accepting the guidance from our internal moral compass, or disregarding it for an easy way out, that can get us in trouble. May our conscience disturb us in the new year to do the right things. May our conscience disturb us when we vote for corrupt leaders. It is wrong to vote for someone who is not a morally decent person, whose character falls below the minimum standard required to handle the responsibility of governing. May our conscience disturb us when we ask for peace but refuse justice. May it help us see with eyes of our conscience the way of truth and the call to practical living, loving and building a legacy of service and generosity. May our conscience disturb us when we raise intelligent arguments but forget that people are going hungry while we stress over what, where, who, how when and why. May it help us avoid paralysis of analysis and embrace a practise of excellence in planning and acting for peace and justice. May our conscience disturb us when we delay to stop unethical behaviour, remind us of good, Sesotho-inspired values that requires for us to practise what we preach and teach. May it help us to preach in public what we put to practise in private. May our conscience disturb us when we become content with passivity and trapped in a social reality of the status quo. May it help us to ask critical questions, embrace the paths of courageous conversations, and take the journey of acting justly, love your neighbour as yourself and serving our people well. May our conscience disturb us when we are loud and proud of the money we got through corruption. May justice be served on us. As we go out to vote this year for new leadership let us remember that the new era requires new leadership, new creativity, a willingness to evaluate new ideas and new concepts and new relationships with courage. We need a new set of leaders who can act out of conviction and conscience. Ramahooana Matlosa