Africa-Press – Zambia. Zambia’s Socialist Party President Fred M’membe has said that it is difficult to discern the purpose of that highly publicised press conference held by President Hakainde Hichilema yesterday at the Statehouse.
In a post on his Facebook page, Dr M’membe said that it is said that if one has nothing serious or important to say it’s better to shut up, adding that as Pythagoras once observed, we should strive to have something important to say before we open our mouths, and quoting Us president Abraham Lincoln said: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
Dr M’membe was quick to that he was not suggesting we remain silent all the time, emphasised that it’s all too easy to speak thoughtlessly. “I’m not suggesting we remain silent all the time. But it’s all too easy to speak thoughtlessly. That can make you look less intelligent than you are, and you will minimise the chances of it happening if you think carefully before you open your mouth. The virtues of silence have long been recognised.
“The popular saying “speech is silver but silence is golden” may date back to ancient Egypt. It probably means that in some circumstances the less you say the better it is. Ecclesiastes teaches that there is “a time to be silent and a time to speak.” However, Ecclesiastes doesn’t give guidance as to which situations merit which response. Each situation becomes a judgment call, ” Dr M’membe wrote.
Dr M’membe further said that all what that press conference revealed is that there’s too much rivalry and anger in our politics – the disease of rivalry and vainglory.
“When that dominates our thoughts, we forget our fundamental duty as political leaders – to “do nothing from selfishness or conceit but in humility count others better than ourselves.” As political leaders, we must look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others, ” he concluded
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