Page 83 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 9

MY AFRIKA

country and I have lived through this The third pillar H is what he called lot to start the change process that
remarkable transformation." This the hardest of all the three. H stands we need.
too amazed me as I listened to him for honesty. He mentioned that has In bringing home this whole Singa-
speak. brought many third world countries pore formula for a successful Afrika,
down and what led to their failure the question now will be, how do we
In the video, he shared what he called in development has been corrup- incorporate this threepoint success
the secrets of Singapore's success. tion. And concerning dealing with formula that Singapore has judi-
He called the secret formula MPH corruption in Singapore, he men- ciously used, into our Afrikan leader-
which stands for: Meritocracy, Prag- tioned how the Prime Minister Mr ship and development agenda?
matism and Honesty. Lee Kuan Yew had to start the war Let me say that to even speak about
Concerning Meritocracy, he said on corruption from the most senior development from the perspective
"Meritocracy means that you select government officers, a thing which of an Afrikan, we must begin from
the best people to run the country. sent the deputy Prime Minister to jail seeing it as the system that gives
And what brings many countries for going on a vacation with a rich strength and an enabling environ-
down especially in the third world businessman. ment for the recreation and regener-
is that when it comes to selecting ation of life. Life being the original
their finance minister or economics Let's bring it home purpose of Motherland Afrika.
minister, they will give their jobs to To be honest and very precise, I think
their brothers, their cousins, their the very three things Dr Kishore As Afrikans living in Afrika, we live
uncles, their relatives and not to the Mahbubani shared in that video are in societies that reward foolishness in
best people. And Singapore did the the very things Afrikan countries their most glaring ways and then ex-
exact opposite." Thus Meritocracy is lack. Nonetheless, how amazing to pect things to change like magic. In
the first pillar of Singapore's secret know that, of a truth, change is pos- Afrika, we still vote people into pow-
formula for success. sible for a people who are ready for er not based on merit, but because
He spoke of the second pillar P it. But it appears to me that in Afrika, they are family members or friends
as Pragmatism. In simple terms it we are not really ready for change. or from the same ethnic community
means, it doesn't matter what your We just seem to have mastered cre- or because we were given stipends by
ideology is, if it works, use it. Not ating sensationalism around the con- politicians to buy our votes and when
being bound by any boxes or limita- cept of Afrikanism and noise-mak- these politicians with no merit come
tions. Being able to note changes in ing without the true heart for change into power and continue the train of
trends or when an ideology does not and the boldness to make it happen. corruption, mismanagement, we cry
fit a particular situation and being But I am more of the opinion that and complain. But in the very next
free enough to shift and make use of it takes just a few people out of the election we repeat the same trend.
what fits.

Kigali, Rwanda.

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