Political rhetoric against pledges with substance: How can the electorate tell?

Clive Mutame Siachiyako

Talk is very cheap. Anyone can promise you heaven on earth even when they live in hell. Some people are blessed in sweet-talking others. Sweet-talking electorates by politicians is common in for the sake of getting votes.

 A tip of the iceberg story of political promises was made by Malawian Presidential candidate Bakili Muluzi prior to the 1994 elections. The folktale is that Muluzi promised to dish-out pairs of shoes to everyone if voted into power.

 After winning the 1994 polls, he never delivered the shoes. His argument was more ludicrous than the sugar-coated promise itself. He told Malawians that he couldn’t deliver on the promise because “didn’t know their shoe sizes.” It wasn’t his fault to fail; the promise itself was unreasonably bizarre. He simply told them that he will “work hard to make other promises possible.” That’s how the shoe saga ended.  

 The Bakili Muluzi absurd campaign pledge shows that politicians can make daftestcampaign promises they don’t even know how to deliver on them. Voters should thus assess the substance of the pledges made by their prospective leaders.

 Why do politicians make pledges? Why do we pledge? Our actions start as ideas. We speak about them. In the bible, God spoke and creation happened. Animals, humans and everything came into existence. Pledges made by politicians are planned actions for the betterment of people’s lives.

 The power of words can be exemplified by how architecture engineers visualise a house in their mind, draw it and later turn it into master piece physical house. Pledges made by anyone are shades dreams to be done e.g. for the people by politicians when voted into power.

 Anyone who can’t dream doesn’t think. They are dead. For us to act on something, we have not conjured in our minds is very hard. We can’t achieve what we have not conceived in our minds, dreamt and speak it into our lives. Our belief into something is the beginning of actions.

Some of the ways to assess reasonability of pledges made by politicians include PLEDGE PRECISION. The correctness of the pledge is principal. Some politicians make very vague pledges that they can twist afterwards when they fail to deliver on them. We once had “more money in your pocket” pledge by the Patriotic Front (PF) when in opposition. After winning the election in 2011, new shade was thrown on this populist pledge that it meant “people working hard to increase their income levels and not monetary freebies from government into their pockets.”

 Voters should interrogate what exactly the politician is pledging. Uttering a bunch of vague words is insufficient. It is time for pledge precision. People need SMART pledges i.e. specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. Some pledges are forever standing and irrelevant to people’s wellbeing. Electorates should ask critical questions to ensure pledges are well crafted than throwing romantic words anyhow without substance. Pledges should be precise, articulate and audible.

Precision means spelling out what and how it will be done. If you pledge to diversify the economic; which sectors exactly will diversification embrace? How will it be done and why hasn’t it worked before? How will it work this time? Even if someone doesn’t know what made it fail, they can present pros and cons of what has been done before and how it didn’t work. How it will be done better should be articulated.

Articulation and audibility can combine being knowledgeable and practical in pledging. Over pledging is the quickest way to discredit your political CV.  It is taking voters for kids to promise anything and think they will not question. Pledges to address power outages should get to practicalities of doing it. What energy alternatives is the politician bringing on the table? Someone who talks about diversifying power, and explains how they will focus on solar and wind energy is more audible.

PLEDGE CONSISTENCY with policies is the other aspect. Politicians like promising bubbles. For example, Bill 10 was packaged, inter alia, as means to increase women presentation in parliament. But the 30% women requirement was far from being achieved. Nothing was espoused on how Bill 10 was the real deal except giving empty grand narratives. Pledges should be supported by consistent policies and increased incentives.  

 Voters know or infer characters of politicians who break pledges. Some politicians who make fake pledges or failed to honour them before are deemed unreliable no matter how sweet their pledge may sound. Once a liar, always a liar applies mostly in the political world. Voters believe that candidates are more likely to act on statements that fit with previous pledges.

 The August 2021 elections came with many pledges. It is time to document them and ask the politicians to account for them. We need to make them sit up and actualise what they pledge. Your councillor, council chairperson, MP and President made pledges. We have to remember them and remind them to put them into action.