AFRICA/MALI - “Political activity is not promoting one's own career but rather the common good” says Catholic Bishops in a statement on presidential elections

Bamako (Agenzia Fides)- “And if we were to re-establish politics?” was the title of issued by the Catholic Bishops of Mali on the occasion of the recent presidential elections. The statement, of which Fides received a copy, explained the importance of the vote clearly and concisely. Addressing a modern day Theophilus, the letter retraces events in the country in past fifteen years since democracy was re-established.
The Bishops acknowledge important progress achieved but also note “the people's general opinion of these results is very blurred. Some are “angry”, “disillusioned” and many turn their backs on politics with indifference, indeed with diffidence of not scorn. This disillusion could explain why so few election papers were requested and the low voting count ”.
The Bishops ask themselves "Do the morals of our political leaders have anything to do with this situation, and why do some people paradoxically show a sudden interest for politics? Their motivation should be questioned. It appears to us that it not alien to the dangerous atmosphere of propitious political patronage which prospers shamelessly”.
In particular, the Bishops write “some people, men and women, are thought to take refuge in “politics”, to avoid possible judicial action: it would seem that an “elective” job is safer than that of a lawyer!…Politics seems to have become a safest and quickest path to one's own social success: people take up politics as a “career” all the more because militancy fawned or backed by the media opens these positions to persons without any professional qualifications or expertise”.
A lack of moral sense is the cause of a lack of clear and vision of the common good and a plan for society. The Bishops call on believers and all the people of Mali to take an active part in politics first of all promoting “serious civic and political education”, “banning from the sphere of politics all reality deforming prisms such as “careerism”, “populism”, “businessism” exercising discernment at the individual and social level to distinguish the truth from falsehood. (L.M.) )Agenzia Fides 2/5/2007 righe 39 e parole 377)