Some people think that apologising is embarrassingly old-fashioned. Not the concept itself, they say, but the execution.
\nThink about it: when you want to apologise to someone, you typically have to be courageous\u2014 a brave heart of some sort.
\nAnd while it is, of course, possible to email, tweet or text your apology \u2013 complete with sad-face emoji \u2013 none of these platforms were really available for Mzimba North East Member of Parliament (MP) Olipa Muyaba because her audience is totally different and could take issues with that.
\nWith the complexities of contrition in mind, she had to face her constituents and say sorry.
\nMuyaba is one of the MPs that voted to reject one of the Electoral Reforms [Amendment] Bills that specifically was advocating change in the way we elect a president, from First-Past-The-Post to a 50%+1 system.
\nShe apologised, a first in the history of plural politics in Malawi. She took responsibility and we believe she is right.
\nWe all ought to be apologising a lot more.
\nIt may just be a seven-letter word\u2014 apology\u2014 but people should not underestimate the power of an apology. Even if Muyaba doesn\u2019t mean it. And most of us don\u2019t really mean it. After all, sorry, the five-letter word often associated with an apology, is an incredibly elastic expression.
\nIt can signify everything, from, \u201cI deeply regret having wronged you,\u201d to \u201cI deeply regret that you\u2019re a moron who doesn\u2019t grasp the simple fact that I have the right also to vote the way I feel like on a particular day.\u201d
\nBut even when sorry is simply used as a civil stand-in for \u201cget out of my way\u201d rather than a genuine declaration of remorse, frequent apologising is a positive thing. It makes the world a nicer, politer place.
\nThis is why we also believe that an apology is not an admission of liability. Most lawmakers that are facing mounting pressure from their constituents fear that they don\u2019t have to apologise even when they should, because they\u2019re worried about losing their seats come 2019
\nWe reckon we could use Hon Muyaba\u2019s apology as a campaign tool specifically aimed at politicians. As a group, they seem to find it remarkably challenging to say the S-word, even when they\u2019ve done something disgraceful.
\nWhich means we all have to waste our energy calling on them to just say sorry, until they finally cave in. It would make things much easier if Parliament replaced Question Time with Apology Time, and everyone went around the chamber saying sorry for all the awful things they have done recently \u2013 rejecting the Electoral Reforms [Amendment] Bills.
\nPeople at home could vote on whether they accepted the apology, and, if they haven\u2019t, the MP would have to resign on the spot\u2026 Sorry, but we think that would actually be quite a good thing, don\u2019t you. Apology accepted, Honourable Muyaba!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some people think that apologising is embarrassingly old-fashioned. Not the concept itself, they say, but the execution. Think about it: when you want to apologise to someone, you typically have to be courageous\u2014 a brave heart of some sort. And while it is, of course, possible to email, tweet or text your apology \u2013 complete […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":42927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58112,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58110\/revisions\/58112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}