A Call for Political Wellbeing

Like all good calls for action, this one begins with a personal story.

‘Politicians are human, so this is a really stupid case to make Victoria’, my inner critic yells as I slowly get out of bed on the first morning of my holiday in Lake Como.

‘Making the case for political wellbeing is like saying politicians need to clean their teeth’.

Sigh!

‘And yet’, my other inner voice whispers as I walk into the bathroom, ‘I’m not sure anyone is making it’. 

At that precise moment I get a WhatsApp message from Timothy Chiguvare, leader of a political party in Zimbabwe. It read:

‘A very good and blessed morning to you Victoria. This message serves to inform you that I am having sleepless nights because of crimes against humanity taking place in Zimbabwe (PLEASE SEE ATTACHED VIDEOS), and while I follow the direction of my calling as one of God’s generals who is sent to stop the tears of the most suffering, and to put a quality smile on the faces of those in trouble, I cannot allow it to continue’.

I look in the mirror and think: ‘I’m not going to tell him to clean his teeth… But I am going to help him. I just have no idea how’.

What happened next in the story makes me feel ashamed.

I lean on the basin and watch the videos. One after the other I see people and soldiers being shot in cold blood; dead bodies being thrown onto the back of trucks.

Timothy’s video descriptions make the visuals real:

‘This is a most recent video. There is no rule of law in Zimbabwe. It is TOTAL anarchy. This soldier and his colleague were later disarmed and shot dead in broad daylight’.

‘This is the video of the same soldier who was assaulting those 2 young men’.

‘Zanu-PF later deployed soldiers to hunt those two young men and killed them’.

I swallow vomit and take a shower.

Shaken by what I saw, and for my own wellbeing, straight after the shower I ask Timothy not to send me any more videos. There our conversation ended for a while.

I needed time to think. This was the first day of my holiday and my recovery time, my inner princess pouted, as I walked into the breakfast room…).

Obviously, Timothy’s lifeworld is not the lifeworld of many politicians. Yet, it does not have to be, I decided months later, to justify a call for tailored political wellbeing and leadership support.

Politicians are human, but they are also a special type of human. Being human, our wellbeing affects our performance and decision-making capabilities.

Being a human in politics, wellbeing affects the performance and decision-making capabilities of those who impact the quality of all our lives.

I now want to promote political wellbeing until it is taken for granted or defined in the Oxford Dictionary, whichever comes first.

I still do not know whether the Silent MP will achieve this goal in the end, but I know it begins with this intimate call from the heart, and not just mine:

“What do you think of this idea Timothy?” I ask a few months later.

“We thank god for your life good sister, your life is a gift and an inspiration to humanity”.

“Thank you”, I say, “more importantly, yours is”.