IV. WHERE POWER RESIDES AND WHERE FREEDOM LIES
1. THE VALUE OF THE INDIVIDUAL
The new idea that the Progressive Party wishes to stress and stress hard is the idea of the value of the individual. Each individual is of value before God. He made him distinct from other individuals. The Progressive Party believes that there should be potential opportunity for all. In other words it believes in the equality of all individuals in the opportunities the state has to offer, because individuals are of potential value. In our history the individual was of no value. It was the chief who mattered. The individual existed for the chief and had to obey what the chief told him without question. In other words, the individual had no freedom.
2. FEAR.
The worst result of this dependence upon some one above him, was fear that was instilled in the mind of each person. This fear became a cancour of growth, and that individual something that distinguishes one as free and independent, became dead. Thus our worst enemy was fear, the fear that demoralises character and destroys ambition and prevents achievement. This fear ate deep in our personality and destroyed our freedom.
When the British came they instilled this fear still further. There was fear of the official class men dare not go against it lest their chances of promotion became curtailed. There was the fear of laws meant to suppress, and of prison. There was the fear of the secret service. Thus the individul became a mere shadow, moving but without substance. People became corrupted by too much passive and irresponsible obedience. There cannot be true development with such mentality. Self-government demands reversing such mentality.
3. BRAVE SPIRITS.
But fortunately, a few resolute spirits could not stand this passivity any longer, and they raised their voices loud to reach freedom and activity. They demanded that they must have a say in the government of their country by electing chiefs. When they discovered that this was not the remedy, then they demanded that they choose their own representatives to the Lukiko the demand for the 60 representative members. Then the election of ministers. So far these few courageous spirits have won. It has been a real revolution.
