Maravi

The eagle is trapped

The eagle is trapped
By Editor
Tuesday October 23, 2007 [04:00]

Some lies and half-truths are so obvious that they do not need a rocket scientist to be detected. Much as Patriotic Front vice-president Dr Guy Scott might want to defend Michael Sata over his request for US$50,000 from Taiwan for his continued campaign of discrediting China, it is clear that his boss has conducted himself in a very dishonest manner, not only to his party but also to his financiers.

In fact, we can go further to state that Sata has not only lied to his financiers over his trip to the United States of America, but he has also acted dishonestly to the organisers of the event he is attending by portraying a picture that they have not fully taken care of all his needs while he is their guest at Harvard University.


For those who think that we have unfairly and wrongly concluded that Sata has been dishonest over his trip to the United States, we can restate the facts the way we presented them yesterday.

In his letter to the Taiwanese Ambassador to Malawi, requesting for money, Sata claimed that the purpose of the money was for among other things, to help him purchase return air tickets for himself and Dr Chileshe Mulenga who is accompanying him since the organisers had only arranged a one-way ticket.

Now, we have in our possession Sata's itinerary which shows that both tickets are return and not one-way as he claimed. And knowing fully well the stringent immigration requirements in countries like the United States, we fail to fully appreciate why the organisers of Sata's event can choose to inconvenience their guest by providing him only with a one-way ticket especially that it was their initiative.

In our comment yesterday, we stated that it was incredible that a politician like Sata, who longs to lead our country, could lower the significance of opposition politics to such levels of cheap and dangerous opportunism as he was exhibiting. We questioned why Sata could be proudly telling the world that he had undertaken to do everything within his capacity to discredit The People's Republic of China so that they concentrate on defending themselves against his attacks and leave Taiwan at peace. We questioned this kind of thinking because we found it opportunistic because all along in his justification of his incessant attacks on Chinese investment in Zambia, Sata's fundamental line has been the claim about Chinese investors' poor attitude towards and treatment of Zambian workers.

Looking at all these facts, the appropriate conclusion is that Sata's conduct borders on petty and unbridled opportunism because his stance on China is not driven by a principled position. Sata's letter is so clear and no amount of denial will alter the truth.
Yes, Dr Scott may argue that it is perfectly normal for diplomats and politicians to use each other to achieve a common cause. That may be correct. However, it is morally wrong for politicians to behave in the manner that Sata is going about his politics, especially over the China and Taiwan issue.

From Sata's letter, it is clear that whatever he has been saying about Chinese investment in Zambia is not what he genuinely believes in as a matter of ideological positioning but because he has to please those who have been lining his pockets.

And instead of justifying wrong things, Dr Scott would do himself and other politicians a favour by accepting that it is important for people in his position to realise that it is necessary for politicians to be guided by such imperatives as honesty, morality and truthfulness. It is important that politics is regarded as a tool for achieving the common good and not for personal gratification as we have seen in Sata's case.

Like the Xhosa people say in South Africa: "The eagle is trapped." When defending oneself, one can inadvertently say something that implicates him. Indeed, Sata and his follower Dr Scott have been trapped and are now implicating themselves.

Scott argues that Sata was in order to call upon Taiwan to help out financially during his visit to Harvard University because this conference is of considerate interest to Taiwan.

He also indirectly acknowledges that Sata could have asked for more money than he required but justifies this by saying that PF could have used that extra money on by-elections since it has no access to government resources like the ruling party does.

This is the dishonesty in Sata we are talking about. Clearly, Sata has chosen to be used as a destructive agent against China by Taiwan for monetary gain. He did not offer himself to do everything in his capacity to discredit the People's Republic of China for nothing.

He can deny this but his letter to his sponsors in Taiwan speaks volumes. Even Dr Scott's feeble explanation that the change from US $50,000 could have been used for campaigns in by-elections does not hold water. We say this because we are sure that very few people, if any in PF, knew about Sata's request for funding.

Dr Scott further argues that it is normal for PF to receive funding from allies like Taiwan since there is no law in Zambia supporting funding of political parties. Truly, there may be nothing wrong for any organisation, political or otherwise, to receive financial help from foreign governments or institutions especially for legitimate causes.

But it becomes a problem when money is received in the manner and for the reasons that PF has been receiving funding from Taiwan. That's why Sata and his PF vehemently denied being bankrolled by Taiwan in last year's elections even when Sata made several trips to Malawi to receive his cut. This is because they realised that the activities they were involved in for that money could not be said to be legitimate.

For that funding from Taiwan, Sata had committed Zambia to recognise Taiwan as a sovereign state contrary to the country's position that upholds the One China Policy. He was ready to mortgage Zambia over a few pieces of silver for his personal benefit. But he denied all this, even as he continued to go to Malawi to collect more money from his financiers.

If the Malawian government had not declared him a prohibited immigrant, probably we could not have had the evidence that Sata is funded by the Taiwanese. Now that he is a prohibited immigrant, Sata could not travel to Malawi to collect the money.

He had to write and release his personal account details for his financiers to transfer the money.

Anyway, the bottom line is that Sata is so discredited that he can no longer cherish the dream of ever ruling this country. If his conscience is not dead, we do not think he can be a proud presidential aspirant with such a record behind him.

Zambia deserves better than leaders of Sata's character and calibre. We do not think there is a shortage of exemplary leaders in the country.

Labels: CORRUPTION, EDITORIAL, PF, SATA, TAIWAN

posted by MrK @ 4:28 AM