Maravi

It’s simple, it isn’t complicated

It’s simple, it isn’t complicated
Written by Editor

The findings of the tribunal that was investigating Dora Siliya are very simple and straightforward for every literate person to read and understand. It is also a simple issue for any honest person to know what needs to be done to Dora following the tribunal’s findings. The tribunal made it very clear that Dora breached the Constitution, and that if it was the President, Rupiah Banda himself,
who had breached the Constitution in that manner, he would be impeached.

It is also a matter of fact that Dora holds two constitutional positions or offices – that of member of parliament for Petauke Central and that of a Cabinet minister in the Ministry of Communications and Transport. Before being sworn into both these offices, Dora took oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. And today, Dora has breached this oath. The President is not the only constitutional office holder in this country who must vacate office if he violates the Constitution. Every individual who holds a constitutional office has to vacate that office if he or she breaches the Constitution. This doesn’t require much disquisition; it is a straightforward issue.

Rupiah says Dora’s breach of the Constitution is not a simple issue as other people are trying to make it. It is a simple issue for other people because they are honest about things and about this issue. From the very beginning, Rupiah has not been honest on this issue. He defended Dora and told lies to the nation that she had done nothing wrong, that she was more intelligent and smarter than the people who were criticising her actions. This is where the problem lies. Rupiah is not finding this a simple issue because he is not honest about it; he has told lies about it.

The truth is there for everyone, including Rupiah, to see. But seeing the truth is not enough. We must then say it, and finally, act on it.

This issue is very simple. What complicates it for Rupiah is lies, dishonesty. If Rupiah cannot accept the truth even when he sees it, then he is in serious trouble and all that he says will count for little.

In our edition of yesterday, we went to great length quoting biblical authorities on lies and dishonesty and showing clearly that they have never succeeded anywhere. But today, we still see Rupiah continuing to tell lies and refusing to yield to truth. His claim that Dora’s issue is not a simple matter is a lie. There seems to be a dilemma with liars: their punishment is not in the least that they are not believed, but that they cannot believe anyone else. We wish Rupiah could consider the damage his lies are doing to the nation before saying what he says. His lies are decreasing the level of trust among our people and their leaders; they are giving birth to very high levels of cynicism in the nation. And we know that cynicism and cynics have never developed any community. But this is the language, the language of cynicism, that is starting to dominate our nation with highly damaging consequences.

And yet we know, and without a moment’s hesitation, that when one challenges these liars on any platform or even in a court of law, their response is to deny. When confronted with their behaviours, their tactic is to deny, deny, deny. And when they are occasionally cornered, their tactic is to disavow any personal responsibility, and blame someone else.

We now live in a nation where all the leading elements of our society are lying to us. Even our justice system seem to be dealing out several different flavours of justice, contingent on the personal, political, economic and social profile of the individual. And when this is brought to their attention, they get very angry. Yet they all know the truth.

Of course, this sort of situation doesn’t exist in a vacuum. If the presidency of this country is up to its eyes in lies, then there is no reason to suspect that the situation ends there, and it certainly does not. And the level of dishonesty in our country is pretty much in the same state in most other institutions of the state, from top to bottom.

If enough lies are told and statements made that do not compare favourably with the facts at hand, then we should know we are in serious trouble. This being the case, nothing that is said, no matter how sincere, can be believed, or even understood.

If we continue to wallow in poverty and to be subjected to very poor levels of good governance, it will be nothing else but our dishonesty that does us in. If we cannot say the truth, even when we can see it, then all our beauty and vision will count for little, if not nothing.

Our knowing that you are a liar may be nice, and may be helpful in our lives. Seeing our dishonesty, and naming it for what it is, and then doing something inside ourselves about it, without force of legislation, on the other hand, would be a quantum leap forward, in our development. This is, in our opinion, the essential battle that our nation must face. Again, seeing the truth is not enough. We must then say it, and finally, act on it. Otherwise language, one of our greatest gifts, becomes no more than babble, fit only for campaign promises.

As we had observed yesterday, when a liar is caught red-handed in a lie and confronted with the evidence, that sort of man or woman will be forced to admit it, but he or she won’t like it. It will make him angry and vengeful. He will do all he can to move on and leave it behind. We said the Bible calls this evidence of a seared conscience, not a sensitive conscience, but a seared conscience.

Rupiah’s response to the issue of Dora confirms what we said in our comment yesterday: when a heart is untruthful, when honesty has gone from it, then it is prepared to be the seed plot of every evil thing. Any crime is possible to a liar. He who is rotten with falsehood will break at the touch of every temptation. It just means that if a person will lie, and develops a pattern of lying as a way of life, that person will do anything. Someone who becomes good at lying loses his fear of being discovered and will move on to any number of evil actions. He becomes arrogant and self-assured. He comes to truly believe that he is above the law. We should fear people like this, people like Rupiah. All that Rupiah is saying about the issue of Dora not being a simple one is lies, deceit, a falsehood. Rupiah knows very well that this is a simple and straightforward matter. But what is not simple for him is to do the right thing – to drop his very close friend Dora whom he has been doing all sorts of things with.

It is true that a man who lies to himself and believes his own lies becomes unable to recognise truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself as well as for others. This is what Rupiah is today caught in. He has to find a way out of cheating himself and others that all is well and he can do as he pleases. This is not possible in a country of 12 million people with a Constitution and laws. The law is very clear. Whether Rupiah likes it or not, he will not be able to save Dora. And if he tries to do so, it will eventually prove to be an extremely costly undertaking on his part. Rupiah has no choice but to do the simple thing that he thinks is not simple – drop Dora.

Labels: DORA SILIYA

posted by MrK @ 2:17 AM