Maravi

Rupiah is a joker

Rupiah is a joker
Written by Editor

Yesterday, we gave Rupiah Banda some free advice. Rupiah may not expect anything good from us because according to him, we are his enemies. But the advice that we gave yesterday was very sincere. It is advice that we would give to our very best friend if they found themselves in the position where Rupiah has found himself.

We told Rupiah that with the number of problems that our country is facing, he would do well to address the country in an honest and sincere fashion. We said this because we were hoping that notwithstanding the arrogance with which Rupiah carries himself, he would find the humility to listen, given the many problems our country is facing.

We hoped that somewhere somehow, Rupiah would find it within himself to sympathise and empathise with the problems that our people are facing. We hoped that the multi-layered problems that we are facing as a nation would force Rupiah to stop and think, to feel sorry for our people.

But we were wrong. Rupiah is a joker. Everything for him is a joke. He does not seem to have the ability to sit and think deeply. He does not have the capacity to reflect and ponder the many complexities that are assailing his beleaguered government.

This is why for him, it is enough to smear us with all kinds of filth, to accuse us of all sorts of things. Rupiah thinks that if he defames us, if he insults us, our people will feel sorry for him and not hold him to account for all the wrongs that he is committing.

It is puzzling that a man who holds such an important office in our country seems to have limitless amounts of time to peddle and push rumours and innuendoes that he does not have the courage to say openly. If the capacity and energy that Rupiah is showing for pettiness were directed towards resolving the many pertinent issues of our day, Zambia would be a very good country indeed. But it seems Rupiah and his handlers have no time for serious issues. This is why our advice that Rupiah should address the nation with humility, honesty and sincerity fell on deaf ears.

Rupiah was busy misleading the nation and telling lies and half-truths. Maybe this is why even a State House monkey that was watching his press conference was disgusted and urinated on him. And Rupiah said in shock and amusement: “Kanitundila.”

Cynical as our point might be, it seems even the monkey knew that what was going on was not serious. It could afford to urinate on the President. There was some poetic justice in the behaviour of the monkey. As Rupiah himself said, The Post would be quick to say ‘this is a curse’. Maybe it is. Judge for yourself.

We are not here to talk about Rupiah and the monkey that urinated on him. There are more serious issues that need discussing.

Yesterday, many of our people were listening to Rupiah hoping that he would say something that would show that he was serious and concerned about their many cries. They were hoping to see a man who was genuinely concerned about their plight. Rupiah said a lot of things. He certainly made a lot of noise. But the one thing that was missing from his address was any amount of sincerity and honesty in dealing with any of the issues that called for his attention.

His words were so empty, so devoid of meaning that maybe in future he is better off issuing statements through his press aide because his presence did not add anything at all.

It seems Rupiah was more interested in hoodwinking the donors that he is serious about fighting corruption. What Rupiah should learn is that our people would appreciate to be respected and listened to the same way that he seems prepared to try and please the donors by saying some right things. But we know that for Rupiah, most of his commitments are just words. His actions point somewhere else.

For instance, he has failed to explain his role in the mobile hospitals’ saga to our people but seems in a hurry to placate the donors hoping that they are not seeing through him.

Yesterday, Rupiah did something that did not surprise us but is nonetheless shameful. In his desperate attempt to humiliate and discredit The Post, he accused us of publishing pornography in relation to the ongoing health workers strike. This was after he repeated the lie that we published a doctored photograph showing him sitting next to Dora Siliya in Livingstone. It is not for us to say where Dora was sitting. The picture spoke for itself.

It is unfortunate that Rupiah and his handlers are so confused that they cannot tell the difference between professionalism and what Rupiah calls bad journalism. We expected Rupiah to deal with the strike in the medical sector in a statesman-like manner, to be respectful of the striking workers.

Instead Rupiah chose to ignore the workers and launch a desperate attack on The Post. It is not usual for us to discuss stories or pictures that have not been published. But since Rupiah has decided to lie, we owe it to our readers to explain what is going on. On or about the 10th of this month, we received very disturbing pictures chronicling the ordeal of a woman who gave birth before she got to a labour room. This happened because she was unable to receive attention from three or four medical facilities where she sought help. This poor lady first went to Kanyama clinic. She was turned away because of the strike by health workers. The poor woman next went to Chawama clinic where the same thing happened. She tried the University Teaching Hospital but also drew a blank. She was turned away.

The family rushed her to Lilanda in search of an off-duty midwife. They found one but she could not help because the baby was coming out feet first, which is known as a breech birth in medical parlance.

The poor woman needed a medical procedure called Caesarean section.

To cut the gruesome story short, the woman gave birth in public. The baby stood no chance of surviving. It died.

A distraught member of the family brought us the pictures, which chronicled this very sad and painful ordeal that this poor lady went through. They wanted us to publish them. But the pictures were too gruesome for publication.

We decided that we could not publish them. Having thus decided, we thought that it was important to bring this matter to the attention of the authorities so that they understood, if they did not already, the severity of the crisis that was going on in our medical sector.

We sent these pictures to Vice-President George Kunda with an accompanying letter in which we informed him that we had difficulties publishing the pictures that had come into our possession but we thought he and his colleagues should appreciate what was going on so that they could do everything possible to end the strike by the medical personnel.

We copied this letter to the Secretary to the Cabinet, health minister, NGOCC, Women for Change and the Archbishop for Lusaka.

We thought that although we were not going to publish these pictures, the government and the important people that we copied, especially those organisations that champion the rights of our mothers, needed to know so that they added their voice to the calls for a speedy resolution of the current strike action.

If Rupiah thinks that what we did amounts to publishing pornography, he needs to get his head checked. There is something wrong with him. This was an act in good faith. If we were reckless as Rupiah wants to portray us, we would have published those pictures to show the public what their compatriots were suffering from as Rupiah was getting his knee massaged in Cape Town at government expense.

It is clear that Rupiah does not care about the people because to him, it was alright for a woman to give birth in public as long as nobody took pictures. We say this because the issue here is not the pictures. It is the fact that a poor defenceless woman was forced to give birth in public while Rupiah was getting his knee massaged in South Africa. The bigger picture here is this: that while Rupiah was jet setting and getting knee massages in South Africa, our people were dying because hospitals have closed. This is the issue.

The Post has done nothing wrong by choosing not to publish these pictures. Further, The Post has done nothing wrong by bringing these pictures to the attention of the authorities privately. Is Rupiah saying The Post should have sat on such gruesome photographic information without bringing it to the attention of the authorities?

This is the kind of shallow thinking that Rupiah and his supporters engage in. This is why we said Rupiah is a joker. Yesterday he missed an opportunity to deal with the issues that are closest to our people by choosing to become a comedian instead of addressing the many pressing issues in an honest, sincere and serious fashion, a manner that is fitting for a head of state.

Joking around will not take Rupiah anywhere. The problems that our country faces cannot be dealt with by cheap slogans, propaganda and spin doctoring. Rupiah needs to get serious.

Labels: HEALTHCARE, STRIKE

posted by MrK @ 3:01 PM