Governing by innuendos

Governing by innuendos
Written by Editor

POLITICS of lies, deceit and manipulation promise short-term gains. But such gains are not real. One may feel that they have achieved something through lies but their achievement is a vapour, a mist which cannot be grasped by anyone. Difficult times require honesty, integrity and uprightness. It is not possible to deal with problems meaningfully when one is permanently wedded to lies and deception.

The tragedy of such an existence is that what begins as an effort to manipulate others through lies results in self-deception. Liars start believing their own lies. And when this happens, they become incapable of grasping the truth.

This is what seems to be happening in the government that Rupiah Banda is running. Rupiah and his minions don't know how to operate honestly and sincerely. They have great difficulties discerning what public interest is and pursuing it.

Everything they do is determined by what personal benefit - political, financial or otherwise - they can get for themselves and their cronies. This is the mindset that seems to propel Rupiah and his friends. There are no principles or values driving their governance system. This is why they seem to lie continuously. It is becoming difficult to believe anything they say. Even when they tell you their name, you would not be blamed for doubting if they are telling the truth. Such is the level of dishonesty in Rupiah's government.

A country like Zambia, with all the problems that it has, requires honest and determined leadership. Lies and liars cannot take Zambia from the quagmire that it today finds itself in. The only way we are going to make progress as a nation is to decide that we are going to face our problems honestly and sincerely. This sounds very simple but it is a very difficult undertaking for Rupiah and his minions. Honesty, integrity and upright dealings are unlikely to benefit their pockets and their short-term political agendas. There is therefore no incentive for people who don't care anything for principles to pursue such a line. What rules their decision making processes is expedience, rarely, if ever, principled. The only time that Rupiah and his minions rhetorically talk about principles is when they want to fix a political opponent or exact some concession. For them, principles are just another tool in their arsenal of political tricks which they use to try to maintain a grip on power.

There are very few people in our country today who do not know that Rupiah is running a very corrupt government. For him, it is their time to ‘eat’. Rupiah has unleashed his cronies on the economy and thinks that our people don't know. He has wasted no time in making sure that key positions in the parastatal sector are filled by his tribesmen and other people that he can easily control. This is the same man who is claiming to fight corruption.

What is true, however, is that Rupiah's hands are too dirty to fight corruption. Nothing in his history gives anyone the confidence that he is able to fight corruption. There is nothing that Rupiah has done since coming into power nine months ago which gives us the confidence that he is serious about fighting corruption. Rupiah's glowing praise for Frederick Chiluba, as senior chief Bright Nalubamba has correctly observed, says a lot about his own character, what he admires or what inspires him. To him Chiluba is a role model. How can such a reckless, ruthless, intolerant and corrupt person be a role model for any serious statesman?

This is what lying and liars do. They will take whatever position they think will gain them some benefit. When Rupiah was praising Chiluba, he was in Luapula trying to tribally woo the people of that province to his side. Rupiah was prepared to call something black, white and praise it for its whiteness.

If Rupiah was running his personal kantemba, these would be his private problems. But this is not the case. Rupiah is supposed to be running a country. He is expected to show a higher commitment to truth, fairness and justice. Dishonesty and cheap political manipulation can never solve the problems of our country. What is unfortunate is that dishonesty seems to be the currency of choice in Rupiah's dealings. Rupiah and his minions lie on almost anything one could imagine.

Why would a President be telling lies about the nature of his visit to a foreign country? Last week, we were treated to a shameful comedy of errors. Our President left the country for close to five days on a pretext that he was going to hold bilateral talks with his counterpart in South Africa - a good thing in itself. When we exposed the lie that lay behind this announcement, Rupiah and his minions were quick to attack us instead of dealing with the underlying problem.

If Rupiah was going on a private visit to South Africa, who decided to tell the nation that he was going for bilateral talks? Or is it a question of some foolish, incompetent aide to Rupiah not understanding the implications of such an announcement? You cannot accuse a foreign head of state of engaging in bilateral talks that are nonexistent just to avoid admitting that Rupiah is taking another holiday - for medical reasons or otherwise. If Rupiah was on an official visit, why was he being met by such a junior officer, a director?

A leader owes the people that he claims to lead the truth. But truth is a very difficult thing, almost an impossibility to people who are permanently wedded to lies; people who have serious difficulties telling the truth and who lie even where it is not necessary to do so, who lie even where it does not help them. This reminds us of how Dr Kenneth Kaunda, our country's first president, used to denounce such behaviour; how he used to talk about those who lie in the morning, lie at noon, lie in the evening; lies all the time. This is where we seem to have gone again. It is not possible to run a government when your people have no reason to believe anything you say. Rupiah's insincerity is so pervasive that it is difficult to believe that he ever thinks about national interest. Yes, he talks about national interest but when it comes to doing, he doesn't act in national interest.

This is why Rupiah and his minions are failing to convince our people that their actions on Zamtel are anything but fraudulent. They started the transaction in a rotten way and have never accepted their mistakes but expect our people to believe them. Rupiah and his minions will pay the price for their dishonesty. Our people will fail to believe them even on the day when they decide to tell the truth. We say this because their behaviour is similar to the story of a foolish herdsboy - what the Lozis refer to as mulisana wa sitoto - who cried “Wolf!” even when there was nothing. But the day came when he had to account for his lying, the day when the wolf actually visited him and nobody believed his cry.

It is clear that Rupiah is incorrigible. His tactics are not very different from those of Chiluba. No wonder Rupiah thinks Chiluba was a "damn good president".

What is happening on the mobile hospitals? It seems Rupiah has some personal interest of one sort or another in that deal. Maybe he made some promises and now he has to deliver regardless of whether this deal makes sense or not.

This commitment to lies has also manifested itself in the innuendos with which Rupiah wants to fight his perceived enemies. We are not surprised that Maureen Mwanawasa has today decided to speak out about the innuendos being cast on her late husband, Levy Mwanawasa.

We have said before, and we will continue to say, that all must be equal before the law. This is the rule of law to which we aspire as a nation. If Mwanawasa or his family did wrong things, they should be investigated and held to account. This must be done in an honest, transparent and fair way. This is the right of every citizen.

But Rupiah and his minions do not know how to handle things in an honest manner, in a principled way. This is why innuendo, malicious and anonymous attacks are their preferred methods of dealing with their enemies or opponents. Sometimes they even go as far as abusing parliamentary privileges to cast aspersions on their enemies or opponents. It is very clear that they operate on lies and because they don't have the truth on their side, they do not attack their opponents in an open and direct manner for fear of being taken on politically and legally by the people they are attacking. It is sad that the chamber of the House has been turned into a casino for peddling innuendos by George Kunda and other minions of Rupiah. This is not the way to use parliamentary privileges and time paid for by the taxpayer.

Every parliamentary sitting costs the taxpayer a lot of money and that time should be used intelligently and to the maximum benefit of those who pay taxes. But of what benefit to the taxpayer are George's innuendos against his political enemies for him to devote so much parliamentary time to attacking them? If George has got issues, let them be tackled in a direct and honest manner. Innuendos won't do. And when taken to Parliament, they will only lower the standing of this institution in the eyes of the public. But how else can people who are permanently wedded to lies operate if not by innuendos, lies, deceit and manipulation?

Rupiah and his minions must learn that liars and manipulators have never made great leaders anywhere in the world. They might have scored temporary successes here and there, but wherever one looks, their endings have been the same - disastrous.