Maravi

Rupiah is the champion of insults, lies and abuse

Rupiah is the champion of insults, lies and abuse
By The Post Editor
Tue 27 Apr. 2010, 04:10 CAT

LIES and insults are always distressing, but sometimes they are dangerous; and when you get them manifested in the head of the State, it is about time that they should be ruthlessly put away. If true religion rests on love, it is equally true that respect and loyalty rest on love. Respect and loyalty are a sentiment, not a law.

They rest on love, not on restraint. Every human being’s life in this world is inevitably mixed with every other life and, no matter what laws we pass, no matter what precautions we take, unless the people we meet are kindly and decent and human and liberty-loving, then there is a problem. Respect, loyalty, integrity, decency come from human beings, rather than from laws and institutions.

We do not believe in the law of hate. We may not be true to our ideals always, but we believe in the law of love, and we believe you can do nothing with hatred.

Why are we saying all this? We are saying all this in response to the way Rupiah Banda, as President of the Republic, is conducting himself. Rupiah has repeatedly called Hakainde Hichilema “a son of a dog”. Rupiah claims Hakainde had called him a dog and he goes on to say, “I know that with your twin newspaper, you are going to answer me. Please spare me the insults, just tell the Zambian people if I am telling lies.”

Truly, we will tell the Zambian people, as asked by Rupiah, that he is telling lies. We say this because at no time did Hakainde, who our newspaper quoted accurately, ever refer to Rupiah, ever call Rupiah “a dog”. What Hakainde said was that “if they go along this line of hooliganism Rupiah Banda will be chased like a dog in 2011”. This is certainly not equivalent to calling Rupiah a dog. It’s difficult to understand how any honest person can interpret this as having called Rupiah a dog.

Rupiah says in the Zambian Christian society one could not call someone older than them derogatory names. But he goes on to call Hakainde’s father a dog. Is this really the best way for a head of state to respond to attacks or even insults?

It’s clear to all that there are serious deficiencies in Rupiah’s character that make him ill-suited to be President. Rupiah should not even complain about insults, about abusive language because he has been very abusive of others. Rupiah has called Michael Sata a snake with a red tongue and eyes. He has called us queer, morbid and all sorts of things. Rupiah has lied about us in so many ways. He has accused us of having sick minds and of peddling pornography.

He has accused us of theft of US$ 30 million from state institutions. All things he has no slightest proof of other than simple malice. Last week, Rupiah was referring to Fr Frank Bwalya as a mad man, and those who criticised him for wearing a white beret at this year’s Kuomboka ceremony as amambala. Is this the language of a statesman, of a President, of one who wants to be respected and not to be insulted?

Rupiah’s language is bad and shows lack of good manners and unculturedness in so many ways. It is therefore strange for Rupiah to complain about being insulted, let alone when no one has insulted him. Doesn’t Rupiah know something about the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto to you.”

This is the ultimate norm of high morality in our culture and in our Christian faith. Sure, there are other morals by which we live, but this one phrase embodies our most cherished value: that we should treat people as we would like to be treated. We are taught it from childhood. And we believe that Rupiah was also taught this from childhood. We learn it from our parents. We learn it at school.

But more than any other place, we learn it in our churches because it comes straight from the Bible. Found in Matthew, chapter 7 verse 12, it is in essence a summation of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes from Christ’s teaching. If you don’t want to be reaped off, don’t reap off others. If you don’t want to be insulted, don’t insult others. If you don’t want abusive language, don’t use it on others.

If you don’t want to be judged, don’t judge. If you don’t want your spouse to cheat on you, don’t cheat on your spouse. If you want respect from your fellow citizens, respect yourself and others. Now it’s true we don’t abide by the Golden Rule. We often hurt others in ways we would not like perpetrated against us. Some of life’s hardest lessons are actually reminders that we have treated another in a way we would hate to be treated ourselves.

If Rupiah wants to be the defender of respect for others in this country, he himself must never disrespect others, must never insult others – even if it means insulting back. If Rupiah is being insulted, it is clear that the insults and abuses he is showering at others are the very insults and abuses he wishes others to shower unto himself.

If Rupiah himself is insulting others, how can he convince others not to insult, not to be abusive? How can he convince others to believe him when he says he is against insults? Rupiah is doing things to others that he would not want them to do to him, then how can any of us believe him when he denounces insults? Either he is a liar, and we should simply ignore him; or others should be allowed to do to him as he is doing to them. This will be in line with the Golden Rule.

It is clear, of late, that we are drifting towards a nation of insults and abuse, and leading that process is no other than Rupiah himself. Rupiah is the champion of insults and abusive language. He would win an Olympic medal in this. We must put a stop to this culture of impudence because there are consequences for all that we do in our lives. We cannot have a President insulting citizens and expect the presidency not to be insulted or to be respected.

Again, Hakainde did not insult anybody; he was only laying bare his views with regard to the prevailing trend in our socio-political fabric. If you disagree with him, that’s alright, if you question the motive of his statement and want additional clarification that’s alright, but you just don’t gleefully insult him and his father simply because you don’t like him, you hate him, he’s a competitor for political office.

A nation where the political leadership has no respect for the ordinary citizen and can insult them at will thinking they will not insult back is drifting into social chaos.

We should always remember that we are not going to always agree on everything we say or do. However, we can disagree without those in power being insolent with tones of invectives on those who do not control the police and other law enforcement agencies. Rupiah and his friends should be able to ratiocinate on issues without insults and abuse.

We have now come to a stage where those in government, those in the ruling MMD are not competing over who has the highest thrill voice, with the most magnitude of ability to inflict pain with insults and abuse on those who are perceived to be critics or opponents of their government. Just over a week ago, Rupiah was without provocation calling us devils behind desks. What type of response was he expecting from us? Again, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

We shouldn’t allow ourselves to descend so low in our social and political discourse. If we want to progress in our social and political dispensation, let’s tolerate each other. This will enable us to live in peace to develop our beloved country Zambia. Democracy means we should together ratiocinate to come up with the best for our people.

Democracy does not mean we should be at each other’s throat with impudence. We can only solve our problems and deal with the main challenges we face and move forward if we are civil in the course of our discourse.

Labels: INSULTS, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 3:21 PM