Maravi

What's the truth about Michael's India visit?

What's the truth about Michael's India visit?
By The Post
Sun 25 Mar. 2012, 13:00 CAT

IT seems that some government officials never learn that the cover-up can be worse than the underlying conduct.There is no need to surround Michael Sata's so-called private visit to India with so much secrecy. No one should be able to pull the curtains of secrecy around issues that can be revealed without injury.

If Michael has private business in India to attend to, let the people know what that private business is because Michael is not a private citizen, he is president of the Republic.

And there is no way Michael can leave this country for days without the Zambian people knowing where he has really gone and what he is doing there. And this is why even on a private visit, the Zambian taxpayer is meeting his bill. Where there is secrecy, speculation sets in.

And the Zambian people are justified in speculating about Michael's trip to India. What is it that should be so private and so secret about the president's visit to India? Is he on holiday? If he is on holiday, what is it that should be a secret about the president taking a holiday? If he is not well and he has gone for medical check-up or treatment, what is difficult about telling the Zambian people the truth?

Moreover, when so much is secret, secrecy is not respected and people start speculating. And there is a chain reaction to this because speculation leads to more speculation, counter-speculation.

The people of Zambia have the right to know the state of their president's health. If he is not well, the nation has a duty to pray for him and wish him well and give him and his family all the support they need. Our people have adequately demonstrated that they are a caring people, a loving people, a grateful people to those who serve them. We saw this during the period of Levy Mwanawasa's illness and death.

The main speculation today is that the president is not well and he has gone to India for treatment. We don't know what the truth is but all truths begin as hearsay. When the Zambian people hear all these things being said about their President, anxiety sets in. We shouldn't forget that this is a people that lost a president whose popularity was on the rise and any speculation in this direction revives those sad, painful memories and despair may set in.

It's better to tell our people the truth. The government has given very little information on the president's trip to India other than saying it's private and that he is accompanied by his wife. In this situation privacy is not a right, it may be a preference but certainly not a right. And silence blurs more truth than it reveals. However, it shouldn't be forgotten that silence remains, inescapable, a form of speech. Silence may be as variously shaded as speech.

There is need to give the Zambian people more information about the president's private visit to India. There is also need for the government to come up with a clear and truthful statement about the President's health so that all this speculation is ended.

Without that, speculation about his health will escalate and may cause more harm than the silence that they have maintained over this issue. The health of the president is a public issue. Moreover, the speculations about the president's health have a background anchored on the heart problem he had a few years ago when he had to be evacuated to South Africa for treatment.

Of course, there are some vultures, jackals, hyenas that are so much in a hurry, are so impatient and want to scavenge on the rumours or speculations about the president's health. There are some evil people in the political arena who wish him dead.

And information about his health, if it's bad, may be political cannon fodder in their hands. But the government's conduct shouldn't be dictated by such elements. When the truth is fully out there, these evil people will not be able to use it in a detrimental way because the people will know the truth and will support the man who just a few months ago they voted for overwhelmingly. There is nobody who doesn't fall ill.

So there is nothing strange in Michael not being well. All human beings are terminally ill and it's just a matter of time before things come to an end for each one of us.

But there is need for civility in our politics. Our multiparty politics is not a contest for survival, it is simply a competition to serve for which no one should be wished dead or killed. If it was left to these elements, if Michael's life was in their hands, he wouldn't have been able to contest last year's election.

After that heart problem, they had written him off and were positioning themselves to take over whatever political support he had. They manoeuvred in all sorts of ways to position themselves for that big harvest of Michael's political support. But they are not the creators and Michael survived against their wishes to win the election.

They are not satisfied, they are still looking and hoping for a presidential by-election. They have no patience to wait for 2016.

But Michael's life is not in their hands, is not even in his own hands. Probably they may need to do a deal with Michael's Creator for him to disappear quickly so that they can take over!

Let our politics be based on love for one another. Let us place a high value on every life, including that of Michael.

In saying this, we are not in any way trying to stop decent discourse about Michael's private visit to India. This is a matter that deserves discussion.

People are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely and truthfully. People should be free to speculate in the absence of adequate information. After all that is what secrecy leads to - speculation.

Labels: HEALTHCARE, INDIA, MICHAEL SATA

posted by MrK @ 8:20 AM