MATTERS OF SEDITION: FACEBOOK IS DOING JOYCE BANDA A DISSERVICE

Patriots Forum has noted with concern that there are other citizens of this beautiful country who choose to disregard the Head of State by calling her names and profaning her in despicable manner to say the least.

The height of these insults was evident on January 8, 2013 on a popular Facebook forum, My Malawi My Views after one member posted an article that puts Joyce Banda in bad light as a person, parent and Head of State. We still fail to understand why the post had to attract over a 100 comments before it was taken down either by the administrators or the one who posted it.   

In the midst of what we call “unnecessary and irrelevant post” one wise Malawian named Verson James Sonani posted on his timeline that;

JOYCE BANDA. is a human being like any
other, with strength and weakness.
However there must be discretion on
what, where and how we say. if we may
ask any contemporary figure to our
angelic parents, to explain what they did
in the past, l believe we would not want
to hear such deeds. Nevertheless we
love, protect and respect them because
of what God has made them to be to us.
and we cant change that. LETS RESPECT
OUR MOTHER PRESIDENT

The above is the kind of mindset we would love to see among all progressive Malawians. Though we exist in a pluralistic political sphere, we cherish wisdom at all times. The use of civilized and decent language in deliberating matters in the political arena is of paramount importance if we are to positively forge ahead as a nation.

Some of these insults are surely filtering through to the State House such that sometime last week President Joyce Banda had to remind us by quoting Romans 13:1-2 in a bid to bring us back on track.

The quoted scriptures read "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. ² Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves"

Are we sure we are going to wait for the Head of State to remind us of our moral obligation to treat elders with dignity?

If people can gather courage and say stupid things towards the Head of State it just reflects how rotten our society is getting morally and we need a very deep reflection.

Cognizant of the fact that we are a God fearing nation, our underlying values should always reflect in what we do and say in our homes, communities and various forums where we operate from.

Who in their wisdom find comfort in insulting a 63-year old woman who was chosen by God to lead a country?

As we shape our frontiers towards a better Malawi, an important ingredient is that of refraining from foul language towards those that hold different views and affiliations to ours.

Besides being a moral obligation to respect Joyce Banda, the constitution also espouses the need to treat her with utmost dignity failure which charges of sedition are justifiably brought forward.

Need we a reminder that those who insult the President of the land are arrested, charged and tried in accordance to the law?

How does one justify an attack on the President just because we are using the social media? Do we hide our dark side behind Facebook or Twitter just because we cannot easily be traced? What about one’s own conscious before they utter such ridiculous statements?

We might have different versions of what President Joyce Banda is to our society since her birth but we cannot surely use foul language in order to nurse our filthy egos.

Having said that, an argument will be raised to say the insults emanate from both sides of the political divide and in this case it is the PP and DPP cadres exchanging fire. Patriots Forum has observed that this is true and due to the focus of this post we would like to urge those who support Joyce Banda to equally refrain from profane attacks on other politicians.

As a forum, we believe it’s high time our government, through Parliament, looked into this matter critically. Let us have proper legislation in place to curb this cyber bullying towards the Head of State.

We believe those who really love the President will not conduct themselves in such a way that will draw irreverent feedback towards their leader. Insulting other political leaders is bringing our Head of State into such tit-for-tat behavior resulting in people taking away her dignity and the decorum of her office.

Let us remain civilized always.

We remain, Patriots Forum.