Ecclesiastes 3, in the Bible, tells us there is a time and season for everything and this applies also to the way we use language. Language can be used to adulate, educate or humiliate; it can be courteous, rough, curt or inspiring. We can use it to reach out or to rule out.
Some opposition leaders have chosen to use language, at a time of great distress, to flatter their egos, to pick a bone and prevent the whole truth from emerging. The Labour Party leader seems unable to digest the fact that he lost TWO general elections in a row and was personally rejected twice although he and his two fellow-candidates (2 ex-ministers) deserted No 5, once believed to be a Labour stronghold. Did he resign as Jeremy Corbyn did? Of course, NOT!
We are NOT at present in a pre-general-election situation but are pressed in on all sides by Covid-19 and a severe economic crisis but the L.P leader seems to believe that his cuckoo make-believe land is reality. Is it the time to talk of MAKARENA or SOORNAK? Certainly not. Consequently, innuendoes of the “LAKWIZINN” type are out of place.
Half-truths are also out of place. The Air Mauritius imbroglio is not due only to MSM mismanagement but also to the inability of several governments to do the needful. Let’s leave this to experts in the field but we should not forget “CARNET-RATION”, the generosity of the national airline to different political parties?
We may or may not like the people in power – the MSM and its allies – but we cannot deny that the present govenment is doing what has to be done to prevent further disaster. We were quick, and rightly so, to congratulate all front-line workers. I believe the present government should also be congratulated and that does not mean that we subscribe to its neoliberal capitalist ideology and links with far-right, fascist leaders.
The right use of language, according to the time and season, can open doors and allow leaders with different views, backgrounds and sensibilities to gather round a table to join forces and marshal all our energies to ‘fight’ a common enemy. When the pandemic has been driven out, then we can go back to our trenches and get organised to fight, in a civilised way, our opponents and show that we have better solutions to promote global development. Let’s only hope then that fundamental issues will not be overlooked: green development, food security, functional literacy, social justice and gender equality among others.
Genuine leaders who are not driven by bitterness and/or arrogance, are quick to undestand what the time and season are calling for. Self-seeking opportunists will be quickly found out and dealt with.
A TIME FOR EVERYTHING
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
… a time for war and a time for peace.
24.04.20