Here comes Shao

Muckraker has always known that Shao’s entry into politics will cause commotion. Look now as some people run helter-skelter to either discredit or block him.

Some are losing their heads as they try to explain why Shao should not be allowed to contest the election.

Most of the reasons for the hostility to Shao are either embarrassingly illogical or feeble. You see this skewed reasoning in a recent legal attempt to block Shao’s candidacy.

The case has been filed by some group calling itself the Christian Advocates and Ambassadors’ Association.

Even dimwits would conjure better legal arguments than what the group has concocted in its application. They say Shao cannot speak Sesotho or English fluently.

Hear, hear… hear. Most of the MPs in the last parliament could not utter a single English sentence to save their lives.

Many cannot read or write in Sesotho.

Most are functionally illiterate. Dozens are unable to spell their names under pressure.

You can bet your last coin that it will be the same crew in the next parliament.

Muckraker knows ministers who have nightmares a day before they read a speech in either Sesotho or English.

You know them too.

Those that shock you with their mumbling every time they read something.

The ones who fumble through their speeches as if their bladders are about to open like Katse Dam’s gates. Muckraker admits that Shao’s English and Sesotho are not up to scratch.

But since when has that ever mattered to the Chinese in Lesotho?

He has been communicating with Basotho for years and they understand him.

The MEC didn’t need him to understand English or Sesotho when they were asking him for money.

They probably knocked on his door and said: “Party want money. Please give.”

He understood and asked: “So me give money and party give hat?”

The MEC said: “Maybe tender if win”.

Shao: “Its gudaguda. I take promise tender and give money. You no cheat me, otherwise fight fight start.”

They understood each other and the deal was done.

In any case, the people of Ha Tsolo are not complaining about his lack of fluency in English or Sesotho.

They know at some point he is going to run out of Sesotho or English words and say: “Ua utloa!”

It is hilarious that this language issue is being raised by lawyers.

These are people who cannot greet in Latin but like to sprinkle their court papers and legal arguments with that dead language.

Pretending to be smart and educated spitting phrases from a language you can only find in a museum.

Nyoe, nyoe, nyoe ex parte. Nyoe, nyoe, nyoe pro bono.

Blah, blah, habeas corpus. Locus standi, nyoe nyoe.

Nyoe, nyoe, mutatis mutandis.

Blah, blah ad infinitum.

Yet you cannot say I am hungry or pressed in Latin.

Get out of here!

The issue here is that Shao is Chinese and some people don’t like the idea of a Chinese being an MP in Lesotho.

But they are fighting an idea whose time is about to arrive. Shao might not win the election but the next Chinese might.

Nka! Ichuuuuuuuuuuu!

muckraker.post@gmail.com