By Martins Agbonlahor
Photos: Wikimedia Commons\YouTube Screenshots
If altruism and doing good causes could keep death at bay, Sebastian Piñera, ex-president of Chile, who was the very epitome of these virtues, would today be alive, attending to the betterment of his Chilean people. But alas, this is not the case, as Death, the grim reaper, prowled stealthily around his abode recently and eventually bared its bloody fangs on Tuesday, 6 February, 2024 when Piñera died in a tragic helicopter crash.
Now, this gentleman is no more.
I knew him only by reputation, judging by one of the many lofty deeds he performed while in office. And I fell in love with him.
This was in October 2010, during my brief residency in Turin, Italy. Thirty three (33) Chilean miners had been trapped for two months under the rocks in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Upon hearing this, Piñera cancelled all important engagements and foreign trips that had already been scheduled, took the bull by the horns and spearheaded relief efforts, ensuring that these miners were rescued. And indeed, they came out alive and well.
I found myself in a somber mood as this event was unfolding live on TV, knowing that most elected politicians in underdeveloped or “developing” countries, so-called, were notorious for neglecting the plight of their electorates, avoiding the responsibility of leadership, plundering their nations’ treasuries, and carving out private fiefdoms for themselves and their privileged families.
With the last miner released on 14 October, and his regime, receiving accolades the world over, President Piñera remained humble. Of course, some spineless politicians and other megalomaniacs would have bloated with vain pride and walked with chests thrown out. But not President Piñera. He only gave a speech, a simple speech that was nonetheless, seductively gripping with magnetism. Hear him: “When people think of Chile, they would not remember the ugly past and coup days of Augusto Pinochet, but their hearts will be captured by the unity, the commitment that we have all shown towards rescuing our fellow citizens. This is what governance and accountability is all about.”
How true, indeed.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, President Piñera again, displayed his selflessness as a leader, by ensuring his country had a huge stockpile of medical supplies to support his citizens – and with almost 80% vaccinated – he stood tall, dwarfing other Latin American countries in this regard. No wonder, Chile was at that time, labelled “The Vaccination Champion of Latin America.”
In declaring a three-day national mourning for the deceased leader, the current president and ex-student leader, Gabriel Boric, lamented that the late ex-president will be sorely missed. He also praised his “crisis management skills,” calling him a democrat who “genuinely sought what was the best for the country.”
The nitty-gritty of this whole discourse is not far-fetched: Elected leaders must not allow themselves to be utterly consumed by the perquisites of office. They must also know that the office comes with responsibility.
While President Piñera was engaging in laudable programmes aimed at truncating or totally eliminating the dreaded virus, his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro, was going round in circles and swaying haughtily in being referred to as the “Trump of the Tropics,” even as his country decayed away.
In fact, there were times Bolsonaro’s arrogance veered towards lunacy, when he resorted to calling the dreaded virus “an ordinary flu,” and the need for vaccinations, a “conspiracy theory:” views I find not only galling but repugnant. No wonder the virus claimed over seventy thousand (70,000) of his co-nationals, the highest in Latin America.
The ex-Brazilian President also had an ally in late President John Magufuli of Tanzania, who regarded himself as the ‘Bulldozer,’ brooking no opposition and taking no correction from anyone. Rather than engage in preventive measures and save his people who were dying in droves from the virus, he resorted to perambulating up and down the local Pentecostal churches, urging worshipers to have faith in “Jesus who has power to burn out all viruses.”
He once proclaimed Tanzania “totally free of coronavirus,” and rebuffed recommendations from the international community. However, when health workers decried the spiraling infection rates, they – these health officials – were denigrated as being “bankrolled by imperialists.”
This is the situation we find ourselves in Africa and other underdeveloped countries replete with official graft and corruption, official rumor mongering, irresponsible leadership, theft of public funds, and filth and degeneracy, so much so that if one elected leader were to stand upright, it behooves us to applaud them and at the same time, speak some unmitigated truth to their ilk, who are corrupted by absolute power and still wallowing in a pool of vices.
Whilst there is no utopian government the world over, as ex-President Piñera, himself, had been accused by his critics of “suppressing riots” during his second tenure in office, all that this writer is saying is that he proved while on Mother Earth, that he loved his people and stood staunchly by them in perilous moments.
The Latin intellectual, Publilius Syrus, wrote many years ago, that “Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. But anyone who holds the helm in moments of turbulence is the master.”
You are indeed, the master, Sebastian Piñera.
Rest in Peace!
Martins Agbonlahor is a trained lawyer, journalist and author. He resides in Greater Manchester, The United Kingdom.
Author’s website: https://www.martinsagbonlahor.com
