Dear Editor
The day we waited for with a lot of hope has come and gone; the days are back to normal.
A few weeks ago, Botswana newspapers made headlines that were dominated by Malaysian students’ misfortunes, misbehaviours and all sorts of unethical and immoral practices that you can think of. Though I was concerned about the misrepresentations of these issues, for a minute I thought that the media was really keen to report on issues that concerned us.
Hell no! I was wrong.
As the President of the Student Representative Council (S.R.C) in Asia Pacific Institute of Innovation Technology (A.P.I.I.T), I wish to express my grave disappointment with Botswana media on behalf of the student body. Like I have said, Mmegi, The Voice, Sunday Standard…you name it, have managed to send tongues wagging in all corners of Botswana about how we abuse alcohol, hire cars and get ourselves killed in car accidents and went to the extent of making unfounded allegations that the two students who fell from buildings were committing suicide!
The truth of the matter is that these misfortunes were never investigated which makes it irresponsible and ridiculous for our media to make such reports more especially considering the distance that we are from our parents. There is no doubt such reports left our parents traumatized.
When the Minister of Education (Rre Nkate) and his delegation visited Malaysia, we believed that after causing such panic back home, the media would ensure that they got first hand information by accompanying the minister. We had every reason to believe so, besides, they gave us that hope by consistently speculating and making assumptions on our welfare. We regret the way we misled ourselves as not even a single journalist was available for us to share our miseries with. There was complete media blackout! We wish to distance ourselves from any reports that the media will claim has been sourced from Batswana students studying in Malaysia.
Simisani Kelaotswe
A.P.I.I.T S.R.C President (Malaysia)
