Being an MP does not make you honourable, only your conduct does

NAIROBI: What we truly think of you often rests undisturbed, at the soft centre of our hearts. It is all right if you want us to fawn before you. You want us to refer to you by sundry honorifics and praise tags. You are Honourable Such and Such, or Your Excellency Somebody Else. It is in order for us to refer to you by such titles, if that makes you happy. In the end, however, my true feelings about you rest deep inside, in my inviolable soul. When I first meet you, I naturally hold you in honour. It is up to you to make me continue holding you in that regard.

If you so desire, and you have the capacity, you could legislate as much as you wish about the fancy titles you want me to refer to you by. And I will, if that is the law. But that does not make you any one those lavish things that you want us to call you. If I don’t feel it in the soft centre of my heart, then it is not there. Your fancied honour is a mere formation of words. Being a Member of Parliament alone does not, for example, make you honourable. Your deportment and overall conduct do.