Emily Mkamanga

Facing a new version of atrocities

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) is the oldest political party in the country. After losing elections in 1994, the party was ridiculed and humiliated but it never lost hope. With the euphoria of democracy, most Malawians were of the view that the country had done away with MCP forever. Public opinion seemed to indicate that the era of MCP had come to an end. To prove such people wrong, and to the surprise of many, MCP has regrouped and survived. It is now a strong party and a force to reckon with. It is a good example that despite being out of power for 25 years, it has not disintegrated like other parties, such as Peoples Party (PP) and United Democratic Front (UDF) which are now out of power.

Af t e r a t t a i n i n g democracy, people in Malawi were happy that there will be no more dictatorship atrocities. Little did they know that in a democracy they were to face another version of atrocities, which are just as life-threatening.

Meanwhile, it is a fact that MCP rule could pride itself about booming economy in addition to a hardworking, trusted and disciplined civil service which was also paid on time. Hospitals had enough medicines and, above all, electricity supply was 24/7. This is unlike the situation in the President Peter Mutharika government. There is no economic freedom due to laxity of the leadership.

In fact, all democratic leaders seem to have had no idea about how to proceed after the dictatorship. Their laxity is what has created another version of atrocities. To start with, the once booming economy that Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda used to talk about has continuously been going down. At the moment, there is no economy worth talking about. The government is just splitting hairs trying to prove that the economy is getting better. They base their argument on the reduced inflation, which regrettably, has so far, no impact on the poor masses.

Currently, the public b r o a d c a s t er MBC, h a s p r o g r a m m e s h i g h l i g h t i n g t h e a t r o c i t i e s d u r i n g Kamuzu’s era. For reasons best known to this media house, i t seems to ignore atrocities happening this time round. It is painting a wrong picture that Malawians are no longer suffering.

One cannot talk about atrocities now without looking at the causes. The much talked about corruption and stealing of government resources, as if there is no leadership, has destroyed the country. Due to having no clue about controlling corruption, those people in the corridors of power seem to have joined the band wagon of converting public resources into personal fortunes. The end result is that ordinary Malawians are suffering.

There is now severe shortage of electricity and loadshedding is indeed life-threatening. It is not a secret that so many lives have been lost in hospitals due to lack of power to run life support machines. This is in addi t ion to severe shortages of medicines and water supply. Furthermore, patients in government hospitals even sleep on the floor. As if this is not bad enough, due to lack of security, people are being attacked and killed.

Sadly, people with albinism are systematically being killed for their body parts. Their elimination is of a global concern as some international o r g a n i s a t i o n s h a v e appealed to President M u t h a r i ka f o r t h e protection of people with albinism. Government seems to have no solution to protect them. In this country, it is now everyone for himself. Then, why have a President and a Government, people may wonder.

If what are stated above are not atrocities, then what are they? It is no use narrating only the MCP dictatorship atrocities. They are not a solution to the current problems in Malawi. If the idea is to discredit MCP, every sensible person should blame the mismanagement of the economy which is about to bring MCP back into power.

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