K2m a month for Blantyre Police, really?

Honourable Folks, in a year of elections, it may be understandable why JB wants to erect tombstones for those butchered during the July 20 2011 demonstrations.

It’s a gesture that rubs in the evils of DPP, the major rival to the President’s own PP. Coming hot on the heels of the revelation that the late Bingu wa Mutharika used his eight years in office to amass billions from our poor economy, the idea of tombstones may prove to be the killer-punch, at least in the minds of the victims’ relatives and civil society organisations that organised the demonstration.

But her involvement of the Tourism Department in her politically-correct project indicates she wants to score political credits with taxpayers’ money. Nothing wrong maybe if it wasn’t done at the expense of the same taxpayer.

But the timing betrays a worrying trend that may boomerang on JB herself. Just where in government is the money for erecting tombstones going to come from when the same government is failing to allocate adequate resources to the police to protect our lives and property?

It transpired at a community policing meeting in Blantyre last week Thursday that the police there had their budget estimates slashed by 80 percent in the 2013/14 national budget which MPs passed only a month ago.

This translates into the entire Blantyre Police Station, with four sub-stations and over half a dozen units, to operate on a budget of K2 million a month! Consequently, we are told, there is an allocation of a litre a day for the 4×4 Toyota Land Cruisers meant to rush them to crime scenes in the hour of need.

Shouldn’t JB rush in to protect the living so they can vote for her next year instead of prioritising on tombstones?

We all hope the gross underfunding of police operations is unique to Blantyre—the country’s commercial capital. City CEO Ted Nandolo said at a funeral of a Chinese investor Zhoe Feng, shot dead by armed criminals who attacked his business premises at Mapanga, that the council would provide fuel for police patrols.

I also know that city residents in some neighbourhoods support police night patrols with fuel and other small tools such as torches. Rather than surrendering our beautiful city to thugs, I believe the revelation that Blantyre police operates on a meagre K2 million budget will strengthen the resolve of city residents to support our police.

But Malawi is much bigger than Blantyre and, except for Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba, other districts aren’t as endowed as Blantyre. I, therefore, shudder to imagine what becomes of law enforcement and protection of life and property if police in remote parts of the country such as Nsanje, Phalombe, Ntchisi, Salima, Chitipa and Nkhata Bay are operating on budgets that are 80 percent less than their projected budgets.

I may not have the statistics, but in my home area’s business activities are concentrated at the trading centre where there is a police unit. Cases of armed robbery scare people from investing in grocery shops, maize mills or sizeable animal husbandry deep in the villages as was the case in the days of Kamuzu. This only serves to show the importance of security to any type of investment, big or small.

Frankly speaking, the least the taxpayer expects of their government is using the tax money to provide adequate security. Malawi seems to be operating in reverse.

While police in Blantyre are walking to crime scenes, the MPs who passed the budget have pushed for over 80 percent increase in their allowances (including a 100 percent hike in sitting allowance), the judges want more fuel, more vehicles including the Mercedes Benz; ministers have maintained their 1 000 litre fuel allocation a month despite that their houses are minutes away from their offices at the Capital Hill and the President’s travel budget has been doubled.

Why should the common interests of us, who pay tax, play second fiddle to the greed for comfort and luxury of the people we entrust with power?