When puppet masters flee
On a day like this last year, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) reclaimed the government from the ill-fated and clumsy leadership of the People’s Party. In between, DPP has frustrated some, infuriated others, pleased a few, but, largely, it has kept the nation entertained with its farcical attempts to claim the moral higher ground.
In that period, the DPP once tried to pull wool over our eyes by promoting a pretentious austerity agenda that flew right in their faces. First, word leaked out that President Peter Mutharika, like Julius Caesar when he was offered the crown, had declined to pick up a few hundred kwacha in salary increments and had deferred his and his deputy’s increments until when the economy picks up.
Not content with the opprobrium they had earned over that farce, they peddled this farfetched lie about Mutharika rejecting the demands from his ministers to increase their salaries. The ruse was meant to placate irate public officers who were up in arms over salary hikes. The reasoning was that if the president could rebuff his lieutenants the civil servants no better than them.
Now, chances are, by the time you are reading this, the latest act in the DPP’s repertoire of comedy has just played itself out, all in its attempts to sustain a morality discourse that is hollow as it is shallow.
We have been told, rather incredulously, that Ben Phiri, Mutharika’s special assistant and advisor, known as the prime minister and the power behind the throne, threw in the towel on Monday due to accusations of a lifestyle change consistent with corruption.
In a manner that eerily evoked the inimitable Joe Manduwa, Phiri challenged investigative bodies to search him from head to toe for evidence of financial impropriety.
Thank you, DPP, for keeping us entertained but no thanks. As with the other two, this one won’t wash.
You see, Phiri’s letter of resignation was addressed to Mutharika — from servant to master — but the PR machine at State House makes us believe that my grandmother in Karonga knew about that matter before the President got hold of the letter. And when finally they knew of the letter, they still rejected it ostensibly because of an administrative error which, in his self-righteous rush to sit on the correct side of morality, Phiri had overlooked.
These DPP antics have become tedious like listening to a monotonous tune in the middle of the night. The presidential salary was one lie that needed no reprise. The ministers’ salary ruse was overkill. Phiri’s action was one PR stunt gone bad.
What Phiri has done is like someone announcing they are dead so they can see who will mourn for them or celebrate on their grave.
Phiri’s resignation is part of a long-running battle of wits he has engaged in with his former brother-in-arms, Allan Ntata, who has made it his avowed drive to bring down the presidential special assistant. That we have allowed a private vendetta between the two to play out on the national stage is a sad indictment of how gossip has become the means by which this country is governed.
Wrong date or no wrong date, if government were sincere it should have let him go; retaining him under the circumstances over which he wanted to resign reflects badly on the government. It should have let him take that walk of shame, institute investigations and if he is as clean as a whistle, restore him to his glory.
Having around such a man who has lingering excessive baggage will have some imagining about what else that has been said about him requires further investigation. But why have I tasked you with reading this dross? It didn’t make sense when he resigned, it doesn’t now. n
