Where was the President in all this?

It is nearly a week since President Peter Mutharika touched down at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) in Lilongwe welcomed by a multitude of Malawians, the likes that were last seen on the day his brother, late Bingu, came back home accompanied by the South African Defence Force personnel.

Unlike that dark April morning, party supporters and DPP morale cadets alike were confident their leader was not coming back in a beautiful casket, but ‘101% fit’ as one T-shirt at the airport read.

Now, all indications are that the T-shirt lied to us, the party lied to its supporters and even the President himself was dishonest.

Sunday, October 16 was like April 5 2012 again. A lot of information was being kept from Malawians, and is probably still being hidden from them. Is it any wonder that citizens were on the lookout for clandestine activities surrounding the President’s return? It was after all a case of once bitten twice shy. Or put more aptly ‘fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.’

Malawians laid to rest a near decomposed body in 2012 because of playing politics with a leader’s health. It was sheer lunacy on the part of those who surround the President to believe for even a second that Malawians would not see for themselves the odd happenings of last Sunday.

In fact, the President himself should have known better. Where was he when the decision was made for his return? Since when has the President paid attention to ultimatums and summons? He has made it clear on more than one occassions, banging the table to that effect, which he does not like to be ordered around. Who are these individuals who successfully convinced the President to return at the demand of civil society organisations and one which is a thorn in his flesh, the Public Affairs Committee?

Even before he became president, APM was well known for brushing aside ‘small’ problems like academic freedom saga, which resulted in the closure of Chancellor College for nearly two semesters. During that period, he simply disappeared to the US for almost two months.

This time around one would have expected him to scoff at the demands to curtail his trip to US. Or at the very least issue a press release to tell Malawians ‘the Vice-President is in charge, I am on a well deserved leave.’

But this did not happen. The President, who we all thought was all powerful in the government and political scheme of things became complicit in a poorly executed and unsuccessful attempt at proving a point. Even when he really did not have to do much, save for a picture of him lounging in a comfy chair sipping coffee.

Instead, he allowed to be bundled into a chartered plane to travel over 4 000 kilometres to prove something, unsuccessfully.

Where was the President when Minister of Information Malison was blundering all over the airwaves? Where was the President when someone in his office confirmed that he would be the first to receive the national Identity Document only to backtrack on the day before?

It is even stranger that the President was not aware that Malawians, and the media, expected to hear his voice before he was unceremoniously bundled into his vehicle. Even a ‘DPP woyee’ would sufficed to erase the lines of anxiety on the faces of those who noted the left hand handshakes.

But the President did none of this. He left his people to their own devices, social media erupted. When this happens, one of two things happen: Nothing much or no good. n