Beware of ‘Rasputin’
Accomplished Malawian writer Sam Mpasu reminds one in The Lamp of one of the most mysterious and dark individuals in Russian history, Grigori Rasputin.
Rasputin, a wondering and semi-illiterate peasant, left his village for the capital and ended up in the royal family of Nicholas II and Aleksandra, the last Tsar and Tsarina of Imperial Russia.
The royal couple loved clairvoyant Rasputin as he, through his mystical powers, was treating their sickly fifth child and only son Alexis. Alexis had life-threatening haemophilia.
The royal family was always looking for miracle cures for their son’s illness which was a closely guarded secret.
But Rasputin overreached himself and eventually exerted a powerful influence over Aleksandra, who had tremendous influence on Nicholas II.
For instance, he charged inflated fees for services and used his position to sideline anyone in government or public office who challenged him.
Despite having already survived a number of assassination attempts, Rasputin one night was lured into a trap by one Prince Felix and three other plotters, including a member of parliament and the Tsar’s cousin.
When poison failed to work, he was shot at close range and was left for dead. He managed to crawl away but was subsequently gunned down and his body was thrown into the river.
The public went into celebrations save the Tsarina who was so inconsolable at his death that the Tsar exiled the conspirators.
But it was too late to repair the damage Rasputin had done. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 came. The monarchy was abolished. Nicholas II himself was forced to abdicate and in July 1918 the whole imperial family was shot in the cellar of their prison.
An ignorant, semi-illiterate man changed the destiny and history of Russia without holding any formal office.
In Malawi, every new government while trying to dismantle the one before it is bent on repeating the same mistakes.
While every Peter Mutharika’s predecessor had the Cabinet as their official and constitutional advisory organ, they all once ignored these official organs and swallowed their ‘Rasputin’s’ diktats hook, line and sinker.
Hastings Kamuzu Banda dismissed, arrested and exiled ministers, party officials and even academics at the instigation of his ‘Rasputins’.
Bingu wa Mutharika and Bakili Muluzi aroused the anger and disapproval of many Malawians due to their eagerness in allowing themselves to be influenced by one or two ‘Rasputins’ without good reason.
Ruling under the shadow of her ‘Rasputins’, Joyce Banda presided over theft of highest degree the country has never witnessed. She seems scared at the mention of Malawi and has opted to hobble from one shelter to the other across the globe.
To be fair, the present Mutharika, particularly owing to his personality, has brought significant change in configuration of the underlying political dynamics. He has blown away fire-fighting politics by not trying to take government into a criticism-free insulated bubble.
However, the news that the Lilongwe house of his special assistant Ben Phiri is being accorded State House security—a development which some observers say is abnormal—should be cause for worry to both the President and the public.
Mutharika was last year given mandate to govern and steer this country to social, economic and political transformations using his official vast resources of knowledge, experience and expertise at his disposal.
But if the special treatment Phiri gets from government in truth indicates that he is slowly turning into a recurrent presidential ‘Rasputin’ curse, then the costs on Mutharika’s administration are dire.
It is high time Mutharika were worry of ‘Rasputin’ and knew that a hawk that walks around with chickens forgets to fly.
