November 28 2024-11-28
Dear Diary,
I
t is another hot day here at the Munda wa Chitedze Farm. So hot that some people are walking about literally naked. Literally.
Once, they say, is a happenstance. Twice is a coincidence. But, is it a coincidence that panga-wielding thugs have been on the street to disrupt peaceful demonstrations against some societal ills.
The societal ills are way too much, that to think some can wield machetes to mute voices is unfathomable and deplorable to say the least!
There are issues on the registration exercise which the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) is conducting. Opposition parties felt the MEC chair Annabel Mtalimanja, chief elections officer Andrew Mpesi and National Registration Bureau (NRB) principal secretary Mphatso Sambo over several concerns.
When they went on the street, they met panga-wielding gangsters.
Dear Diary, when the pangas appeared in Lilongwe, President Lazarus Chakwera was on a whistlestop tour to Mchinji or some other districts. You can’t keep track of his movements because they are way too many, more like Siku Transports catchline: Here today, there tomorrow.
The point is, wherever he was, the logical thing he could have done was denounce the gangsters there and then, whether they were sent by his blue-eyed boys or not.
By maintaining silence, the President shows he is not against these barbaric acts. Under police escort, the bandits went about sporting blades of wrath. That is a total declaration of war and Chakwera should have been the first to speak against these barbaric acts.
Just like that. When the Centre for Democracy and Development Initiatives (Cdedi) also organised demonstrations calling for the heads of Energy Minister Ibrahim Matola and Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority director Henry Kachaje, the pangas came out, again.
This time, the police were not just watching as they did during the first disruption, they were firing teargas at the demonstrators. They were acting on the same side as the ruffians.
All this is worrisome. Chakwera should have had a heart to note that all this is uncalled for. Former presidents Bakili Muluzi, Joyce Banda and Peter Mutharika have written him to rebuke his stogies but he has played a blind eye.
Civil society organisations and diplomats have spoken against this archaic type of politicking, but he has not listened.
With an air of executive arrogance, he has conducted himself in self-styled ‘business as usual’ manner. His business is about galavanting and attending every other unnecessary launch or graduation ceremony.
This is where our Lazarus became a Jonah. Instead of being the Moses who bore the voice of God and told the Pharaoh Ramses II to let His people go, our Lazarus has become a Jonah that forsook the calling to preach at Joppa and opted to get on board a ship to Nineveh.
Now the story of Jonah has a rather funny twist. Aboard that ship, the tidal waves rose and everyone was fearful death was on its way. All this while Jonah was asleep in a secure deck.
But after the lots, Jonah was thrown out and swallowed by that fish. Whether the fish was chambo, batala or bonya, we don’t know but what we are sure of here at the Munda wa Chitedze is that the sea returned to calm when Jonah was in the belly for three days and three nights.
As Malawians are going through turbulent times and waves are raging high, it is clear that our Lazarus is just another Jonah waiting to travel safely in the belly of a fish to preach the Gospel where the need is.
