Human rights defenders warn Mutharika against ‘careless’ talk

Human rights defenders have asked President Peter Mutharika to be cautious when talking to Malawians to avoid negative repercussions.

The defenders, who included Timothy Mtambo of Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), Gift Trapence of Centre for Development of the People (Cedep), Father Martin Kalimbe of the Anglican Church and John Phiri, a human rights lawyer, said this during a press conference held to respond to the President’s comments on homosexuality in Zomba on Sunday.

During a Talk to the President programme aired on Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC radio and TV) last week, Mutharika said the issues should be decided by Malawians suggesting he was for a referendum. He later told MBC that that he spoke in his personal capacity.

But Trapence told the media that human rights issues cannot be subjected to a referendum because they are not part of democratic principles.

“These are minority issues, as such you cannot call on the majority to decide the fate of the minority whose outcome is predictable. As someone who helped to draft the Constitution, Mutharika should be the last person to talk about referendum because he is knowledgeable about human rights issues,” he said.

Trapence accused the President of trying to divert Malawians’ attention on problems affecting the country such as hunger, shortage of forex and other economic problems by commenting on homosexuality.

Mtambo wondered why there is a tendency of propagating a populist agenda when a country is having economic problems. He further wondered how Malawians could make a distinction between a President as a person and as a leader of the country.

“In fact, that programme was about the President of a country not as an individual. As such, he was speaking as a President,” he said.