Leadership on trial

There are some decisions and viewpoints regarding the response to killings of persons with albinism which should not go unchallenged. 

Government has combined unproductive meetings about the prevailing attacks on persons with albinism, with a commission of inquiry sworn in and sternly warned against political interference.

This warning is not only strange. It betrays a lot about people in high places and creates doubt if we can even trust in its success. 

I wonder how a high profile commission such as this can be tampered with.

To me, a commission of inquiry is the surest way of burying the issue, a political strategy to obtain legitimacy for closure even while all the evil being investigated continues.

I am unaware of any State-sponsored inquiry whose recommendations were ever followed up. In this country, such commissions have been ploys for cover-ups used with 100 percent success since 1994.

I just learnt that a meeting with the Association of Persons with Albinism in Malawi (Apam) is still on the cards.

Clearly, government is not ashamed that people hunted for their parts in the ongoing satanic ritualists were rounded up, beaten and incarcerated by the police for seeking to highlight their plight and human rights.

Vice-President Saulos Chilima was right that an adequately resourced special unit freed from the jaws of mafia-like mind control is the ultimate strategy. As the Parliamentary Committees on Security and Social Services suggests, hire foreign agencies.

But, of course, this government will not do that. They said they would do so to solve the murder of late Issa Njaunju, and we are still waiting. It remains doubtful that Malawians will ever know who murdered Robert Chasowa.

Government must stop disorienting people. Neither UTM nor any opposition party is working with persons with albinism to fight government.

Opposition parties wish to provide alternative views and fill the gap while helpless persons with albinism have a platform to challenge the status quo.

Politicising murders of persons with albinism or turning the tragedy into political capital is opportunistic and immoral. On this, all parties are guilty, not least the ‘mighty’ holier-than-thou governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Murder is a political act with political ramifications. It is a total attack on humans and their rights which are enshrined in the law. Murder is the ultimate denigration of the essence of humanity and humanness.

Whether the murders of the 25 plus persons with albinism were acts of betrayal by relatives or some senseless ritualist, ending their lives is political. It runs against basic rights and the sanctity of life, which is supreme right.

The right to life means that nobody, not even government, can or should end a life. It means-that is the reason- government should safeguard life. Humans are inviolable by nature and no form of difference or belief justifies arbitrary killing as has been tolerated in this country.

Regardless of race, sex, colour or disability, all people are entitled to respect the life and dignity of every person. 

Killings faced by persons with albinism constitute a serious breach of peace and human rights. It has created fear, disturbed society and disrupted families. Irrational ritualistic murders engender so much pain that life ceases to make sense for those targeted.

And these feelings, taking the form of emotional persecution, make murders or discrimination political from the perspectives of law, protection of rights and freedom of all humanity.

Murders of persons with albinism are political for they break social cohesion and create mistrust between the people and leaders.

So you see, the ongoing attacks and government indifference to protect are both political and will ignite political action.

Politicians, be warned: a large cheer does not make a king. No matter how loud a dog barks, it will never become a lion.