Let JB come back
No one is above the law. Rule of law presupposes that one is innocent until proven guilty by a court of law, not the police. A warrant of arrest is not a verdict of guilt by default.
This is why it is not right for prominent politicians to dub all arrests “politically-motivated”.
While anything is possible in politics, there are no untouchables before the law. Actually, leaders ought to be exemplary law-abiding.
Former president Joyce Banda is not the first to be issued with a warrant of arrest. She is not the last, certainly.
The first female president in the country has more to gain by complying with the warrant of arrest if it has really been issued as announced by the police.
The outcry by her People’s Party that she is innocent will be dwarfed if she does not come to face her accusers in court.
If she is proved innocent, the goof by the police would only make her richer. Claiming compensation for damages after a triumphant battle for justice is one of the rights of the accused.
PP elites must encourage their leader to honour the warrant and utilise the platform to clear her name and revamp her shaky domestic political career.
This is a critical juncture for JB to claim her innocence and she has more to gain if she makes the right move and champion right things.
Malawi is a democratic country with an independent Judiciary competently uninfluenced by politically motivated cases. While leaders of all parties are not immune to arrests, the police have no legal powers to convict any suspect.
Being in opposition is no excuse to dodge the police record your side of the story.
In any functioning democracy, prosecution is not persecution. After a warrant of arrest comes the right to legal representation and bail.
If the police commit the case to the courts, JB is guaranteed her right to enter a no-guilty plea.
PP followers should not panic or make premature noise about perceived political intrusion.
Let us not be too intoxicated with politics to forget the importance of rule of law.
Politics does not exist in a vacuum.
Rather than burdening itself with sentiments, PP elites should help their leader to see to it that justice takes its course.
The party needs to emulate the reasoning of Banda’s spokesperson Andekuche Chanthunya who has repeatedly said the former president is willing to make herself available to answer all the police charges against her.
This is the spirit, a dose of sanity that the entire PP needs to adopt.
Bold as JB is said to be, she will earn more praise if she allows the wheels of justice to turn.
Here is a strong-willed leader who won plaudits and braved critics when she publicly announced that Malawi would arrest Sudan president Omar Al Bashir who is wanted by the International Criminal Court in Hague.
The PP must be reminded of the sterner stuff that their leader is made of—and why should she be shaken by the so-called political manipulation? n
