Malawi really haunts Chakwera

As I write, confusion is getting the worst of me. Wednesday, June 28 marked exactly three years since President Lazarus Chakwera was sworn in after he emerged winner of the Constitutional Court-sanctioned June 23 Fresh Presidential Elections, yet, on Tuesday, he was out to break with abandon one of his campaign promises to cut off on foreign travel.

It is like adding salt to the wound to remind each other the hope which the Tonse Alliance when they challenged the constitutionality of Peter Mutharika’s emergency as winner of the previous election. At the base of the arguments, apart from the Tippex and all that, was the question of whether Mutharika attained a majority or not to rule.

It was all too good to be true to see the case run to a logical conclusion since past electoral challenges in court yielded nothing. So Malawians gathered on Freedom Square in Lilongwe to witness that momentous occasion. Three years later, it is apparent that all they can hold on to, are Chakwera’s sweet words for prosperity.

Among other things, Chakwera promised a fight against fraud and corruption, reducing presidential powers, reduced prices of goods and services and reduced foreign travel.

But then, as usual, that was jive talk. If Chakwera’s three years had anything to sing about, I strongly believe the president could not have left for Changsha, Hushan in China for the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo (Caete). Had the three years been according to Malawians’ expectation, Chakwera could not have left the country for the umpteenth time to an expo where about 200 Malawians were participating, he should have been with the rest of us celebrating his achievements under the shade of a mango tree at Kasiya.

But no. Malawi haunts Chakwera. That is why at every opportunity, he is up in some flight to talk jive and sway listeners with his sweet talk.

It is quite laughable that on departure Chakwera said he was going to China to beg for debt relief over some bilateral agreements. Debt relief talk is cheap. It is even cheaper when Information Minister Moses Kunkuyu says the Tonse Alliance went into power when the debt levels were neck-choking, pushing blame on the DPP which according to him borrowed without regard just to finance consumption and campaign.

In Kunkuyu’s words, Malawians are today repaying the debt the DPP ‘used to buy houses and cars’. That seemed to justify the Tonse failure, while at the same time saying it was okay for the President to travel again. But, who cares about debt relief? The last time we thought Malawi would shoot up with debt relief was when the Bretton Institutions wrote off our debts under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries.

So, when Chakwera was flying away at a time he was supposed to be home celebrating three years of a mighty rule, it is very clear that he is haunted in Malawi.

At times, one would wonder: When is the President visiting Malawi again?

When is he going to survive a few days in this land that seems to haunt him to visit another country for whatever reason and for as long as it pleases him. For that matter, for whoever will benefit from it.

For everyone who has touched down at Kamuzu or Chileka international airports, landing is a really haunting experience.

I am not talking about the runways, but as the plane makes its descent, the poverty is felt.

I am sure Chakwera is haunted of Malawi, like any other traveler when he sees those thatched houses that talk a lot about the country’s economic situation. He must be very much haunted when he compares and contrasts that from whatever country he may be coming from. Obviously, he is looking forward to another trip that he would find a country that presents a worse aerial view than Malawi.

Malawi should haunt Chakwera, whose rise to power was characterised by the ‘osaopa’ theory. Remember Nsundwe Barracks? No! Are we surprised that the seeds of utter looting sown in the pre-FPE days are now bearing fruit where Limbuli residents take it upon themselves to loot property at Edga’s Lodge in Limbuli and steal cash for no apparent reason?

It is this ‘osaaopa’ spirit that may be haunting Chakwera. Fortunately, the trust and confidence Malawians had in the civil society when he was coming to power was eroded the day he chose Timothy Mtambo, the face of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition, into his Cabinet.