Mourn without pointing an accusing finger

Death hurts. And the death of a relation, a loved one, a friend or an acquaintance in an accident—be it in a road or air traffic—hurts even more. It is devastating. Such is the devastation from the death of the Vice-President Dr Saulos Klaus Chilima and eight others in the Malawi Defence Force aircraft last Monday in Chikangawa in Mzimba District. May their souls rest in eternal peace.
Chilima was loved by many. Family, friends, party members, fellow congregants, and millions of Malawians who felt he had so much to contribute the nation loved him. The eight others who died with him in the ill-fated aircraft also had many relations, friends, colleagues, acquaintances who loved them, depended on them and had high hopes in them. Their deaths have plunged the nation in deep mourning and crashed the hearts and hopes of millions.
And yet, even in the middle of such painful mourning, the nation is obliged to accord them dignified burial befitting their statuses. They deserve nothing but respect and honour from Malawians. They died for a good cause.
There may be questions about how they died. Who did not do what? Why did such and such do what they did? Etc., etc. Is it really bad weather? Was there foul play? And many more questions without answers. Such questions will be answered. But first and foremost, the nation owes the departed men and women a decent send-off to their final resting places.
It is against such a background that I find the scrimmage between and among some citizens and some party members over the deaths of these people unwarranted at this time. The nation should be allowed to bury them in an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity. And not one poisoned by incrimination and inculpation. Such a time may come and indeed will come, but for now let the dead whom the whole nation respects be accorded a decent burial.
Granted Chilima was the strong president of the UTM Party. And the party’s founding president for that matter. He was the pillar of the party and no doubt its main financier as well. The whole party was built around him. UTM without Chilima was like someone standing on sinking sand.
I therefore feel the pain among some UTM leaders who are angry against some senior Malawi Congress Party (MCP) cadres and Cabinet ministers. The UTM cadres are understandably in great shock and feel they have been robbed in broad day light. The pain of losing someone who was everything to you politically or otherwise cannot be more excruciating. That is how many UTM sympathisers feel now. It is a very difficult time. But I dare say they could be misdirecting their anger against innocent people.
I thus find the demands of the UTM Party legislators and councillors on two Cabinet ministers for Defence and Homeland Affairs, Harry Mkandawire and Ken Zikhale Ng’oma, respectively, unfounded and misplaced at this time. Their requests to President Chakwera that the two Cabinet ministers should not be found anywhere near the team organising Chilima’s funeral arrangements are bizarre and bordering on the eccentric. They have taken their anger too far. Sober up.
Whatever misgivings they may have in the way the two Cabinet ministers could have handled the investigations following the plane crash, it is preposterous for them to dictate to Chakwera about who should serve in the committee organising Chilima’s funeral.
At a time the whole country is waiting with baited breath to know what the inquest or investigations to be instituted will yield, the best thing for anyone suspecting foul play is to wait. Hold your breath and wait. Mourn but with restraint. Such accusations as the UTM legislators and councillors are advancing on some Cabinet ministers are only a recipe for tension. In this difficult time of mourning, more than anything else, Malawians need unity. Mourn and bury the departed Malawians. Then thereafter you can face one another. n