Political Uncensored

Remember you are mortal!

A month ago, Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and the country’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested Malawian-born businessperson Zuneth Sattar in Leicester, UK. Confirmation of the arrest can be found in a High Court ruling by Justice Michael Tembo over an ill-fated Sattar’s application to stop the ACB from cooperating with the NCA.

To date, the ACB and NCA are yet to formally release a statement on Sattar’s arrest. As a result, Malawians—using the democratic instrument of social media—have jumped into the vacuum—throwing around truths, half-truths, innuendos, lies and anything in between.

The arrest was unprecedented. For the first time, a foreign power intervened using its domestic law to fight corruption in our country.

With the reputation of our corruption fight in tatters, it’s a huge boost for those seeking an end to an economic genocide that has been going on in this country, for far too long. A genocide in which a few powerful—cartels, politicians and senior government officials—get away with anything, by corrupting everyone.

The powerful cartels corrupt successive regimes and every institution of the State, in the process, undermining our very fabric as a society, justice system, elections and viability of our democracy.

As a result, millions of our people continue to wallop in excruciating poverty. Millions die needlessly from preventable diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera, malaria and malnutrition. Babies die soon after birth as our healthcare is in disarray, hospitals too far, and attendants too few.

Many, in this country, fail to finish school and those who endure get low quality education. Many die on our roads. In fact, most of our roads are deathtraps. Take the Lakeshore Road to Nkhata Bay, for example. Many cannot get jobs because we can’t grow our economy as our infrastructure can’t attract genuine investors who can manufacture things here save for the corrupt dobadobas—middlemen—importing items, often ones we don’t need and at the expense for the taxpayer—for different government agencies.

So, without passing any judgement on any possible court proceedings, the arrest—depending on how they eventually pan out, anyway—could turn into a watershed moment for the country. The arrest sends a message to those planning to beat the local justice system that a second layer is turning them into ‘persons of interest’.

Yet, for justice to happen, it must also be seen to happen. Public confidence is only restored when accountability processes happen in the open. That’s why court records and proceedings are—almost or always—public affairs. Justice has to be seen.

Which brings us to this week’s arrests of former top officials under the DPP administration: Finance Minister Joseph Mwanamvekha and Reserve Bank governor Dalitso Kabambe over allegations of masterminding falsification of economic reports presented to the International Monetary Fund.

Mwanamvekha faces further prosecution over alleged involvement in the sale of a previously State-owned MSB Bank to businessperson Thomson Mpinganjira (who was recently jailed for attempting to bribe judges in the famous presidential election case to rule in favour of the DPP), while Ben Phiri, another ex-minister and close aide to former president Peter Mutharika, was arrested in connection with alleged abuse of office. Phiri is being interrogated on how his company was allegedly paid millions by the Ministry of Gender.

All these people are presumed innocent until proven guilty by a competent court of law, but anyone who loves this country would want to see these cases come to a logical conclusion, as soon as possible. Justice delayed, is justice denied.

We all know the terrible history of prosecutions of such cases in this country. Think of Cashgate cases of Paul Mphwiyo and others. Think of former president Bakili Muluzi.

It’s something that has disillusioned many a Malawian with the whole fight against corruption, and institutions of the State mandated to orchestrate it.

Many see the arrests as a façade or window dressing exercise. Or, simply political scoring probably aimed at silencing opponents or diverting public attention from failures of incumbent administrations.

Yet, you must be of particularly special variant of low IQ not to believe, in the very least, that there might actually be merit in some of these cases and that justice must be given a chance to be done. Our country, for too long, has been victim to looters, masquerading as leaders and businesspeople.

In any case, the legal perils facing businesspeople and politicians once deemed untouchable as those named above, must serve as a clear and loud lesson to those enjoying power today. Power comes and power goes. It’s the reason why in ancient Rome, as generals coming from war triumphs paraded around the city, a slave—Auriga—was assigned to whisper in their ears: “Momento Mori”. “Remember you are mortal.”

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