Same script written by UDF, perfected by DPP
Violence—in all its manifestations—and regardless of its perpetrator, should be condemned in the strongest terms. My understanding is that the underpinning motivation for the political violence in the country is the ill-advised but pervading zero-sum thinking among the rank and file across the political divide. This is the thinking that one party’s gains can only be obtained at the expense of another party’s losses. Regrettably, the culprits are all the ruling political leaders and across all the administrations. They have entrenched the vice. The Malawi Police Service (MPS) who are usually blamed for failing to level the political operating space in handling the crime are only scapegoats.
The February 24 2024 fracas at Mbowe Filling Station in Lilongwe is a cause of much concern. Here, thugs armed with panga knives and stones ambushed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters, damaged cars, injured and dispersed people. Unless something drastic happens, the violence is a strong pointer to the anarchy that could be gestating and characterise electioneering from now up to September next year.
In this recent incident, DPP are the victims. Although there is no evidential proof yet to incriminate anyone, you can understand why DPP cadres have no doubt that the violence is the work of MCP. And to say the party is livid about the incident would be an understatement. Historically, the aggressor has been the party in power.
On their part, as usual, the police are helpless in such circumstances and are left with no choice but to cover their incapacitation by saying they are investigating. This is their default characteristic mode of covering their inefficiency. I can guarantee they will be investigating until kingdom come. Truth is that they are not doing anything about it. This is how the law enforcers are usually accused of breeding and nurturing political violence in the country. They are a captured lot.
The successive administrations have made the police too weak to maintain law and order where the oppressors are supporters and agents of the governing party. The police will look aside or pretend nothing has happened if the culprits belong to the party in government. And this has become their modus operandi across all regimes.
The United Democratic Front administration birthed this monster in what were known as Young Democrats. With wanton abandon, the Young Democrats could maim and unleash all sorts of atrocities on political opponents, even in the presence and full view of the law-enforcers. The Young Democrats were above the law, literally. They were the untouchables. Enter DPP the regime perfected the Young Democrats into Cadets. Like the Young Democrats, the Cadets could not take orders from the police. They were the law and unto the law themselves.
It is against this background during all major elections that incidents of ruling party supporters unleashing violence on the opposition members abound. Take, for example, the 2019 Tripartite Election and the 2020 court-sanctioned presidential election campaign.
On August 9 2019 opposition MCP vice-president for the South the late Sidik Mia’s offices in Blantyre were petrol-bombed by suspected government militants. On August 18 2019, thugs set on fire two UTM Party vehicles in Mangochi. In both arson cases, no one was arrested. On September 25 2019, Billy Mayaya, a human rights activist and member of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition was severely attacked during the #JaneAnsahMustFall protests in Blantyre. He sustained life-threatening head injuries. He was battered in the presence of the police. He was treated at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital. No one was arrested. There are many more examples.
It is a sad story. Today, the pendulum has swung. The oppressor has become the oppressed. The DPP members are now seeking sympathy from Malawians and crying loudest against the same oppression others suffered when they were in power. Have they learned something?
The same police who failed to arrest and prosecute Mayaya’s assailants and thugs behind the many cases of arson on MCP and UTM Party properties are unable to arrest the thugs who injured DPP supporters on February 24.
The sad story is that the allegiance of the police is 100 percent to the ruling party. So why should anyone then expect them to act differently this time round? Police reforms did little to unshackle the police from the grip of towing and pursuing the interests of their political masters. In discharging their duties, the police are simply reading the same script written by the UDF administration, perfected by the DPP regime which the MCP administration could take to another level.
But two or three wrongs do not make a right. The police will never change on their own prompting. It has to start with the ruling party loosening its grip on and making the police believe that their jobs are safe regardless of the political affiliation of who they arrest. A tall order on the Tonse Alliance administration but it behoves the party in power taking that first step to change things.
