Tears for Feng, Jazz Café

Jah people, I was shocked that the robbers Lucky Dube christened   ‘men in long black jackets’ ransacked the Jazz Café in Lilongwe last week.

It is no entertainment when people start doubting   something that should be a matter of life and death—the state of security.

But a new wave of crime begs an obvious question— did Malawians   really have to wait for robbers to kill a Chinese national to start pondering whether we are safe in this crazy country of ours?

Where was the Malawi Police Service on July 13? A brokenhearted director of consular service from the Chinese Embassy Zhou Bhao subtly wondered in his eulogy during the cremation of cooking oil mogul Zhou Feng, who was brutally murdered two weeks ago.

As the motorcade escorting ‘honest and brave Zhou’ to the crematorium crawled like a snail on Chipembere Highway, my mind sped off balance.

How many times have Malawians cried for tighter security to safeguard lives, goods and investors?

Wasn’t their cry loud enough when the ruthless thugs killed and beheaded a woman in Ndirande in May?

Could the new calls for sanity be indicative of declining confidence in our security system at a time even Parliament and its committees seem to see nothing odd?

That poor security threatens lives as much as investment came clear when President Joyce Banda ordered ceaseless police presence at Luke De Yang Hospital following the Korean directors’ threat to shut down the health facility due to worsening crime.

This should be basic:  Do citizens need to own something worth shutting down for the state to start seriously reconsidering the way it enforces law and order?

Is it not time we emulated Lesotho where people’s liberty to go out, dating, shopping, jamming, clubbing and gaming does not set with the sun, but lives forever because there are plain-clothed and uniformed cops everywhere you go.

It is only here where the law goes to sleep, snoring.  Unless the police wake up and watch over us 24/7 like Big Brother, citizens cannot sleep soundly.

This may be a tall order, but somebody has to do it.