My Turn

The state of my nation

M

alawi is back to square one. In May, Malawi Electoral Commission announced the re-election of President Peter Mutharika in elections marred by widespread use of tippex and other irregularities.

I would like to challenge the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leader on a number of issues raised in his recent State of the Nation Address in Parliament.

First, it is not true that opposition leaders ‘want to create anarchy’ in the country. Mr President, these are legitimate but aggrieved Malawians who have tendered evidence in court that you were elected fraudulently and they want the May 21 elections nullified in preference for a rerun.

It is unjust to paint innocent people black just to drum up your claims that you were legitimately re-elected. As an eminent lawyer, you must know that a legitimate search for redress is not fostering anarchy.

The June 20 demonstrations were perfectly legal, an unalienable democratic right.  No amount of propaganda will change this fact. Malawians are just expressing anger at a government 62 percent of the voters do not approve of.

You are right Malawi has known peace since 1964, but most of it has been silence under duress. Do not use ‘peace’ to manipulate people. By the way, peace is not the absence of war. Poverty alone is violence. DPP has presided over this assault on peace for five years already.

What is peace in a country where persons with albinism are killed for their parts? One cannot talk of peace while presiding over one of the most corrupt political gangs in Africa.

Mr President, you talk of leaders who must rise above differences, but DPP cannot accommodate anyone because it thrives on divisions and differences.

If I may ask, how do you intend to accommodate diverse voices if you have a Cabinet dominated by men and people from your stronghold in the Southern Region?

Those with uMunthu expected a unifying Cabinet, but of course not from DPP. The current Cabinet is payback time for the loyal, not about Malawians.

I do not believe you when you talk of allocation of resources to priority areas. Nor can I trust calls for expenditure control when borrowing continued to escalate, huge sums went to State Houses and unproductive trips.

How can anybody believe that you will deal with corruption in high places when 20 legislators your Ministry of Finance reported as thieves are still free? Which Ministers has the system not shielded?

For now that DPP is back, who expects that high-profile names associated with the murder of persons with albinism will be prosecuted? These are issues that motivated about 62 percent of the electorate to vote for change of government.

The idea of a National Planning Commission for a system where politics is gold was great. But as long as the language of ‘flagship projects’ persists, this body shall remain a lame duck advancing political legacies unresponsive to what Malawi truly needs.

Mr President, you have been firm that Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) will never stop. Yes it won’t because it serves the needs of politicians. It is the ultimate manipulation strategy, a pro-poor initiative that locks people down into dependence.

If MBC is reduced to a DPP propaganda machine, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is gagged, Malawi Communication Authority (Macra) reduced to a DPP financier and Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi a milk cow, who should believe that the planning commission will be independent?

It’s hard to believe the DPP administration can hold ministers to account for delivery having kept dead wood for five years. In this country, only the media assesses Ministers.

Thanks Mr President for talking irrigation, but simplify the so-called Green Belt Initiative so it can benefit poor Malawians not political and economic elites.

A loud cheer does not make a king. Integrity does. n

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