To collect is not to use
As I write, there is a video clip showing an overzealous police officer chasing Kamuzu International Airport. The officer is apparently chasing away the diners as part of the security for President Lazarus Chakwera arriving in the country from the United Kingdom where he witnessed the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla last Saturday.
Every regime has its overzealous police officers, abusing citizens at the expense of protecting the President from harm’s way. Remember that presidential guard during Peter Mutharika’s regime who looked like an extraterrestrial creature trying to protect Mars from earthly invasion?
The point is: What kind of security is this that breaches the citizens’ right to a peaceful meal, as they wait for their flight or to welcome friends and relatives?
For that matter, this was even an inconvenience to those running the restaurant as they either had to refund the diners or throw away the sumptuous meals!
If it really mattered that the security at the restaurant which overlooks the VIP entrance, why didn’t the security seal off the area after they knew the President was arriving?
Is this the new way of doing things that Chakwera talked about during the campaign period? It is not, therefore, surprising to see police officers strewn along all the streets when the First Citizen is gallivanting from one point to the other. Who will be at the police station?
And, by the way, what was the fuss on the importance of the UK visit? All we saw were Google shots of the President sandwiched between obscure ‘delegates’ trying to catch a glimpse of the royalty seated on the new version of the Stone of Scone, on which kings like Macbeth were enthroned?
We will not talk about frugality. We have just been listening to Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Sosten Gwengwe going all the way trying to explain how government is going all the way to maximise tax management—read tax collection. He lectures the rest of us how digitalisation is important to ensure that every denarius goes to Caesar where it belongs. Whether that penny would be used to repair the roads of Rome or end up in olgies by Caesar’s officials is another thing.
It is clear that Gwengwe can try to convince us, as he attempted at the Malawi University for Business and Applied Sciences that all tax must end in the government coffers. Yet, he said nothing about the frugality we so much need, the milking of thin cows that we are seeing.
In that lecture, he made so many inferences, conjectures and analogs extending to a family scenario. He wanted those of us on the street to relate to the macro-economics he was to the macro-economics at home. Well then, what irresponsible engages his children at a ganyu but when he gets paid he spends the big chunk on other women and fellow drunk men while the children sustain their lives on a paltry existence?
What Malawians need today is not talk. Time for talk is gone. These talks are a drain and waste of time. Hypocrisy at worst.
And, by the way, the Roads Fund Administration is introducing tollgate fee cards to road users who certify the criteria. Welcome development, we say and agree that this is another way of ensuring that fees collected end at the fund. Here, the question applies, again: Where will the money end after it is collected?
Search me. I can bet my last tambala if I saw the roads in passable state, I would say it is worth it to add the cards to the cash and bank that are used to collect there at Kalinyeke and Chiingeni.
