We haven’t learnt lesson on holding peaceful protests

Dear judge Mbadwa,

The picture of recovered looted items, my lord, that included refrigerators and a motorcycle, has given me a feeling that instead of learning from earlier demonstrations, Nyasas are now perfecting the art of mindless thuggery and sheer thievery.

My lord, while people have genuine reasons to protest a perceived injustice as an inalienable right, some elements that want to illegally benefit from the protests are increasing their business with each protest.

My lord, these are the types that cannot explain what they were protesting against if asked.

These are the kind which arm themselves with machetes, slings and all sorts of weaponry during protests as if they were going to some war.

How those ruffians are allowed to participate in protests they are hardly interested in is something that has been bothering me for some time now.

Without any iota of responsibility, my lord, hard working people are put out of business by such criminal elements courtesy of a protest that is badly managed.

My lord, I will defend people’s freedom of expression but it should not be at the expense of someone’s right to earn an honest living.

As we enhance our democracy through protests, people who can help the country attain economic independence through their business innovations ought to be protected at all cost.

Protest leaders who cannot police the people who join demonstrations because they just want to register a large crowd are more of attention seekers than genuine freedom fighters regardless of how they address themselves.

A thug is a thug and you can’t expect them to control themselves when they see an opportunity to become rich quickly through looting.

My lord, most protestors treat demonstrations of national importance as if they were protests by college students who expect to be tear-gassed at some stage of a ‘violence-free’ kayende.

To such students, a demonstration without running battles with the Nyasaland Police, does not qualify to be called one.

My Lord, an overzealous crowd controlling strategy by trigger-happy officers of the law has largely turned peaceful demonstrations into violent enterprises.

Having participated in several demonstrations through all the years, we should have improved in handling them.

Shamelessly, my lord, your tribunal is going to be inundated with suits because of protests.

But I will leave the business of disposing of those cases to you,

Regards,

John Citizen.

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