Written by peter chonga
56th independence anniversary of Malawi could not have fallen in a much strategic time than this. As a people we are not only celebrating independence but also a renewed faith in our infant democracy exemplified in the belief that the primary duty of every patriot is to protect his/her country from its government. The country’s history is punctuated by events and unapologetic people who require to be immortalized by having their statues in the numerous city centers of our great nation. Lives of Dr Attati Mpakati, Dunduzu Chisiza, Rose Chiwambo, Orton Chirwa and many others in the 60s exemplified unrelenting passion and patriotism for their country and compassion for their country folk.
These folks were visionaries and true political prophets of their time. They spoke without fear or favor for the good of the land they held so dear. They understood the repercussions but still, they stood up, held on to their convictions, analogically to a dried bean stalk, swung over hell and spat in the oppressors face without fear of flames scorching their lives. They were extremely well-educated folks of their time. They could have chosen to confine their education to creating wealth for their families and those close and dear to them.
However, they understood a principle so simple to comprehend but yet uncommon, that you might be a celebrated scholar and possibly academically liberated but if you exist and seemly thriving in an oppressive regime, your education is worthless and you are no different from someone who dropped out of primary school. In fact, you are way stupid and worse off than chitsiru cha mmudzi(Village joker). A Village Joker may have an excuse for his/her stupidity, well he or she might be well conversant with the village politics and gossip but is usually extremely ignorant of macro issues, what excuse does the intelligentsia have?
In a third world economy such as Malawi the elite and the enlightened are the political vanguard with an enormous social responsibility to remind those in government that their primary responsibility is the common man, their allegiance is to their country first and not their personal ambitions. The patriots read the then political trends and predicted their consequences. They were not convinced with the trajectory so they chose to change it not just for themselves but for the entire land, they may not have themselves in their lifetime realized the vision of a truly free and democratic Malawi, but they were able to sow strong and unwavering seeds.
The oppressive regime of Dr Banda tranquilized Malawians using brutality and unprecedented human rights abuses for solid 30 years and indeed had Malawian citizenry cooled off. However, the seeds of liberation sown by the patriots are analogical to the Chinese bamboo, it might delay to germinate but once it does there is no stopping it. In this country, no ambition of autocratic rule or yielding absolute power would hold, well, at least not after 1993. The reason is simple, the patriots did their work diligently that no one could do it better. Their blood shed will continue to cry from the graves to perpetually guide this beautiful nation. You can try all you want but Malawians shall always rise like the truth crashed to the ground.
Today we can talk about the boldness of folks such as Undule Mwakasungula who with Human Rights Consultative Committee-HRCC Challenged the insidious oppressive regime of Dr Bingu Wa Munthalika, the present works of Timothy Mtambo, Reverend Sembeleka, Gift Trapence and Billy Mayaya are indicative of the fact that the patriots continue to speak to Malawian people from their final places of rest. Call me superstitious if you will, however, I strongly believe their blood was never shed in vain.
This time we fought against the corrupt regime of Democratic Progressive Party-DPP and there are numerous legitimate reasons that this had to be done but that’s a discussion for another day. We don’t know who we will be fighting against tomorrow. The crux of the matter is, we are Malawians, long suffering and resilient, you can only take us for a ride but just for so long, no matter how long it takes, we rise up like the day unafraid, uncompromised and without favor and we will do it a zillion times again. We just don’t care whether you are DPP, MCP, UTM, UDF, PP, AFORD or alliance this or that. All we care about is that you do your job when you are given the opportunity to serve the good people of the land of the lake. Make Malawi’s heart warm for its people. You have one job! It is my hope that the legitimacy that’s been granted to you and the faith that Malawian people has put in you will motivate your government to set a completely new political pathway for development and unrelenting pursuit of social justice for all Malawian people regardless of their political affiliation or tribe or region of origin. Today, as we celebrate our independence, importantly we celebrate the new Malawi we are building right now with the legacy of ant-regionalism, ant-tribalism and ant-corruption. It is my prayer today that in this new Malawi no one is excluded from the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We are celebrating an anticipated great country for future generation. You are Mother Malawi and we celebrate you. Not by might, not by power but by your Spirit oh God.
