THE NATIONAL WIDE DEMO PLAN AND UPDATES
Mzuzu University Student’s Representative Council (MUSREC), today 20th November 2016, wishes to communicate to all Mzuni students, both face to face and Open and Distance Learners, those who were supposed to graduate on 4th November 2016, Parents, all responsible citizens and the general public on the way forward regarding a national issue that has not just affected Mzuni students but also dimensions of Malawi’s future at large.
MUSREC, PSU, YAS etc have finally identified 30th November, 2016 as a date to have national wide demonstration particularly in all major cities like Mzuzu, Lilongwe, Blantyre and Zomba.
This will be followed by vigil at Parliament building on the date to be announced soon.
This is collaborative action, that has one mission and objective
1) To let the Chancellor intervene and address issues in our institutions.
This will be done peacefully and all due processes will be followed before staging these demonstrations.
These demonstrations will be exceptional, such that government should not underrate this wind.
Parties captioned above, will have press briefing on Wednesday 23rd November, 201explain other prevailing issues and share a complete plan to the general public.
The organizers have also agreed to take advocacy approach, where parties mentioned, have agreed to engage parliamentary committee on education and Minister of Education among others parties.
All these proposed engagements, will be done and completed by the week to start tomorrow.
You may recall that MUSREC issued a press statement on 11th November, 2016 where we made an appeal to the Head of state, Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika to intervene in his capacity as a Chancellor of Mzuni to resolve the impasse by addressing the concerns of members of staff. The matter has led to closure of our institution.
In our previous statement, our demands were so clear and next steps to be taken were also ably outlined.
We gave the Chancellor seven days to do something, or Mzuni students will hold national wide demonstrations to be followed by vigil at Parliament building.
As a matter of record the period is ending today by 12 midnight.
The Chancellor decided to respond to our public statement at Lunar congregation on Wednesday 16th November 2016, where he said and I quote:
” I know that some people are eager to point fingers at the head of state and Chancellor for every problem that arises in Universities. I am the ultimate authority and I don’t mind.” End of quote.
We would like to remind our Chancellor that, we are only pointing our fingers at him on this matter.
What the Chancellor said recently, is in line with what Minister of Education also said as he was quoted by the press.
Its now clear and evident that the political line has sketched one song with same tone of taking the burden to council.
we all know that, practically the matter can only be resolved only if there is a political will from the President and his government because council through its press statement indicated their hopelessness to handle the matter.
If its not about the Head of state, then who?
MUSREC find such recent remarks from the whole sitting president and Chancellor who took oath that he will discharge all constitutional obligations, not just shocking, but also keep us in dilemma and wondering as to whether the sheep we are in as Malawians has captain or not.
The statement from the Chancellor stimulates not just fear amongst Mzuni students but also raises critical thinking as to whether Malawi is steadily becoming a failed state or not.
The devastating remarks of Chancellor comes at a time when we had strong hope that the Chancellor being academician will motivate us as the final figure in the system.
We expect the President to stop joking on critical national issues like the one we have at Mzuni.
We expect the Chancellor to demonstrate dynamic problem solving skills.
The President should not distance himself from the Mzuni issue because apart from being Chancellor and president, the president should realize and link the issue at Mzuni as a symptom of the
fragile economy that his government is absolutely failing to fix.
MUSREC finally would like to appreciate how students have behaved since the matter started.
We agree with you all that, we cannot afford to remain quite seeing our future being endangered, we must liberate ourselves.
We need to motivate ourselves to do what is just.
We have to redefine our Malawi with power of unity and nonviolent .
Your excellence!
We still hope that you can do better than jokes which are just stimulating anger and frustrations in us.
If may be you are waiting see our seriousness and how determined we are to go back to school, then wait and see on 30th November, 2016.
We still hope
Regards!
WAZAMAZAMA KATATU
MUSREC_PRESIDENT