BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-Malawi’s upcoming a female political strategist Abida was on Friday led Blantyre youths in participating a peacefully MK4billion payout demonstrations.
Mia’s move has been viewed as South Africa’s struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela bravery on the political scene.
Abida Mia is proving to be fearless and brave as she is at the heart of reconnecting the main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) with voters in the populous southern region and dealing with party cadres directly in operations.
Abida, wife to lower shire politician guru Sidik Mia, is the architect of many political developments while operating from the back room.
Despite the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) attempt to frustrate the protestors, Abida Mia went to the streets and had to challenge Mchacha to let people exercise their right to demonstrate peacefully.
“I went to the streets after I learned that DPP attempted to disrupt the demonstrations,” she said.
“Time for Malawians to be afraid is gone. We will be brave and fight on for the good of our country,” she declared.
“I had no intention to go to the streets but after DPP demonstrations on Thursday, I was upset. What they did demonstrating against demonstrations was uncalled for. I went to the streets to protest with the people. I was the voice of the voiceless and I would not allow people to face the DPP alone. This is a direct message to Mchacha, that I only fear God,” she said.
Abida Mia is proving to be a woman who epitomises resilience, who will make a significant and laudable impact on the Malawian political sphere.
The demonstrators marched from Upper Stadium through the Chipembere Highway—stopping at the Polytechnic. They made other stops at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) bus stop and roundabout near Universal Industries.
As the protestors headed back towards the Civic Centre, hundreds of people lined up on both sides of the road but did not join the march.
Some Polytechnic students joined the fray on the return trip and nearly clashed with the police at Kamuzu Stadium Roundabout when they [students] insisted on moving around the roundabout four times to symbolise the MK4 billion.
On the other hand, MCP President with party supporters graced the central region protestors.
The country’s Civil society organisations (CSOs) on Friday gave President Mutharika 90 days to address issues contained in their 10-point petition or they will hold post April 27 demonstrations to force him out of power.
The CSOs who organised the much awaited MK4 billion payout demonstrations expressed dissatisfaction with the way members of Parliament (MPs) handled the matter.
The protestors have therefore demanded that the disbursement of the funds be completely cancelled within 30 days “as its objective and motives were not to pursue public interest but rather to reward betrayal of public trust through the rejection of the peoples’ electoral reforms.
They have also demanded that the Minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe and Minister of Local Government Kondwani Nankhumwa should resign or get fired by President within 20 days over their dubious role in the K4 Billion payout.
“The MK4 Billion scandal has raised more questions than answers on the integrity of not only the two ministers but also the entire government.”
The petition also demand the re-tabling and enactment of the all the elections related bills including 50%+1 electoral system of electing the President in their original form as proposed by the Law Commission within 40 days.
“We demand these elections related laws including the 50%+1 to be enacted in their original form as proposed by the Malawi Law Commission.”
The demands include President Mutharika to reverse his decision on the appointment of Rodney Jose – who they say was implicated in the murder of Robert Chasowa in 2011- as Acting Inspector General of Police within 10 days.
“In the absence of completion of investigations into Chasowa’s murder, such an appointment is an insult to the family of Chasowa and the general public who continue to seek justice on the matter. We demand Parliament to reject such an appointment if brought before it for approval.”
The CSOs say they have a clear monitoring and evaluation framework to track the implementation of the 10 demands and other raised concerns.
“At the expiry of each timeline of the 10 demands, the activists, concerned citizens and Malawians of good will shall convene to evaluate your progress on implementation of the demands and concerns, and in cases where you have not done so, the grouping shall resolve to implementing Plan B on each of the timelines to ensure that all the demands are addressed.
“You can be lest assured therefore Your Excellency Sir that the Citizens shall hold a series of post-April 27 demonstrations activities –if you decide to ignore the 10 demands petition- until all the issues are addressed,” reads the petition.
The CSOs said at the expiry of 90 days, they shall reconvene to evaluate the Presudent’s performance in relation to addressing their concerns and demands as well as the general state of governance in the country.
“In the event that we find your leadership lacking, untrustworthy and incompetent in addressing these challenges and demands, we the concerned citizens, activists and all Malawians of goodwill shall have no choice but to ask you to immediately step down as President of Malawi in line with the principle of social contract as ably expounded in the Constitution (Section 12[c]),” the CSOs have asserted.
It continued: “Indeed, as rightly put in the 2014 DPP [Democratic Progressive Party] manifesto that no person in Malawi should ever believe that Malawi is his or her personal property.”
The CSOs said they believe that their petition will be given the attention, priority it deserves and that “this time around we will not take excuses for answers but solutions to our demands.”
President Mutharika is therefore expected to respond to the CSOs demands upon arrival from the two weeks commonwealth meeting in UK.
