How does this government expect opposition political parties to attend Independence Day celebrations when it consistently disrespects, intimidates, and brutalizes the very same opposition during every other national function?
You can’t invite people to dance with you in the name of unity on July 6 while you spend the other 364 days of the year attacking them, insulting them, puncturing their vehicles at Parliament, and unleashing roadshow violence to block their political activities.
Malawians are not stupid.
Neither are the opposition parties foolish enough to be used as decorative symbols of fake national unity while being treated like enemies of the state.
The Minister of Homeland Security, Ezekiel Ching’oma, stood boldly and questioned the absence of opposition leaders at the National Service of Worship held on Saturday, 5 July 2025.
He was surprised that only one opposition leader—Kondwani Nankhumwa of the People’s Development Party (PDP)—showed up.
But what is truly surprising is not the absence of opposition at the event.
What is shocking is the government’s audacity to even ask why they didn’t show up.
This is the same government whose agents and sympathizers have physically assaulted opposition MPs, vandalized their property, and created a Parliament environment so toxic that democracy itself is under siege.
This is the same administration that has mastered the political movie of state-sponsored hypocrisy—playing the victim when criticized and the aggressor when in control.
The very government that claims to uphold democracy continues to treat dissent like treason.
How can you expect civil cooperation at a worship service when civil servants demanding a pay review are tear-gassed and beaten by police officers in full riot gear?
How can you preach “national unity” when political persecution is the daily bread served by those in power?
The invitation to independence festivities would have meant something if it came from a government that respects pluralism, dialogue, and dignity.
Instead, it comes from a ruling party that only celebrates independence when it serves them politically—and discards it the moment it’s inconvenient.
You cannot worship God in the morning and oppress His people in the afternoon.
The opposition’s absence from the worship service was not disrespect—it was resistance.
It was a message that unity must be earned, not demanded.
It was a silent protest against a government that has weaponized power and politicized even the pulpit.
And let us be clear: no one owes this administration the optics of unity when the reality on the ground is abuse, division, and fear.
So instead of questioning the opposition’s absence, Ching’oma and his colleagues should be asking themselves: what kind of government have we become, that people no longer want to celebrate independence with us?
Until the government learns to practice the unity it preaches, the scorned opposition will remain absent—not out of disrespect, but out of self-respect.
Because no self-respecting citizen or party should celebrate with the very hands that slap them.
Who is foolish enough to smile in public with those who stab them in private?
Certainly not a real opposition.
Certainly not a wounded people.
And definitely not a Malawi that still remembers what true freedom should look like.
