I find Peter Mutharika’s penchant for erecting foundation stones interesting. It is not just because he is following the footsteps of my favourite President Joyce Banda, doing exactly what he was busy criticising at the top of his lungs when he was in opposition. It is because this going all over the country erecting foundation stones for a university here and for a hospital there while failing to provide salaries for civil servants and medicines in hospitals reminds of the new guard dog in the neighbourhood who gets busy going around peeing and dropping his shit everywhere instead of doing the work his owners bought him for.Mutharika’s failure to deal with the corrupting forces in his cabinet and finding the way out would seem to be confirming the position of those who argue that he is deliberately avoiding the truth and should therefore not have been trusted with public well being.
In essence Peter Mutharika has nullified his moral campus by rendering corruption, deceit, arrogance as issues so benign and virtually inconsequential if they are found to be the character traits of his ministers. It took him ages and a lot of banging him on the head with a hammer for him to fire George Chaponda. Nicholas Dausi was simply moved from NIB to the cabinet when allegations of corruption were made against him, and KondwaniNankhumwa is going from strength to strength in spite of numerous ACB complaints and corruption case files.
In allowing Mutharika to have and protect these so-called untouchable ministers, we, the Malawian people collectively stand in cooperation and agreement that we are but a dishonest generation. We in a way desecrate the legacies of our forefathers. What remains to happen is the coming out of the Genie from the bottle and openly declare that the electorate are nothing but idiots whom we use to put crooks in a position to loot every five or so years! Although that would be too ghastly a proposition to make, it would nonetheless be true.
We Malawians recognise that we once desired an unconditionally selfless, cooperative, harmonious and loving society; the memory of which galvanised the democratic movement of the 60s and 90s. It is a serious dereliction of national duty and patriotism (which drives us to sing our national anthem), if we do not admit and claim this as our moral soul ,which should power our political discourse for now and our future.
Proceeding from the basic presumption that as citizens, we collectively abhor oppression, exclusion and political marginalisation in equal measure, one is inclined to conclude that greed- yes that evil with pervades all generations- has firmly sunk its fangs in our national psyche and must be removed at all costs. It would appear that the driving motive for such an ill could be narrowed down to poverty, in which case it becomes a life and death matter. Yes, moral and intellectual poverty.
Is it not on record that President Peter Mutharika publicly lamented the rampancy of corruption in his administration? Has he not publicly admitted that we have a serious corruption problem? The question we must pursue is: If Peter Mutharika is serious about his public statements on corruption, what are corrupt ministers still doing in his cabinet? Why is hamstringing the police and the ACB and why did he declare publicly that he would fight tooth and nail any legislation aimed at reducing his powers to control independent entities such as the ACB?
Although the buck stops with the president, however, having seen that he has a list of untouchables- apparently those sacred ministers with whom he spent a night or two in the police cells together accused of treason that time- it is no longer justifiable for us as the populace to be saying he is failing when we really need to do more to push him into acting on these buddies of his.
According to Peter Mutharika, the rot in his government is so pervasive that it has not missed an institution. Apparently, surprise, surprise! -the police are corrupt, the army is corrupt, the road traffic is corrupt, and even MRA is corrupt. Well, each and every institution is corrupt if we are to believe the President.
But it is clearly naïve for us to expect this particular president to doanything about this knowledge. Our only real hope lies in mobilising ourselves against an inept Police, our toothless ACB, our dysfunctional service delivery system. There is a danger of growing frustration in the country. If you don’t feel it, then you live on Mars. Poverty is on the rise. Greed, intolerance and outright villainy which is in truth the real reason for public disillusionment with our political discourse is at an all-time high. And the fundamental question one may ask is why are we letting this happen?
Our nation was founded on a vision to eradicate ignorance, poverty and disease. It is our collective duty to continue from where our founding fathers stopped! It becomes sad to see that our education system has bred ignorant vultures, a complete menace to society. We fail to understand that we are better off in a cooperative environment than a divisive one. All the while, when looting becomes apparent which is but a national security situation and our security cluster in government is sleeping on the job, all our President continues to say is: “Give me proof!” And incredibly, we as citizens are seating “phwiii”!
Could Mutharika be right?Is there no proof of corruption out there that can be exposed the way George Chaponda’s corruption was exposed?
Our once enviable civil service is a total disgrace, a heaven for thieves. Nothing can be done without a civil servant asking for a bribe. Our religious formations, which were our moral watchdogs, have become consumed in materialism. Do you remember there was once a religion based pressure group known as PAC?
The truth that President Peter Mutharika seems to miss in all this is that as he continues to protect his untouchable “midnight six” buddies from all the corrupt activity they can muster simply because of the loyalty born out of being eaten by mosquitoes together at Lumbadzi police station, politics is becoming a bad word, associated with theft, corruption, greed, brutality and even murder.
Quite frankly Peter, if this pact to protect each other as you loot, pillage and plunder the nation is what you guys were discussing and dreaming about as you sat together in that Lumbadzi prison cell, then all of you truly deserved, and still deserve more than just two nights there!
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