By Idriss Ali Nassah
Zameer Karim did not dream up President Mutharika’s account number.
It was given to him for the purpose of depositing the K145 million bribe to make the president look the other way. That is how grand corruption works.
Thanks to The Nation and The Times newspapers who broke the story and the subsequent activism around it by civil society, Mutharika was caught and exposed and embarrassed.
The only reason he tried to pay back the stolen money was because he was furious that he was caught.
Thieves behave that way when caught; they feign contrition. But these are corrupt people with no shame, no conscience and no sense of service to the country.
While they were sharing millions and billions, poor patients were dying at Queen Elizabeth Hospital because an MRI machine was not working because the air conditioning was broken, and nobody cared to fix it.
Don’t get too excited because Zameer Karim and his associates spent a few hours talking to the police. It’s an arranged catch-and-release tactic. Nothing will come out of it. Certainly not with a compromised Peter Mutharika as president.
It is not the potential severity of punishment which deters criminals, but the certainty of punishment.
These crooks and cronies know that they won’t be punished. Nothing happened to those who stole K1.6 billion of fuel at Escom. Nothing happened to those who procured those good-for-nothing generators. Nothing happened to those who looted MSB bank. Certainly, nothing will happen to Karim.
So, where is the deterrent in that? Why should we be excited?
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are not necessarily the views of the Publisher or the Editor of Maravi Post
