Editorial: PP Govt, Nyasa Times is watching you
We at the Nyasa Times work for the aspirations and respect the wishes of Malawians because we believe that in the final analysis they are Boma and that they deserve better. People of Malawi are ultimate bosses in the Malawi Government, whichever way one defines it.
Malawians can hire and fire the Executive, the Legislature and even the Judiciary; if any of these organs of government fail to meet their aspirations. In 2009, Malawians gave the mandate to late President Bingu wa Mutharika and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to govern until 2014.
Fate, man-made decisions and the constitution intervened. And today we have a new government led by the former Vice President Joyce Banda who is now the State President.
President Joyce Banda, due to events that happened in 2010, has gone into government with the Peoples Party (PP), an entity that did not grace the ballot papers in 2009.
The result is that while Malawians hired President Joyce Banda by jointly electing her with the late, they did not mandate PP – at least by a direct vote to run affairs of the country. This is why we at the Nyasa Times, contrary to what some may believe, are watching this government even more closely.
In fact we are paying more attention than we did with any government before. Such a government, coming in the first place without the necessary preparation and secondly in circumstances that opportunists can easily manipulate renders it very vulnerable, hence our close attention.
In due course, it has come to our attention that trappings of power are already proving too tempting to resist and that some sort of high-level wheel-dealing has already been taking root.
To put it in black and white, several entities and unethical businessmen that thrived by corrupting the Mutharika and Muluzi administrations have been going about town bragging that they have already corrupted the current government.
According to our highly valued sources, these low-lives are boasting that briefcases and other such inducements have, as we speak, already changed hands and that this three week old government is already in their hands.
We know how to get to the bottom of these shady deals that have no place in a civilised society led by God-fearing women and men. And get to the bottom of these evil goings-on we will.
We at the Nyasa Times are watching and in our book, there are no sacred cows. We will not spare anyone who wants to rob the already suffering Malawians of the little that is there. We do not seek favours, and in pursuit of our work we take no prisoner.
We expect the highest standards, moral and otherwise, of the recently appointed cabinet ministers and their deputies and of the PP Executives, most of whom we repeat again, are not elected officials.
The words and lamentations of the president when she was expelled from the DPP are still ringing in our ears. We therefore expect Her Excellency to quickly fire anyone embroidered in corruption and bring such malfeasants to face the music in courts.
The tendency of sitting on dockets of corrupt political associates in order to blackmail them into silence, as was the case in the recent past should not be entertained under the new administration.
Before we conclude, there is the long outstanding but burning issue of the bad laws passed by the DPP-led parliament. There should be no procrastination or lame excuses any more.
In fact, repealing those bad laws should be the first port of call for the new Minister of Justice and Attorney General Ralph Kasambara; who knows all of them like the back of his hand, soon as he takes the oath of office.
Ordinary Malawians have suffered for far too long while those in power have lived well beyond their official earnings. This can no longer be entertained. And we will therefore work day and night to expose any unethical, fraudulent and unscrupulous behaviour and any abuse of office or authority.
Last but not least, we noted with dismay as the offices of the Ombudsman, the Malawi Revenue Authority and the Anti-Corruption Bureau were turned to toothless bull-dogs in the past three years or so. Investigations pertaining to people connected to the powers that be, were quickly pushed under the carpet, nothing further was heard, no-one was brought to account and the looters were left scot-free to loot again. This is totally unacceptable in the Malawi of today.
If this practice persists, we will again neither hesitate nor get tired to name and shame, print and re-print and to amplify whatever those benefitting from such behaviours would want to remain hidden.
As we said in our congratulatory message a couple of weeks ago – there is no secret under the sun, and that being the case, our raison d’etre is to find such secrets and publish them. We hope that even without giving names – which we promise to do soon enough – we have made everything clear.
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