After greed and deceit of 2013, new election year should bring renewed hope to Malawians
It is just a matter of hours now before Malawians join the rest of the world in welcoming the New Year and we, at Nyasa Times, would like to take full advantage of this opportunity in wishing all our readers, advertisers, news sources and other business partners the best of luck in 2014.
We realise that 2014 is a critical year that will chart the future of Malawi when eligible Malawians will go to the polls to elect a president, Members of Parliament and councillors. It is a big decision and one that must not be taken lightly.
It is this regard that Nyasa Times pledge to play the rightful role that journalism plays in society which is to be the search light and hold those that are in public office accountable to their people.
In the New Year, we promise to act as a barking watchdog of those in power and who want to be in power through provision of information to the citizens so that only people with the intention of taking Malawians forward are elected come May.
We will resist the utmost urge to churn out propaganda to the public instead of news at the behest of dishonest politician.
But for Malawians the year gone by should provide fodder for lessons as to the kind of leaders they need to elect come May 2010.
Do they want leaders who use the mandate they give freely during elections to amass obscene amount of wealth as was case of former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika, who accumulated an incredible K61 billion for himself by the time we buried him at Ndata, clearly shows?
It is not a secret that the late Mutharika was nearly destitute in Lilongwe before former president Bakili Muluzi plucked him from that that obscurity and gave him a lifeline as deputy Reserve Bank governor, Minister of Economic Planning and then ultimately President of this republic in 2004.
The wealth that he declared upon taking over the Highest Office in the land pales significantly to what he was holding upon death and it does not need a rocket scientist to work out the fact that the late Mutharika used the presidency to pile wealth upon himself and his family.
If the year gone by, the late Mutharika’s reported wealth caused deep consternation among Malawians, it cannot compare to the outrage they felt after the discovery that their tax at the Treasury is used as a play ground for an orgy of misappropriation by greedy politicians and their cronies.
We learnt with dismay that it has been a free-for-all siphoning of money that taxpayers pay through the nose, spanning through the DPP and PP administrations since 2005, that conservative estimates put up K110 billion as monies that have been lost through the odious orgy- – cashgate factor.
The question that Malawians should ask is: Do they want such leaders elected again or it is time to have a clean break after taking a hard look at the present crop of politicians.
As for us at, Nyasa Times, we still have trust in the democratic process that was established in 1993 after the referendum in which Malawians voted overwhelming to usher in the multiparty dispensation.
All we ask for is for Malawians, who have a right to lose hope and trust in politics after the events of 2013, to take heart and deliver Malawi from the bondage of greedy and dishonest politicians who only have the welfare of their bellies as well those of their families and cronies, at heart.
Nyasa Times wish you a jolly prosperous New Year!
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