Bingu riles Malawi Law Society for undermining the rule of Law
The Malawi Law Society (MLS) says President Bingu wa Mutharika and his government must in 2012 adhere to the rule of law and respect peoples human rights and never behave in an obdurate manner as he did in 2011 where they abused power with impunity.
MLS president Mr. John-Gift Mwakhwawa asked the Malawian leader and his administration to change and mustt stop to arrogantly continue disrespecting and disregarding court orders.
Mwakhwawa said in an interview that the Law Society is “deeply disappointed” with the Malawi government on how it performed last year in terms of adhering to the rule of law and human rights advancement in the country.
“Government authorities performed very badly and it has ruled the governed without due regard to the rule of law. The government violated and abused human rights of its own citizens with impunity,” said Mwakhwawa.
Court Orders
Mwakhwawa explained that the Mutharika led government has been condescendingly discarding court orders singling out one by the High Court in Blantyre on the troubled Malawi Electoral Commission to be opened, as a classic example.
The British trained lawyer added that there were so many other court orders that government calculatingly chose to ignore, saying such behaviour is very bad trend to the justice system in the country.
“If is it the government that starts to ignore court orders who then do we expect to honour them?” queried Mwakhwawa.
He added: “The president and the government is expected at times to uphold the rule of law and respect the law under any circumstances. It is disheartening that the same president and his administration who swore to respect the law of the land start to abuse it.”
But Ministry of Justice spokesperson Apoche Itimu was on the defensive, saying government has been respecting the rule of law in all proportions.
“That’s not true because we have respected all the orders issued by the courts. We complied with all them, from injunctions to stay orders, thus we’ve no cases regarding contempt of court,” said Itimu.
Change
But Mwakhwawa maintained President Mutharika and his government must change their as regards to the respecting of the rule of law and human rights abuses.
“We only hope that things will change for the better,” he said, “Bingu must come our of his dictatorial shell in 2012 to change on how to behave towards respecting both the rule of law and human rights. In 2011 Bingu portrayed his tyrannical colours than never before and he needs to change,” Mwakhwawa said.
He added that the president must always remember that he was elected by the people and therefore it is imperative to operate within their expectations.
“President must always work within people’s expectation and always ensure that he satisfies their needs because it is the people who put him in office. He is the people’s servant and not their master must change or he will continue to loose their trust,” stated Mwakhwawa.
Failure
Human Rights organisations in the country agrees with Mwakhwawa that Bingu failed to uphold people’s rights in 2011.
The Human Rights Consultative Committee said earlier this week that if the President has failed to rule the country they must come out in the open declare so to Malawians and the citizens can know what next course of action to take.
The human rights body says it is the duty of government to shoulder the blame on the problems the country is currently facing and not to play the blame game.
Malawians, according to the body are eager to hear solutions government has put in place to arrest the problems and not blame the devil and others.
“If government has failed to rule the country it must come out in the open to declare so for Malawians to realise the next course of action,” declared human rights activists Undule Mwakasungula and Gift Trapence in a joint statement.
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