Editorial: President Mutharika, we are watching you!
Nobody at the Nyasa Times is enjoying the new lows that Malawi is descending to with each day, under the tyrannical rule of President Bingu wa Mutharika.
The sight of youths and women engaging in running battles with the brutal Malawi Police, when the youths and women could have been busy with gainful activities, hurts us beyond words.
What is particularly painful, and what we find most disgusting is that behind all this are the machinations and signatures of the Mutharika administration. This failed administration is trying hard to divert attention from its failure to provide tangible solutions to the worsening economic situations that it is 101% responsible for.
The administration has therefore set in motion a series of moves, calculated to provoke people.
First, the Malawi Government tried to incite anarchy by needlessly arresting and holding-on to human rights lawyer Ralph Kasambara when he apprehended the agents of terror it had despatched to harm him. The public, at that time, merely watched in dismay.
Then they concocted the unfounded coup d’état story, which they hurriedly recanted and disowned. After that, the Malawi Government pointlessly arrested widely respected and leading human rights activist, the Chair-person of the Malawi Human Rights Commission, Mr John Kapito. Again, the general public, under the inspiration of the Christian teaching that commands the offended to turn the other cheek, held its patience.
Frustrated and annoyed that the public is not falling for its cheap tricks, and knowing that the public is awaiting the wise guidance of the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) on the way forward, the government is now getting desperate.Irritated that the arrests of Messrs Ralph Kasambara and John Kapito failed to incite public anger to warrant police brutality; last Sunday it found an opportunity in the constitutionally recognised and peaceful assembly of the United Democratic Front (UDF) to be addressed by Atupele Muluzi, MP.
It sent its barbaric police forces to disrupt the rally and throw tear-grass indiscriminately on people whose only crime was gathering to enjoy freedom of assembly as guaranteed by the constitution of the Republic of Malawi.
As if that is enough, when the people, tested to the limit said enough is enough and retaliated, the Mutharika Government seems to have been gifted with what it had all along been looking for: the arrest of a public and popular figure who is fast turning into a thorn in the flesh to the dynastisation of Malawi: Mr Atupele Muluzi, MP.
Atupele Muluzi’s crime:
being a beacon of hope and offering alternative leadership to Malawians, especially the youth at a time when they are facing a bleak future of deprivation and utter despair, with practically no prospects for a turn-around under the misguided, absurd and depraved leadership of President Mutharika.
The measures being employed by the Mutharika regime, which mirror those used by his hero Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, have no place in the Malawi that Malawians fought and died for in the sixties and again in the early nineties.
President Mutharika should be thankful that Malawians are generally a God-fearing and resilient people who detest anarchy and can withstand oppression for a long time. But the time is coming, and coming fast, when they will not take any more.It will not be long before the inept and clueless Mutharika government is unable to keep the growing anger under control.
Although Malawi’s opposition political parties and civil society organizations have never been known for irresponsible behaviour; they could have no difficulty mobilising people against the Mutharika government; bringing the country to a complete standstill and “smoking out” President Mutharika and his “viruses”.
Unless the Mutharika Administration changes, the situation is set to deteriorate. This will increase the possibility of Malawi falling into total anarchy that could eventually see President Mutharika being shown an exit in a manner not too dissimilar to the manner Gadhafi was removed. We are aware that this is what President Mutharika and his cronies are hoping for. So that they can declare a state of emergency, justifying the police state that Malawi has in fact become. They hope that like that, they can summarily do away with growing voices, resistance and threats to their selfish intentions and draw attention away from President Mutharika’s ineptitude.
Our final word to President Mutharika is: free Atupele Muluzi forthwith, and stop this madness.
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