Letter to citizens of Malawi: Should we watch thieves in power continue destroying our country?

Fellow citizens of mother Malawi! Many of us are aware that Peter Mutharika and his party are destroying our country but because this party is led by a Southerner the majority of us are failing to stand up and speak louder that a fellow southerner has failed and is a failure.

Many people from the northern region such as Kamlepo Kalua, Harry Mkandawire and others have tried to voice out against the ills such as theft, corruption and destruction of a country by the attitude of the president of shielding corrupt citizens in his party and government but citizens of the central, east and southern regions have branded these heroes from the north with insults as being mad people and liars not because they are not telling the truth but because they are from the northern region.

Malawi Congress Party under the new and reformed leadership is failing to garner more support and increase membership in the south and eastern regions just because we say it is a party from central region therefore it is a party of Chewas.

Brothers and sisters of the north are the worst victims as far as our nation is concerned. Despite them having intelligent and fearless voices about the plight of Malawi they have been branded as tribalists yet no one from this region ever ruled or formed a government in Malawi.

Today Malawi at 53 five governments have ruled this country out of the five only one government came from central region four came from the Southern region (the most populated region). The type of rule the four governments have undertaken make no difference from what a single government from central region did.
Malawi Congress Party under Kamuzu Banda killed opponents and forced citizens to give gifts, confisticated peoples property forced many people into exile and misappropriated state funds.

UDF under Muluzi from the south misappropriated state funds, corrupted and also killed many critics one of whom is my home boy Evison Matafale. When the economy failed many who were in exile and came back to help rebuild Malawi went back into exile the list is endless, Dr. Sam Bhima, Professor Donton Mkandawire and the list. A young tourism officer was made to leave his lucrative work in Namibia by Muluzi to come back home only to come and be the street boy without a job till he returned back to Namibia.

When DPP came into power Bingu became a good leader under duress because UDF under Muluzi wanted to punish him for eloping from the yellow party, Bingu had to seek sanctuary from citizens. When citizens accommodated him and gave him sympathy he dumped and betrayed the peoples trust and started stealing from state. Bingu became who he is made of and started killing people and destroyed the economy. None of us are not familiar with the scarcity of fuel and commodities during his rule, the revelation after his sudden death where bundles and bundles of cash were found in the house and at the grave witnesses this.

The number of people who died for lack of services in hospitals, and failing to reach to hospitals is larger than those killed mysteriously by Kamuzu Banda.

Similar situations and circumstances are repeating themselves under the brother Peter Mutharika. Billions of Kwachas towards a Trillion were stolen under Bingu today Peter Mutharika is presiding a government that is infested by corruption inherited from the elder brothers system.

Despite international community’s outcry and threats of cutting Aid Peter Mutharika has accepted to kiss donors off than removing the lid of corruption on his brothers government and chose to shield it while his government plunders billions from tax payers money. The cash found in one of his ministers house is just a tip of an iceberg if Peter Mutharika was a man to be trusted in combating corruption in Malawi he could have ordered such search of all the ministers before or immediately after he assumed power.

His failure to order such search and the fact that George Chaponda has not tasted prison or police cells after being found with such huge amount of money in his house when we have more than ten banks in Malawi explains a lot about Peter Mutharika’s tricks to fool Malawians on anti-corruption drive campaign.

A traditional man was arrested and remained in prison for defiling widows and virgins in lower Shire under his remorseless directive why is he failing to issue a similar directive against his minister when unexplained cash was found in his house?

Peter Mutharika has created a nation of elites and subjected poor citizens to harsh and punitive punishment. Peter Mutharika is informing citizens that if you are a nobody without political connection or money you are under the law but if you are politically connected and rich you are above the law. This precedence is risking our country for revolt as a common man and woman will resort to killing spree at fellow citizens as a sign of anger and frustration against their government.

This is the government that is and has been led by people of southern region doing all these.

This letter is coming to you fellow citizens to open your eyes and realize that politicians are dividing this country for their personal vendettas. We are deeply divided tribally and we are identified not by our national identity but regions which is a very dangerous exercise as far as peace of a country is concerned.

What we must know is that no one is a southerner, easterner or northener we are just Malawians. We are defined by national identity not region or tribe. Which is the reason we must defy and deny to be used by politicians who are bent to divide us for their political gains.

If we are to be pragmatic and true to ourselves we will find that tribalism is our worst enemy that has pushed us to put in power puppets as long as they are from our region or are from our tribe.

This is a dangerous path for it has not done any good to our nation.
Tribal belief is dragging our nation into deep crisis where development is impeded, services are denied, corruption is promoted and state theft encouraged. This is why Peter Mutharika is failing to arrest George Chaponda after an instituted commission advised ACB and the president to take action. George Chaponda has not been taken into police for questioning just because he is of the same tribe as Peter Mutharika and is vice president of the party.

While many of us can be whisked into police cells for questioning even before being found guilty or hard suspicions evidence is found. But George Chaponda can be found with large amounts of cash in his house and he cannot be taken to police for interrogation.

When the country is ruled by people like Peter Mutharika who is treating George Chaponda as superior and the likes of Jessie Kabwila, Eric Aniva, Ulemu Msungama and others as inferior we must know that our country is in the hands of dogs.

Brothers and sisters from the north must be understood when they voice out against regionalism and tribalism, we must support them when they speak for the nation. It is not proper and sensible to let few individuals in the annals of power to take advantage of power and subject the rest of the citizens to destitution.

Malawi is ours it is the country that belongs to all of us. If few individuals are found destroying it using state machinery they must be impeached, removed and jailed.

This letter therefore appeal to all tribes of Malawi and all regions to rally behind one another so that we must remove all thieves stealing from our taxes. Stopping corruption is not tribal or regional it is a national concern. Let us all fight for sanity in Malawi.

We want to see George Chaponda in custody and to be tried in the court of law. We want to see all government officials implicated in corruption scandals face justice.

• Saunders Jumah the Utopian
  SAVE MALAWI FOUNDATION [SAMAFO]
  in the absence of a responsible leadership our country’s future is doomed.
• The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Nyasa Times

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