This growing Judiciary autocracy in Malawi must be ended
There is this tendency in Malawi of some people wanting to place the Judiciary on a pedestal sort of for all of us to worship.
They want us to hold judges as some sacred beings to be treated with almost breathless respect.
You are not allowed to criticize them or to disagree with their determinations.
When they make a judgment you totally disagree with, you should just suffer in silence.
This is the creation of Judicial Autocracy and Malawians should not allow it — at any cost.
There are three arms of government: The Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary.
Of the three, the Executive and the Legislature are attacked every day by everyone including quacks in law and drunks in civil society.
Of the three, it is the Judiciary that seems to have obtained the rights from wherever to demonize and lord over the other two at will. It rarely takes criticism kindly.
Of the three arms, it is the Judiciary that has exercised little restraint in ensuring the Constitutional independence of the other two.
No one is allowed to hold an opinion that is different from what judges think.
Or you are accused of interfering with or disrespecting the Judiciary and conspiring to defeat the ends of democracy and justice.
Nothing can be more nonsensical!
The Judiciary is by no means naturally free from any criticism or different opinion. It, too, runs on taxpayers money and it is in the firing line by anyone.
There is nothing special about Judiciary, just as there is nothing special about the Executive and Legislature.
After all, have we not seen credible reports of corruption among judges?
Have we not seen clear bias in some of their judgments?
Do we not have relations who are in jail today because of wrong sentences by some judges and magistrates?
Do we not have families that are languishing in poverty today because some judge is sitting on a judgment on their case?
Did the Anti Corruption Bureay (ACB) director Reyneck Matemba, a lawyer himself, not speak for many Malawians when he described the Judiciary as “disgusting and rotten”?
This habit of elevating the Judiciary as some immortal unit living in space should end. Malawians must end it. Malawians must stop Judicial Autocracy in this country.
The same principles of transparency and accountability that are applied on the Executive and Legislature should also be applied on the Judiciary.
And that comes in various forms including disagreeing openly and fearlessly with their judgments.
Among the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary, none of them is a god.
In democracy, each one of them is available for criticism by anyone.
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A Dpp listen to the voicemail of the people. Before the Court after you were chosen, you didn’t listen to people that choose you. Instead people were segregated, corruption increased, kuzima magetsi, sewege at area 18, beating people by your thugs increased, nepotism, albino killings. Now what was Dpp alternatives. Even I wondered that it was doing that first term of their ruling. Now you will cry. Chibwana chimalanda.
A bad carpenter blames his own tools. If you fo not prepare well for the case, especially those cases where the intention is to twist justice, for sure you will always blame the judges.
Why don’t start by telling this old fool called-peter mtharika? The is siding with Dpp criminals he probably received something. Judges delivered us from criminals like jane and peter so ngati una leredwa ndi ndalama zokuba monga achitira achina dausi go to hell.
A dpp a kulera anawo ndalama zakatangale.
Our judges think they are clever but they are incompetent and corrupt. Hopefully, after the election they will be put into a box together with their masters.
I wish the election system had VAR! we’ve all seen this in real life, people scoring offside goals ( rigging elections) and celebrating like nothing happened. Kikikikiki
DPP is a syndicate ! . A Criminal organisation!
IT’S A MAFIA GOVERNMENT! operating in broad daily light.
But even Pablo Escobar had his day. Sikhu ya 40 yifika popano…. Nyekhwe yeni yeni kikikiki Alliance Boma
Your lawyers are nfundoless nchifukwa chake nonse mukulira mokweza a chipani cha angulu. Do not steal votes; do not appeal obvious things and do not personalize MEC. Mukatelo you will not have anything to complain about against the judges whose job is to interpret the law which the legislature makes and the executive enforces.
Thanks for the article and this is one of the best posted here. I get all what you have provided in the article and to me it points to the fact that the judiciary can also make mistakes, they also need to be checked and not always praise what they have done whether its mbwerere or not. These guys must now be exposed because eventhough am not a lawyer, ours are worse occupying those government positions.
The beauty of judiciary is to disagree with them by appealing. Its a pity that you are not aware of this.
The writer clearly does not understand the special role of the Judiciary as ‘a watch-dog to ensure the constitution is complied with in whatever both the Executive and Legislature do’. If the three arms were allowed to do as they please what would we have on the ground????!!!!! For transparency and accountability, we are all given a chance to read rulings and knowledgeably opine but we are not afforded the chance to scrutinize the writer’s performance or are we????!!!!!!
Parliament makes law but it’s not above the law. Executive originates the law but it’s not above the law. The judiciary interprets the law but it’s not above the Law. If anyone feels the judiciary is illegally interpreting the law take it to court. Go to the Hague and sue the judiciary.