What is wrong with Nicholas Dausi? Malawi government spokesman needs to stand by the truth

There is apparently something wrong with the Minister of Information, Nicholas Dausi. He has failed in duties by aiding and abating malpractices in government. He has lost the moral campus as government spokesperson by contradicting himself and the authority he represents. As a devout member of the Holy Catholic Church he needs to exemplify the cliché that “The mind of the master (Jesus Christ) should be the master of his mind. He needs to stand by the truth and truth alone, instead of public opinion which is influenced more by emotion than reason.

Dausi: Government spokesman

This comes in the wake of his emotional statement on Malawi Broadcasting Corporation Television where he spat venom at the leader of opposition Rev. Dr. Lazarus Chakwela for dutifully uttering sentiments aimed at reminding the State President of his mandate, authority as well as duty in ensuring efficiency, accountability and transparency in his administration.

Dr. Chakwela was well within his context as leader of opposition and of his own party to point out to the head of state in the strongest manner possible that the administration is derelict on all fronts of government; health, education, security to say nothing of the economy. The life and continuity of any nation depends on Education, Health and Security, to build a sustainable economy and grow.

To lash at such purposeful advice to the head of state as the one coming from Dr. Chakwela only goes to show the common accord that the DPP has sworn to defend, that of defrauding the tax payers and denying them the basic services they deserve under the law. Minister Dausi was vehement at the judiciary for ordering Minister of Agriculture against continuing to function as line Minister until the inquiry was concluded.

Minister your sentiments erroneously influenced the Minister to develop the arrogance even of defiance against a Court order. And one wonders how this administration dares play double standards when punishing wrong doing. There are people who have merely been dismissed from their jobs for offences verging on corruption or theft or both, while others have been arrested and convicted for similar felonies. This is the kind of jurisdiction Nicholas Dausi wants to see maintained!

Nicholas Dausi wants us to believe that what Rev. Dr. Chakwela has done is a recipe for returning to the dark days where he Dausi was an active activist, judging by how much he seems to know and remember. No, by no means NO! What Dr. Chakwela is doing is the direct opposite. The Economic anemia in Malawi today has been created by the very malpractices Minister of Information is keen to defend, and has become a plague capable of causing massacre; the deprivation, starvation and even needless death from curable diseases that is common sight manifests that reality.

As if that was not enough, where on earth do we find room on MBC – TV and cause for the nonsense from the so called CSOs, who claim to have held a press briefing on ‘national Issues” calling for the ACB to investigate the leader of opposition for constructing a decent house? Is this not  exactly what Nicholas Dausi seems to decry, as he alluded to the forfeiture act, where anyone who constructed a decent house that did not leak when it rained was incarcerated and property forfeited?

I find this misplacement of zeal totally misplaced. This group of so called CSOs raised no voice when the inquiry into the scum of maize from Zambia was in progress.

I think that press conference by this opportunists was ridiculous a waste of time. MBC has turned its back on its mandate and duty where the “culture of silence” prevails like it does in our society, we rely on the media and in collaboration with civil society to empower society to raise anguish into public expression, in the understanding that silence is a lie, when truth needs to be spoken.

If ours is a society that has lost the capacity for outrage, it is the media, civil society and even political parties and the faith community to reawaken our consciences and recover the human capacity for outrage and anger. Anger by the way is an expression of people who are hurt and still care, not only for themselves but also for others. And it must not diminish. William Coffin said “if you lower your anger at oppression, you lower your compassion for the oppressed.”[1]

The right of access to pertinent information, which includes information held by the state or by another person or institution, is required to exercise or protect any of the constitutionally enshrined rights. If it is suppressed, as Minister Dausi and the phony CSOs have connived to do the citizenry cannot hold government to account for its actions; and that is embarrassing to the government or worse disastrous to its public reputation and calamitous to the majority of the citizenry.

Therefore we need anger, similar to what Rev. Dr. Chakwela has expressed so that what cannot be may not be, we need that courage so that what must be will be. This must heighten the sense of duty of the media including MBC to keep society informed and to deter conduct unbecoming. It will help to unmask those wicked plans and ways of thinking, wicked living and acting, and advance those that promote well being in society.

So far the Maize gate is only the start of unmasking and desecrating those self consecrated politicians, because we no longer have sacred cows; and this should help advance attitudes of Journalists towards press freedom.

However, I am skeptical of one aspect: the public broadcaster Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) is not ready and willing to respond to the calling of “journalism in good faith” and embrace its ethics. MBC’s mandate seems outside of the Law, supported by policies solely intended to enhance political bias and propaganda.

That makes MBC a weird animal within the media zoo. In this context, Journalism at MBC serves as explicit part of the means to a political end, to the extent of being used to defend the governing politicians of the time.   Such performance as this is anathema to journalism, a revolt and antithesis to ethics, aims, objectives and standards of journalism.

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zingalume
7 years ago

A Dausi atiuza ciani pakali pano? Ndiwo anthu amene anagwiritsa lamuro molakwika mdzina la Kamuzu

Absolutely
Absolutely
7 years ago

This article is 100% correct. What a fine writer! How rational! What a shame on Dausi and MBC!

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