Feature

Human rights/Democracy/Governance

By Frazer Potani, Lilongwe, Malawi


It is just heartbreaking, traumatizing, confusing and unbelievable! Yes! 21-year-old Chimwemwe Ngwira in Mzuzu and 13-year-old John Mora in Blantyre in northern and southern Malawi respectively are dead!

Yet they would have been still alive today had those in authority who were put into public office by the electorate through the ballot in 2009 simply just listened and rectified the concerned problems and learned from mistakes committed in the past.

However, the authorities chose for nothing to remain deaf, arrogant, defiant and stubborn against genuine cries of unbearable pains infringing masses !

Due to the authorities' arrogance Ngwira and Mora and 18 other precious souls now eternally sleep seven feet below some few weeks old earth tombs after demonstrations that were supposed to be peaceful against Malawi Government’s failure to address some social-economic shortfalls turned violent.

In Area 23 Township in Lilongwe City residents are back to square one travelling to Lilongwe Old Town to bank and withdraw money from First Merchant Bank (FMB) and Opportunity International Bank of Malawi (OIBM) after the two banks' agencies in their area were vandalized and sums of money stolen during the same protests.

The residents have also to travel to Lilongwe Old Town to buy commodities after a Chipiku Store and Peoples Trading Centre Supermarket in the township and another in Kawale Township and Chinese shops were all looted by angry protestors during the same protests leading to losses of property worth large sums of money.

In Namichimba in the same Area 23 Township policemen are now operating without an office after their premises were ransacked and set on fire during the same demonstrations.

This in fact is one of the townships in Lilongwe where police failed to contain the situation during the protests and government had to send armed soldiers to control the angry crowds from further looting!

In Mchesi Township in the same Lilongwe City, 10 policemen and their families have been turned into refugees in their own country.

The law enforcers are living at a police training school after their houses were also destroyed in a mob justice during the same demonstrations.

Some businessmen of Chinese and Indian origin whose shops were spared are even operating in fear following the same protests and other earmarked protests in form of vigils on September 21!

In fact one of the Indian business tycoons who lost millions due to the looting of his shop in Mzuzu even told Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)-Malawi Chapter’s best radio privately owned Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) that he was planning to close business in Malawi for good.

Even some blue vehicles and office premises belonging to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the same party [that had amassed majority seats in Parliament and its presidential candidate scooped over 2 million votes beating all other candidates] were burnt to ashes during the same protests.

Ask some innocent DPP members they will also tell you the trauma they went through after being assaulted by angry protesters in one way or the other simply for belonging to the party whose leadership could not allegedly listen to cries of citizens on some wrongs to be rectified in the country.

Even motorists at a four way junction on Chidzanja Road also linking Lilongwe City and Kamuzu Barracks are facing a tough time and at risk of getting involved in an accident because traffic lights that were controlling traffic were also savagely destroyed during the same July 20 demonstrations!

Malawi has since time immemorial been known to be peaceful to the extent that it is popularly known as the ‘Warm Heart of Africa’.

However, recently the country experienced losses of lives, injuries and barbaric looting of property worth millions of Kwachas during demonstrations led by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)because those in power had allegedly chosen to seal their ears instead of leaving them open to listen to concerns of the electorate to be rectified at all levels.

Malawi’s Leader of Opposition, also Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president, John Tembo said that all the above incidents would have been avoided.

He however, said they all happened because some people in authority including the country’s first tenant at the New State House and his government resist concrete criticism and never listened to the cries of citizens on some issues of national interest that have been going wrong in the country.

“If the State President and his government had listened and positively took steps to address the problems that have been raised on several occasions by various cross sections of our country’s society innocent lives would have not been lost,” said Tembo.

He said it is high time those in authority in Malawi listen to concrete criticism and regard those criticizing the state on issues of national interest at all levels including members of the opposition as friends of the state and not enemies.

“We are all Malawians regardless of our political alignments hence if we just watch as things are going wrong instead of advising those in authority to rectify them we will all bear such mistakes’ consequences,” said Tembo.

He said his vision therefore, is to one day for Malawians to have a government that would always be ready to listen from the electorate than just dictating to them on issues.

“Presently we are in a democracy in Malawi as such those in authority are not masters but rather servants of the people because they were put in public positions by the electorate during elections,” charged Tembo.

However, while regretting the deaths of people and destruction of property during the demonstrations, President Bingu wa Mutharika said had the CSOs listened to his calls to engage him in a dialogue the above incidents would have been avoided.

“I invited members of the Civil Society Organizations to engage them in a dialogue so that we all identify solutions to the said problems,” said Mutharika who claims that those who had died during the July 20 demonstrations were looters and thieves, a matter that but angered relatives of the victims.

The President said he extended the invitation for dialogue to the CSOs during his public lecture at the New State House in Lilongwe on the same day the demonstrations were conducted.

“But while some CSO members attended my public lecture others did not and had chosen to hold the demonstrations which they had promised would be peaceful yet they turned violent leading to loss of lives and property,” said Mutharika.

He further said by not attending his public lecture the members of the civil society, the clergy and the opposition had missed a chance to offer alternative solutions for the country’s concerned difficulties.

Mutharika also said the current social-economic problems facing Malawi are also being experienced in other societies worldwide including rich developed nations on the globe.

But Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC) Chairperson also Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) Executive Director Undule Mwakasungula said had the President and his administration listened and identified solutions for them than relied on ill-advices from some advisors who have no welfare of Malawians at heart some problems would have been avoided.

He also explained that had members of the civil society who are critical of government attended Mutharika’s public lecture at the New State House in Lilongwe nothing would have happened to make any difference in Malawians’ lives.

“In fact the State President has failed to hold fruitful negotiations with stakeholders to identify solutions for the country’s problems. People in this country may wish to know that we have on several occasions attended meetings with the Head of State. But after every meeting only talking has taken place and no action,” said Mwakasungula heading committee representing over 90 Non-Governmental-Organizations (NGOs) in Malawi.

Lawyer Ralph Kasambara who had served in Mutharika’s government as Attorney General said he is a puzzled man on some decisions made by the President.

“There is something wrong somewhere, just imagine our State President keeps changing decisions. He for instance just few days after the July 20 demonstrations appealed to protesters to stop and that he is ready to hold negotiations with any group with grievances against his administration,” said Kasambara adding that Mutharika’s decision gave Malawians an impression that he would like to promote peace in the country and resolve problems facing it.

“To the whole nation’s surprise, the same President issued threats against the civil society at a police function in Zomba few days later,"he said adding that another few days later again Mutharika issued threats of war against the civil society at an agricultural fare in Blantyre.

The chairman of Malawi Human Rights Consultative Committee (MHRCC) Justin Dzonzi on the other hand said the Malawi Police Service (MPS) seemed to have used excessive force in violent protests especially in the country’s major cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu during the July 20, 2011 demonstrations.

Dzonzi further said some of the protesters were also to blame for destroying property, which he said provoked a reaction from the police.

“Looking at it from all angles, obviously, the police used excessive force because all the reports indicate that these people were armed with stones,” said Dzonzi adding, “If you begin to shoot at people armed with stones as a police officer, you must certainly be exceeding the reasonable requirement of overcoming resistance.”

According to witnesses, angry demonstrators set fires in Lilongwe and Mzuzu while police in Blantyre fired tear gas to disperse protesters who numbered in the hundreds.

“The police would be guilty of using excessive force, but notwithstanding the fact that part of the violence was provoked by the demonstrators themselves. A coalition of civic and rights groups as well as opposition parties organized the nationwide demonstrations to express what they said is their anger and disgust at President Mutharika’s ‘marauding tyranny, bad economic policies and [poor] democratic governance,’ ” said Dzonzi adding that Mutharika has yet to address concerns of protest organizers.

“On top of the list would be fuel scarcity. Malawi is experiencing one of its worse fuel shortages it has ever experienced. Then we have [alleged] blatant abuse of the majority that the ruling party has in parliament by [introducing] quite unpopular pieces of legislation…The list is long and that might give you an idea of general mood of Malawians, which will partly explain why such a peaceful demonstration might have erupted into violence,” said the MHRCC chairman.

He further said Mutharika has also been criticized for his handling of a diplomatic disagreement that prompted Britain to server economic aid to its former colony.

“A majority of Malawians are displeased with how the president handled the spat. It was certainly part of the [reasons] put forward for holding a peaceful demonstration against the administration,” said Dzonzi adding that of course one also has to understand that these issues have actually been on the table for quite some time now.

In a preliminary investigation report, Malawi Government’s own human rights watchdog, the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) on the other hand says the demonstrations turned violent due to among other things, protesters’ anger on DPP cadets’ threats a day before the demonstrations when the ruling party youths got armed with panga knives and drove in their party vehicle threatening to deal with the protesters the following day.

The document also says protesters were also angered by an eleventh hour court injunction by the ruling party’s cadet [Chiza Mbekeani] to restrain the demonstrators from exercising their right while they were already in the streets.

The paper also says the demonstrations turned violent due to police’s use of excessive force on the protesters.

The commission also faults the state controlled but tax payers funded Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC)’s propaganda saying the public broadcaster angered the demonstrators by airing that the protesters went in the streets to promote gay rights and not to show their dissatisfaction against government’s failure to address some social, economic and political problems affecting them.

Police authorities said they had not seen the said MHRC report therefore, could not comment on the matters concerened.

On his part Mutharika's Spokesperson Heatherwick Ntaba accused the CSOs of receiving money from donors and the opposition and using demonstrations including vigils on the pretence of expressing their right while aiming at overthrowing a democratically elected Mutharika government.

“These are people who have no welfare of this country at heart but to disturb the peace Malawians have been enjoying since independence,” he said.

Malawi Heath Equity Network (MEHN) National Coordinator Martha Kwataine however, said she was concerned with the way the Mutharika administration has been running Malawi since attaining majority in Parliament in 2009 elections including how it had handled the demonstrations.

“The way the President [Bingu wa Mutharika] has been running the country in recent months and how its law-enforcers handled the demonstrations to the extent that some innocent lives were lost on July 20 doesn’t befit a government led by someone who was African Union (AU) Chairperson just a year ago,” said Kwataine.

She said both while serving as AU Chairman and after stepping down from the position Mutharika has witnessed the negative impacts of conflicts on the continent that would have offered some lessons to his government and avoid them.

Kwataine’s sentiments come after while serving as AU Chairman, Mutharika played his role in an effort to bring peace between the disagreeing parties Luarent Gbagbo and his rival Alassane Ouattara after last year's November elections in Ivory Coast.

Although the Malawian President's efforts failed to yield peace in that west African country, his country has 850 soldiers in Ivory Coast on a UN Peacekeeping mission.

The sentiments also come after due to among other things, alleged poor governance, human rights violations and dictatorial tendencies including failure to listen to cries of the electorate citizens in some Arabic countries including Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Yemen, Libya have risen up against their governments.

After succeeding Bakili Muluzi, Mutharika promised Malawians that his administration would, unlike previous governments, be a listening government and even accommodate concrete criticism.

One of Malawi’s few prominent musicians Lucius Banda who had tirelessly campaigned for Mutharika to get into power in 2004, said since independence in 1964 the country’s presidents have been making some clear blunders that would have but been easily avoided due to wrong advices from their advisors.

“There are some people in Malawi who while the late first President Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda was ruling the country misled him and after misleading him they also went to mislead Dr. Bakili Muluzi when he was ruling this country. The same people are also presently misleading Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika,” he said.

Banda further said another challenge that Malawian presidents have been facing is to learn from mistakes that were committed by their predecessors in the past.

The musician has a point because it is not only the Mutharika administration that has shed blood instead of listening to cries from the electorate on some issues of national concern.

When people in Chitipa in northern Malawi had peacefully marched to the District Commissioner’s office on the failure by Muluzi and his United Democratic Front (UDF) despite money being allocated in the National Budget to construct the road linking them to the rest of the country government through police shot some defenceless people dead instead.

During the democratic transition in the early 1990s under the former one party rule under the then mighty MCP under late Dr. Banda blood was also shed during riots in the country calling for change.

The shed blood was minus the over 10,000 people who had suffered in one way or the other including being assassinated and tortured during detentions without trial at the hands of MCP agents since independence.

Similarly, when Malawi’s great freedom fighter Reverend John Chilembwe from Chiradzulu southern Malawi wrote a letter in Nyasaland Times (now Malawi’s oldest daily newspaper The Daily Times) appealing to the British colonial government to consider valuing natives as human beings, not continue suffering under oppression at the hands of foreigners, government in Zomba never listened then.

The matter forced Chilembwe in early 1915 mobilizing his subjects to fight against the colonial regime which also resulted in bloodshed.

Some Malawians were also shot dead on March 3, 1959 presently Martys' Day during the struggle against the British colonial rule because it could not listen to concerns of the natives.

Later Malawi attained Independence on July 6 in 1964 and Republic satus in 1966 respectively.

One would think that since Red on Malawi's flag represents the blood that was shed by Malawian freedom fighters then all those usherred in public office as presidents and their governments would be the first and in the forefront to do everything including to listen and learn from previous mistakes to avoid blood shed but this is not the case!

The truth however, remains that leaders just like any other human beings are not immune to making errors therefore, if they are genuine they have always to listen and learn from past mistakes to avoid repeating them and put innocent lives and societies in danger like what happened on July 20 this year, during the shooting of demonstrators on the then halted road construction in Chitipa and Chilembwe uprising in Malawi!

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried something new.”_Albeit Einstein_

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