Africa-Press – Malawi. Don’t do it. If you tell the truth men will hate you, and if you tell lies the gods will hate you. Since you must either tell the truth or tell lies, you must be hated either by men or by the gods”.
The boy felt disappointed. Anger ensued in his heart and for a few seconds, he was speechless. He later gained courage, thought about it and replied to his mother:
“I shall do it, mother. For if I tell lies, men will love me for it; and if I tell the truth the gods will love me. Since I must tell the truth or lies, I shall be loved by either men or gods.” The mother was perplexed at the brilliant response of her son. She quickly acknowledged that her son was already a politician.
On the analytical point of view, both the mother and the son are saying the same thing from dissenting perspectives. While the mother is pessimistic about politics, the son chose the optimistic lane.
Unfortunately, our Malawian politicians have chosen to emulate the son’s paradigm. They have created a theory that Malawians will love them by telling them lies. And it indeed works.
In fact, Malawian politicians have redefined politics as a system of benefiting from lies, hypocrisy, cheating, dishonesty and corruption. While the true meaning of politics is about governance, politicians in Malawi have redefined it to mean ensnaring somebody, cheating dribbling and deceit, simply called ndale.
Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda was excellent at cheating Malawians. While he pretended to love his fellow black people in Malawi, he was the only president who supported apartheid in South Africa.
While the poverty stricken Malawians were praising Kamuzu Banda for liberating them from colonial rule and for unprecedented infrastructural developments in Malawi, Kamuzu Banda was busy amassing wealth, busy killing his political opponents and busy implementing draconian laws that suppressed human rights and freedom of speech for Malawians. Bogus politics of lies and deceit.
The ascendency to power by Mr. Elson Bakili Muluzi ushered in a political era of freedoms of speech and expression. However, it was during Muluzi’s regime, when corruption quadrupled, government institutions were privatized for personal gains, and contractors were paid for non-existent projects just to mention a few.
Bakili Muluzi promised Malawians that he would provide free shoes. He later retracted his promise by saying it is impossible to do so because he did not know the shoe sizes of every one. It ended there. Politics of lies and deceit.
Bakili Muluzi was on it again. He promised Malawians that he would provide free fertilizer feleza wa ulele. He later capitalised on amphiboly fallacy to deny that he meant urea fertilizer not feteleza waulele. No wonder, his slogan was kumachenjera pa tauni. And he was clever. Politics of lies and deceit.
The same Bakili Muluzi promised musician Phungu Mkasa a brand new car which he failed to deliver. In another development, Bakili Muluzi is still answering of corruption charges. Bogus politics of cheat and dishonesty.
While Bingu wa Mutharika was praised for a stable economy and infrastructural developments in his first term, he was busy cheating Malawians amassing massive wealth under the hood. Politics of lies and dishonesty.
At the time of Bingu’s demise, stashes of money in suitcases were found in his bedroom. He had also built a mansion in which he barely lived for 3 months. This was the time when Malawians were grappling in abject poverty. Scarcity of fuel and forex. No essential drugs in public hospitals. Bogus politics of lies and deceit.
Being a philanthropist, Mrs. Joyce Banda preached a spirit of hardworking and a business oriented mind. Her slogan was kumatakata a Malawi. She initiated a housing project that saw the elderly and the underprivileged owning decent homes. She also provided goats and cows as a starter pack for animal farming. Little did Malawians know the hidden meaning of ‘kumatakata’ when government officials were caught red handed with stashes of money in their vehicles’ boots , a scandal dubbed cashgate. It was during her reign when presidential jet was sold whose proceeds remain untraceable. Bogus politics of lies and deceit.
You will be impressed when you read the 2014 Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) manifesto. In my view, it was well crafted. However, by the end of 2019, most of the promises in the DPP manifesto had not been implemented. Presidential powers were not devolved. Anti-Corruption Bureau was not fully independent. Most projects such as Mombera University were stalled. Corruption was rampant with a mere body guard to the president accessing and abusing a presidential tpin in a cement procurement scandal, just to mention a few. Bogus politics of lies and deceit.
Here come the main players of bogus politics of lies, hypocrisy and deceit, Dr. Lazarus Chakwera and his accomplice Dr. Saulos Chilima. These actors conspired and studied how previous governments cheated and duped Malawians. Then they hatched a better package called Tonse Alliance to maliciously cheat Malawians more.
First, they conspired with the judicial system to overthrow the Mutharika government in an operation what Prof. Mutharika calls judicial coup. They successfully did it and they were later handsomely compensated with millions of kwachas from the taxpayers’ money as legal costs. Bogus politics of lies, dishonesty and deceit.
The Tonse Alliance pact contained all the strategies to cheat Malawians so as to overthrow the Mutharika government. No wonder it was partially kept secret.
What was disclosed was a litany of empty promises which captured the emotions, needs and expectations of the underprivileged Malawians. They overpromised everything. Without reservations, Malawians accepted every promise.
Such promises include one million jobs within the first year of governance, three meals a day, free water and electricity connection, cheap non-expiratory driving licenses, monthly stipend to the elderly, the president resigning after two years if he does not perform to the expectations of Malawians, just to mention. Oh my God!!!
All these empty promises were part of the conspiracy to cheat and dupe Malawians. Bogus politics of lies, hypocrisy and deceit. Unfortunately, Malawi cannot afford to pursue bogus politics of lies, hypocrisy and deceit any more. Enough is enough. We have been duped for the past 58 years of independence. Now it is time to embrace clean politics of integrity and prosperity.
It is the responsibility of every citizen of Malawi to hold the current leadership of Tonse Alliance government accountable for the campaign promises they made. Now is the time.
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