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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Bingu and his government have lost legitimacy

The recent callous and nonchalant way the Bingu government has handled itself over citizens frustrations, just goes to demonstrate how far removed the administration is from identifying with the struggles that ordinary Malawians are facing. It is so maddening to hear Bingu wa Mutharika talk about a Malawi as a success story when people are queuing for fuel; factories are remaining idle because they cannot import raw materials due to the forex shortages; hospitals cannot provide even the most basic medication because of a biting shortage of drugs; more people are turning to burning charcoal and wood because electricity is being rationed; streams have become the primary water sources because the water boards cannot provide adequate water; University students are remaining idle for months becuase the President and his Police feel it is right to place spies in lecture rooms; the list is longer. And yet the President and his sorry-group of  hand clappers appear so oblivious and think the suffering Malawians can buy his picture of a Malawi full of roses!
It is obvious Bingu and his cast of sycophants are living in an alternative dream world, a lala-land so far removed from reality.  To hear these syncomphats from the public media and the DPP (I now refuse to call the DPP the ruling party because it seems to have stopped governing - it has just been reduced to praise singing for Bingu) makes my blood boil. Simply put, Mutharika and his cronies can no longer claim to genuinely represent the people of Malawi.
Now, the cowardly attempts by the government and its agents to prevent Malawians from exercising their right to demonstrate (as provided for under Section 38 of the Malawi Constitution) has further demonstrated the widening gulf between those who are governing and the governed. Indeed, the spontaneous outbreak of violence across the country make Blessings Chinsinga's ill-fated lecture about how policy failures by government can cause extreme public disaffection sound prophetic. When governments fail to fulfill their side of the democratic bargain, the link between the governing and governed is irreparably broken. The only option for the people then is to take matters into their own hands.
A goverment that relies on force to frustrate the people's aspirations, to take away their constitutionally guranteed rights through dubious decisions handed in the middle of the night, has lost legitimacy and can no longer claim the right to govern. The authority to govern, as provided for under Section 6 of the Malawi Constitution  derives from the people and is to be used solely to protect and promote their interests, not the interests of one man or a particular ruling clique.  And because democracy is government pro-tempore, once the link between the rulers and the ruled has been broken, as it has in our present case, the country needs to move in a different direction. Malawi, as I wrote in my previous post, is bigger than Bingu and his cronies. It is indeed bigger than any of us. We will all die and be gone but Malawi will still be there. To provide that opportunity for Malawi to move on without being ruined, Bingu and his cronies need to go. now.

Friday, July 15, 2011

In Support of the demonstrations against bad governance in Malawi

Due to more pressing engagements, I have been unable to update this blog in the last month.
However, I would like to register my support for my countrymen planning to go out on the streets to demonstrate against the poor governance record of Bingu wa Mutharika, whose arrogance, myopia and incompetence are bringing untold miseries on the innocent Malawi folk.
Mutharika is but one man. The thirteen million other Malawians deserve a better leadership that can work in their interests. Down with this dictatorship.