ABOUT THE BINGU/ NGO LEADER’S PLANNED CONSUMMATION OF BLOOD COVENANT

The Leaders of the Civil Society in Malawi.

President Bingu wa Munthalika and the so called Civil Society leaders must be living in their own cloud cuckoo land. After the July 20, 2011 blood-spattered demonstrations Bingu went on air and offered to meet with committees comprising of leaders of the NGOs. This time round, the leaders ere back in the media and they are telling us that they have welcomed the offer and are ready to meet him on condition that the meetings are not held at the State House.

Their agreement to meet symbolizes that now that the Civil Society leaders have sacrificed a few innocent souls Bingu in now ready to enter into a covenant with them. This is how things used to happen in the old days. In order for the gods to listen to the people or to feel pity for the people, people used to offer some kind of blood sacrifice to the gods so they would listen to them, thereby entering into a covenant with each other.

Just imagine, as they are agreeing to do this, the blood in the streets is not dry yet. A parent in one place is still straggling to adjust to a life without a child and a child in another place is still trying to come to terms with a life without a parent. There are ashes in the streets and people’s neighborhoods. People in hospitals and some homes are running around trying to ease the pain and save lives of injured loved ones. All this happened because of Bingu’s inanity leadership and the Civil Society leaders’ heartlessness and folly. And here they are without shame neglecting the blood agreeing to meet to discuss fuel and fair treatment for Joyce Banda.

If we come to think of it, before the demonstrations, a lecturer was offered at which the issues in the petition were addressed. What any other thing that is new other than that which was in the lecture are the civil society leaders expecting to hear from Bingu? Why did they have to offer the blood of Malawians in order to draw Bingu’s attention to the problems they have or to have him meet them on their terms? Since by organizing the public lecture he seem to have had heard them.

How about we say Bingu and these leaders should go on ahead and meet and instead of wasting time with issues that are clearly wasting everybody’s time they should answer the question: how much is the life of a Malawian worth? Given a blank check what figure would they put on that for the blood of a 19 year old in Ndirande?

As for the other things the civil society leaders can just go on ahead and organize more demonstration that will see off more Malawians to the land up yonder. Since that is their way of making it happen. All the government can do is tell them to have only their members participate since they are membership based.

 As for those that agree with Bingu on how to solve the national problems as per the lecture, they can also start working on ways to make sure things happen based on the outcomes of the lecture.

If it is a meeting, Bingu can have with the opposition parties. By the way, when did we in Malawi appoint NGOs to represent us? Under whose mandate are they carrying this load? What has happened to the system whereby the people were represented by members of parliament and NGO’s were lobbying on behalf of the people? Another article on the opposition in Malawi is in the offing, check this space to see how doomed we are in them looking how they have reacted to the needless spillage of blood in Malawi that happened on July 20, 2011.

The time let as conclude this by saying that Bingu might have good development idea but on leadership he has become all talk and no trousers. And indeed people have gotten into his trousers for real to do what they want. Whatever he does, even if it is to please them cannot work, instead it will just yield more criticism. That is the reason his job depends on the trust people have on their leaders and the leaders working on principle and conscience. As a leader, as long as you are working within the law with the support of your party and your conscience is clear, it is alright. The framers of the constitution of Malawi also knew all that when they gave the office the powers and the immunity to go with it. As a leader, which is better, for him to die or go through suffering knowing he has done what is right or have your people be killed needlessly like we have witnessed on July 20, 2011.

Bingu is allowing useless thing to destruct and detract him. If he was clever enough he should have asked himself the question that with the amount of criticism that he is getting and the angles they are coming from, what is it that he can do that cannot draw criticism from them? Yes there are genuine problems in Malawi that has to be sorted out by his office but the problem most people have with him is that he is the president and not them. The only way to solve it is that they become the president themselves failing which whatever he is going to do is bad. Ralph Kasambala is monitoring every move he makes and presenting it as a negative on his status. What would you expect? Why can’t Bingu just shut up or put up instead of wasting time with them.

Now on a very serious note, Bingu and the Civil Society leaders might choose to take things lightly after these people have died but for some of us the needless blood and ashes in the streets of Malawi has changed the dynamics of things in the country. If those people died that easy, unless something is done, we are afraid that it can happen to us as well. We are worried about our own safety and security and would like the government to be a bit more serious and seriously assure us of our security.