Celebrating the two Ngwazis
Since it came back from the garage, the VW Amailoko has behaved efficiently and reliably. Had it misbehaved we would have missed a number of important engagements. We would not have travelled to Ndata in Thyolo to participate in the memorial prayers for the late (ka)Ngwazi Bingu wa Mutharika, who dreamed great things for this great federal republic but like his predecessors failed to unite its hotly tribalisitic peoples.
Had the VW Amailoko misbehaved we would not have attended the Ngwazi Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda’s official birthday commemorations in Cashgate City.
We have said it before, and we repeat it hic et nunc that if Bingu had implemented just half of what he wrote in The African Dream, this cashgate federal republic would have already graduated from abject poverty and perennial food shortages. Bingu was a Rostowian economist who believed in building infrastructure as one foundation for economic growth. The inland port in Nsanje was for Malawi to access the sea ports cheaply and make imports cheaper. He also dreamed of mechanising agriculture to ensure food security. To operationalise his dream of a food secure Malawi, Mutharika introduced the fertiliser subsidy, which worked wonders in the first two years until the cashgate stars started plundering the resources, and bought, on credit from India, 177 farm tractors and 144 motorised maize shellers.
Except for 71, all those farm tractors and maize shellers can hardly be accounted for today. Why the tractors were sold by the Ministry of Agriculture and not the Plant and Vehicle Hire Organisation is something that we will take decades to understand. Not even the MPs understand why. Do they?
Despite his weaknesses, such as the murders of young people like Robert Chasowa and the massacre of unarmed and innocent protesters in July 2011, Mutharika should be remembered as a hero-president who expanded Malawi’s road network, built the New Parliament and Umodzi Park in Lilongwe, which have transformed the appearance of the City Centre.
We did not sit through the Mutharika memorial ceremonies to the end because we found one minister’s outbursts intolerable, obnoxious, irresponsible, offensive, directionless, and childish. Next time this federal republic organises important national functions, all speakers should use written speeches and shameless party zealots, who even quote themselves, must be sifted out. Imagine, what that minister said in Thyolo has become more newsworthy than the achievements of the great Moya, who built for us the Malawi University of Science Technology; declared Bunda College a separate university and expanded the Masauko Chipembere and Paul Kagame highways, apart from resealing the hitherto potholed roads.
Last Thursday, we were in Lilongwe to attend the Ngwazi’s official birthday ceremony and MCP’s Tambala Night. We loved the speeches and the acknowledgements from those who worked with and for Kamuzu Banda. So, former president Bakili Muluzi learned to dress well from Kamuzu? So, Goodall Gondwe learned the value of hard work and tenacity from Kamuzu? So, Kamuzu put Malawi first and his personal ambitions second? Why do we, today, put our personal interests ahead of the country?
There are, however, two things that all the speakers at the ceremony did not mention. That nearly 90 percent of what we see in Malawi was built during the Kamuzu era. Disagree? Contradict us with facts; not emotions. Secondly, we would wish to remind this country that Kamuzu, like him or hate him, is the father of multiparty Malawi. He won Malawi’s first multiparty elections in 1963 and lost the second one in 1994. That is not very important, though.
What is important that is that had Kamuzu really been a dictator who wanted power at all costs, the referendum of June 14, 1993 would not have been conducted. Had he really wanted to cling to power and die as a life president, he would not have allowed Justice Anastasia Msosa to conduct a free and fair election through a fully funded electoral body. Had Kamuzu really been obsessed with the splendor of State House he would not have conceded defeat to Bakili Muluzi way before the vote counting had finished. If Kamuzu was such a heartless and ruthless leader he would not have apologised for all politically related atrocities committed in his name and in the name of the Malawi Congress Party.
Dictators don’t apologise, do they?
Kamuzu was forced to do all those things at the end because he really had no other choice. As they say, nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.
He was a midget, and a notorious one at that. He could only feel tall when everybody else was on their knees.
He only looks marginally good now because we have had a string of horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad leaders. From the semi-illiterate Bakili, who presented every potential investor who visited the state house a presidential menu of bribes to choose from. Bingu, who raped the economy and killed at will. In the 21st century nonetheless. How did we let him get away with murder??. Then next came the highly incompetent JB. She wanted to steal as much as she could in the shortest possible time, while playing the victimhood card at every turn. Now we have the useless APM. He sometimes sits and thinks. But mostly he just sits.