There is another argument about the findings of a commission of inquiry on the murdered Polytechnic student Robert Chasowa.
In summary, it goes something like this: While his death is regrettable just like every death, it is stretching the realms of argument beyond frontiers, like I did last week, that he died for many Malawians who DPP perceived as enemies for merely criticising its policies which were wrecking this country.
The argument goes on to say the late Chasowa and his friends were dealing with police to stop a constitutionally guaranteed march on August 17 against DPP’s bad governance and economic mismanagement.
It further says it was only after the deal went sour and the police iced it by refusing to pay Chasowa and his friends K10 million, that he partnered Black Moses to be masterminder of a gutter publication that alleged salacious high scandals and deep misrule in the Bingu wa Mutharika administration.
The proponents of this argument conclude that what killed Chasowa was not the interests of Malawians, but rather his gullibility and thirst for the K10 million and an attempt to hit back at police and government at large for “cheating him†as it were.
As I said last week, Chasowa was an overexcited college student and, just like every person at that stage, went through excesses of youth.
He was involved in a high-stakes game, maybe too much of it for his age when he had no technical acumen to play it.
He and his friends were dealing with people whose motives they did not understand.
As regards his gullibility that he felt he was used and abused by police after a deal went sour, I put it down to inexperience and failure to let go of a situation and move on.
It was naïve on his part to imagine in his wildest dreams that the Malawi Police would part away with a cool K10 million and give it to a bunch of college kids for their razzmatazz and enjoyment during the famed social weekend when a constable with a family has to do with K35 000 per month, more or less.
Was Chasowa consorting with Black Moses as a way of hitting back? Yes or no, I would argue. Yes, in that he was obviously a bitter man and no, in the sense that what he wrote still rattled a bad government and helped remove it from its comfort zone.
But when all this is debated and done, I still find it unacceptable in today’s world that some people, because of the mere fact that they belong to a ruling party, can sit down and plan to kill someone all because they do not agree with his political views or he is revealing top secret agenda of the ruling class.
Chasowa did not deserve to die. Why did they not just arrest him as they did with Black Moses?
As a nation, we should sternly say no to this sort of behaviour by politicians because this time it is Chasowa, but we do not know whose turn it will be tomorrow; hence, my insistence that he died for many of us.
That is why we should all wait with abated expectation now that police have moved against the suspects of this evil deed.
Let the suspects have their date with destiny in court.
