My Diary

Have it merry, like us

24.12.2020

S

o, Vision 2020 was just a dream. The then president Bakili Muluzi sold us a dummy like all politicians do. And 2020 is going, just like that.

Last year, Lazarus Chakwera promised us Canaan. But, it seems, that Canaan is only in his dream. With Saulos Chilima’s recent remarks on three meals a day will only happen after one rain year, it is apparent the promised land of milk and honey rests where it necessarily is, their heads.

Muluzi told the rest of us about a vision 2020. That was a decade and a half ago. And, right now we are saying goodbye to 2020 and Chilima tells us to focus on 2063. That is our dilemma.

It has been a year, worth saying bye to. And we say au revoir.

It has been a year we saw Chakwera and Chilima saying with no manner of ill will and affection, they will conduct government business as it should be. But then, we have seen arrests of those in the ancient regime. Norman Chisale was one. Captured because of his malfeasance, from a TPIN of former President Peter Mutharika, erstwhile known as APM. That was not his singular crime. He had several on his bag, including education, the very essence of being a face from Mutharika.

Well and good. Uladi Mussa, a strongman in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) fold had his heyday, that landed him in the cooler. A passport is a national identity, and he was supposed to be the first to protect it. But, he issued it to foreigners. Which is why today he is at some prison.

Then, there was Reverend Christopher Mzomera Ngwira. His crime was one those inebriated with power can do time for. We saw, in the ending year, how his relative mourned as if they lost a grandson, when he was sent to the cooler for abusing a fund for the constituency, Mzimba Hora.

We are not celebrating. Not in any way, but then this only shows how good it is to live by the law.

Then, we hear Thom Mpinganjira, a personality of very high repute found himself answering charges of corruption. Come January, a court seeks to determine if he has a case to answer that he was trying to palm-oil judges on the outcome of the elections case.

Well, if one was to choose the woman of the year, one would say give it to Jane Ansah. She is the rightful candidate. All honours must be on her. Forget the botched elections she and her team conducted in 2019.

Well, Chifundo Kachale conducted that election in the shortest of time, to pit our country as a force on the international scene.

And then, the commissioners are still at the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC). And, as we go into the year 2021 they are still there? Linda Kunje is one. She walked out on a Public Appointments Committee, smashing the door like that, and walked on a presidential convoy. That case is still in the courts and we dare not talk about it. We are what we are, Malawians, very tolerant people.

Well, there has been a silent war in the Tonse Alliance. We are not talking about the Agriculture Inputs Programme (AIP) that has pitted as the most deranged of programmes a government can dream to bring to fruit. Primarily, how else do you explain our folks spending weeks for an endeavour they conducted within a day. Make no mistakes, how can network problems keep people at depots when that same network allowed them to vote for these people into power?

Well, 2020 is going. As a year it is being trashed, but the question linger.

Are we going to see an end to arbitrary arrests? Or do we continue that as business?

In the ending year, there were about 30 arrests made. Which case is progressing as we inch towards 2021? Which one will be finalised?

While we are at it, the fuel prices have gone up. It is not for us to talk about the repercussions, for we are already feeling it on the streets.

Clearing the rubble is no small joke. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, like we feel it.

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