This kind of civic leadership is pointless

When the ill-fated dialogue session between the Minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe and the leadership of some civil society organisations (CSOs) did not produce the desired results, it went without mention that the next course of action would be going to the streets.

Sadly, going to the streets and that demonstration of the right to assemble and express their views has been limited to that stretch between Area 18 Roundabout to Civic Centre in the city of Lilongwe, where the impact is only felt by very few people.

The impact of the demonstrations on the particular day notwithstanding, the marches have become redundant and outlived their usefulness.

Take the matter of the dubiously sourced and distributed K4 billion that was top of the agenda of the meeting between Goodall and the CSOs and failure by the minister to clearly explain what went on for the decision to distribute the money among the Members of Parliament.

Not satisfied with the answers, the civil society issued a very long statement which in the end was simply saying there would be a nationwide demonstration.

Last time there was a similar call from the esteemed Public Affairs Committee (PAC), high anticipation and excitement was palpable that finally leadership of CSOs would not limit the demonstration of civil liberties to the few with the courage to walk the few metres in Lilongwe.

What cannot be disputed is that the government has failed to explain the events leading up to the moment that a meeting was called between the two sides of Parliament and an agreement reached to distribute the K4 billion equally.

But to imagine that the demonstrations called for April 27 will give Malawians and CSOs the answers they deserve is to dream in colour.

Goodall, and indeed the government and the opposition who are silent on this matter, cannot take the planned demonstrations seriously when they fail to point out what exactly is the problem with Parliament passing a bill authorising government to spend K4 billion on the selected few.

Is it an issue of the immorality of the expenditure or the illegality of it all? Did Parliament authorise an illegal expenditure? But then if Parliament is not in the business of giving government authorisations, who is?

As the CSOs plan the demonstrations, can they ask themselves where they have placed the accountability of the political parties that played along to dupe the people of Malawi?

What questions have been asked of the Leader of Opposition Lazarus Chakwera, who as he led his group to accept to spend K4 billion with one side of his mouth went on to cheat Malawians that he was against the idea with his calls for a probe.

What questions were raised then and what was the motivation for raising them if not to fool Malawians into thinking the opposition cared?

The dubious actions of the opposition and the ministers who started the ball rolling need to be given equal scrutiny, not that the government will acknowledge any wrongdoing because simply the government does not listen.

On this matter, fighting fire with fire is unlikely to work. Goodall will continue to exercise his power to move around money for the MPs to authorise and the opposition will once again come out unscathed from all this.

Political and civic engagement is crucial in a relatively new democracy like Malawi although there have been losers and winners of such engagement in the past. The 20 lives lost during the July 20 marches come to mind as do the losers of Operation Bwezani, currently camping for months at the memorial tower in Lilongwe.

Malawi needs civic leadership but not this kind, the kind that produces little action but beautiful reports to donors.

Time has come to pose difficult questions about the actual relevance of the marches and the petitions that are issued, particularly when those in government give them a cursory glance and do not act.