My Diary

Living in its own shadows 

A month before he died, President Bingu wa Mutharika claimed he had impeccable intelligence that some foreign donors were plotting with local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to destabilise and topple his government by holding demonstrations and vigils against his rule.

It was the sort of a cock-and-bull story, which NGOs, through their umbrella body, the Council for Non-Governmental Organisations (Congoma), gleefully rejected. They countered that Bingu had acted on ‘wrong intelligence’ and no demonstrations were being planned against his rule in spite of the economic hardships and political uncertainties at the time.

We will never know for sure whether Bingu made the ranting based on solid intelligence—or just barroom gossip which was passed off as intelligence by men and women eager to court his ear. The man checked out on April 5 before the so-called foreign donors and NGOs could set their diabolical plan in motion—assuming there was any.

But this we know for certain. Bingu was a man afraid of his own footfalls and was at the end of his wits. He saw demons armed with pitchforks where others saw angels. His was a world of fantasies in which he was a hapless victim of an all-consuming conspiracy by vile foreign donors and single-minded NGOs to topple his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government.

It was precisely for that reason that I didn’t raise eyebrows when I learned that the so-called National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) had uncovered a plot of blood-and-guts by opposition parties and the civil society organisations to sabotage President Peter Mutharika and his DPP by holding anti-government demonstrations.

It is a familiar refrain, with the only caveat being that some ‘donor’ is implied rather than named.

If the report was anywhere near intelligence, one would have expected it to, at least, name who is this benevolent anarchist who is throwing money around like confetti as he or she is going about recruiting like-minded individuals—all of whom seem united in their hostility towards the DPP—for the downfall of APM.

I have no reason to believe that Malawi Congress Party president Lazarus Chakwera and others could be bought so cheaply just so to throw the country into disarray just to get one better on the government.

In 2012, as now, the DPP knew it was running on borrowed time, having lost the economic initiative to turn this country’s flagging fortunes around. We had serious forex and fuel shortages and the DPP spurned all advice about how to deal the situation. Tough choices they were, but instead Bingu chose the high moral ground and accused his critics of attempting to sabotage his rule.

Then, as now, the DPP knows it is running on borrowed time. It has lost the economic initiative to turn this country around. It would be a sad day when it will lose the people’s goodwill. At this pace, it is not beyond their reach.

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