Not this time, Mr. Chimunthu Banda

Had it been that Speaker of Parliament Mr. Chimunthu Banda was man of honesty, a servant of the people and not of few politicians, the current debates over Bingu wa Mutharika’s alleged wealth could not have been news.

It could not have been news because we could have debated the wealth just after Mutharika, following his 2009 elections, declared his assets.

But Chimunthu Banda refused to divulge details of Bingu’s wealth.  He argued: “The law does not say anything on how the Speaker would process them [declarations]. After the Speaker has received the declarations, the law is silent.”

Although his argument looks legally valid, history proves it unsound. In 2004, after Bingu declared his assets, we, at The Nation, carried a story, quoting Parliament, divulging details of the man’s wealth.

After the story was published, I did not hear that the speaker was arrested for violating a law. Did you hear any of that, dear readers?

Unarguably then,   Chimunthu Banda’s refusal to divulge the details of Bingu’s declared wealth was, to me, a manifestation of a man capitalising on the weakness of the Asset Declaration Law to hinder the public from knowing the truth about Bingu’s wealth.

What was in the declared wealth that prevented him from making it public? Was the refusal his idea or he was forced by those above him?

Surely, what Chimunthu Banda did was public betrayal. His actions were a potent symbol of the rotten eggs in our politics, the stinking ones that supports–with heart and soul–the cyclic elements of this country’s bad governance.

In fact, he should be happy that he is a Speaker of Parliament in Malawi—a country with patient and sympathetic citizens. If it were in Egypt, he could have long been forced to resign. Ijipiti ilibe usilu!

Well, I am just happy that after another bad egg in the country’s politics worked so hard, again through capitalising on the weakness of the law, to deter President Joyce Banda from re-declaring his asset, the President, we have been told, has finally seen the wisdom of listening to the public.

I do not know how Ralph Kasambala, S.C., feels today after having his legal advice has, eventually, been ignored by the President.  I do not even know what the President’s u-turn speaks of the learned man.

Of course, there are a lot of disconnected dots in the whole saga.

When Malawians asked the President to re-declare her assets, OPC and everybody in government was mum. It is at the beginning of this month that we were told by Willie Samute, deputy chief secretary to the President and Cabinet said: “…The president declared her assets…early this year after she already assumed the reins of power’.

Please note that OPC admission followed a newly-appointed Minister of Water and Irrigation Brown Mpinganjira’s accusation that the office was to blame.

The question, then, is: why did OPC or anybody in government keep silent when the public demanded that the President d re-declare her assets?  Does it mean if it was not for Mpinganjira, the public could still be kept in the dark?

Who is fooling who, here?

Surely, something is not adding up. But the truth is akin to pregnancy. You cannot hide it for long. Soon it will come out, and when it does, it will roar, and some will have to pay for it.

But above all these twist and turns, I am happy that we know, from OPC, that she finally declared her assets. And I am happy again that, according to Deputy Speaker of Parliament Jones Chingola, the file, the one carrying the details of the president’s wealth, is with the Speaker.

I am sure the Speaker won’t be hiding on the weakness of the law this time—because this time is different.

Divulge the details, Mr. Speaker, Sir, and be honest!