Stop mass murder of poor people

What is happening in Malawi hospitals, which have now become waiting rooms for death due to non-availability of all essential drugs, is mass murder of poor people and the blame should be squarely put at the doorstep of President Joyce Banda and her PP administration.

It is now almost a year since this administration took power and it must realise that the excuse of blaming everything that goes wrong on the late Bingu wa Mutharika administration has run its full course and Malawians know who is wallowing in obscene luxury to manage their affairs.

They cannot be duped anymore that it is Mutharika who is dead and buried at Ndata but Joyce Banda, who, as I was writing this, was in Asia basking in the glory and praise poured on her by the outside world while poor Malawians are dying like flies.

Meanwhile, the doctors—yes, those whose lifelong calling is to preserve life—are helpless despite their skill because they have not been given the tools to do their job.

Some of them from Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) did the unimaginable by writing an open letter to the President, drawing her attention to the plight of poor women and children who are perishing needlessly.

Health Minister Catheline Gotani Hara responded by hastily organising a ceremony at KCH, the bastion of this tragedy, where she presented a few cartons of drugs donated by a US firm to hospital administrator Yusuf Alide.

Realising what an opportunity the function was for good TV and great photojournalism, Gotani Hara did not forget to tag the media along for a good measure of the same.

At the function she rattled figures to the effect that the Central Medical Stores Trust (CMST) has 95 percent stock-out of essential drugs.

She did not forget to give a historical perspective to the whole thing, revealing in what was intended to be a pot-shot at the former DPP government that the country last procured drugs in 2009.

Obviously this whole charade was meant as a propaganda exercise by the PP government to impress upon Malawians reeling from this crisis that something was being done and at the same time insulating itself from the blame.

I, for one, and many Malawians, were not impressed by that hopeless and cheap sham carefully choreographed by one Gotani Hara.

Malawians do not need their ministers and officials to dress up and pose for cameras at the expense of their life and death.

It is arrogance and insensitivity of the highest order. We are talking about lives of human beings here and for somebody to imagine that this can be sorted by gathering the press and donating a few cartons of God-knows-what, is a pure symptom of leadership malnutrition.

If drugs were last procured in 2009, what stopped the PP administration from buying some? Were they expecting the people to die or doctors to say “we have had enough” for them to look for a few cartons of drugs?

In case the PP government does not know, this is how statehood and democracy work in very simple terms.

Since we cannot all be rulers, those interested present themselves. Then the rest of us vote for those we want.

In return for the privilege, luxury and power, we, the ruled, expect our affairs to be well taken care of. It is a contract and as in all contracts, when one party is not delivering, the other party has the right to terminate it.

PP must know that Malawians have a right to withdraw their consent in 2014 if this ineptness is not checked.

During the time PP has been in power, they have shown that they have no focus and care and have consistently used DPP as an excuse.

The only thing they are obsessed with is adopting the IMF painful mantra of economic management.

But Malawians are now paying the ultimate price. This is mass murder by omission and it must be stopped.