The revenge of the poor

 There comes a time when the poor and the down-trodden wake up and revenge decisively against those who are ill-treating them. In fact, sometimes the revenge can lead to disastrous consequencies.

Undoubtedly, in Malawi now everyone knows that the May 21 2019 elections were fraudulent. This election fraud has come about probably because the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) had already decided who the winner was to be. When they realised that Malawians had voted for change to another President, MEC probably had to allegedly change some vote figures to ensure that President Mutharika is the winner.

The majority of Malawians find this unacceptable because they voted for change. Unfortunately, MEC and President Mutharika, who was hurriedly sworn in, have no time or interest to listen to people and voters’ complaints.

This triggered demonstrations in some parts of the country on June 20 2019, which were organised by Human Rights Defenders Coalition and other civil society organisations (CSOs).

The demonstrators were calling for the resignation of the MEC chairperson Jane Ansah and President Mutharika, and also asked for a re-run of the election for the President. This country had never seen such big crowds of demonstrators.

So far there has been no response from the President. As far as he is concerned, it is business as usual. On her part, Ansah has said she will not resign. She confirmed this during her interview on Zodiak television and radio on June 24 2019. What she said was a shock to most Malawians who thought she would announce her resignation. According to her, she did nothing wrong, as she followed all the laws.

Reading between the lines during that interview, Ansah showed that she does not really care about what other people say about MEC’s poor performance under her. What she forgets is that no one is above the law.

Meanwhile, it is appreciated that the elections case is in court and Malawians want justice. It must be equally appreciated that some Malawians are annoyed because of their stolen votes. Due to their anger, they are behaving indifferent towards the President.

For example, when he was getting into Lilongwe, for the first time after the elections, some people blocked roads. Even in Parliament, delivery of his State of the Nation Address (Sona) was disrupted by boos as some parliamentarians shouted him down, before they walked out on him.

Such disrespect has never been done to any sitting President. And we hear there are plans for more demonstrations and vigils. All this is the revenge of the poor, whose votes were allegedly stolen. A political commentator named Emilia Zapata once said: “If there is no justice for the people let there be no peace for government.” Therefore, peaceful demonstrations are in order.

For the past five years, people have been complaining about abuse of tax payers’ money through direct stealing, bribery and corruption. Due to the fact that the powers that are so impervious to the voice of reason, the people put all their hope into their ballot which, unfortunately, has been stolen too. Therefore, crying for change is right. Even the former president of South Africa, the late Nelson Mandela, once said that when you see that the government and their relations loot the country, you have to disobey, rise up and get on the street