March 6, 2013
It is very convenient at the moment to dismiss the revelation by the Elton Singini inquiry to the effect that former president Bingu wa Mutharika died on the way to Kamuzu Central Hospital on April 5 and not April 7 as the DPP government lied to the nation.
As a country, we could say let us bury the hatchet and move on to concentrate on today’s problems such as our economic well-being. But the danger with this is that it sets a bad precedent to politicians who would think lying to the public is a small matter.
For two days, the country was on the brink of collapse, living dangerously as there was a power vacuum brought about by the death of Mutharika.
It is crystal clear that those who were supposed to transfer power and were in the DPP government were hiding the death in a desperate attempt to achieve their selfish intentions which were propelled by greed with a view to maintaining the status quo.
At that point, anything could have happened in the country because there was a power vacuum and the DPP have questions to answer to the nation. Who was, for example, taking Executive decisions on behalf of 13 million Malawians during those two days? Who decided to fly Mutharika’s body to South Africa on the public purse when doctors at Kamuzu Central Hospital had already certified him dead and what were they trying to achieve and in whose interest?
The commission’s findings are very clear. For two whole days, we had no president in Malawi. What happened in those two days? What other decisions were taken and, once again, in whose interest?
President Joyce Banda talks of money being looted and property being hauled away from Kamuzu Palace. Did it happen during the two days and who did it? Should they get away with it?
The big question, therefore, is what happens next? Should we allow, as a country, our politicians to lie and get away with it? If the DPP administration could lie about a death, which is difficult to cover, what else do politicians in Malawi lie about? Should we trust them?
This leads me to a disappointing statement the DPP acting president Peter Mutharika has made in reaction to the findings of the commission of inquiry to the effect that everything that was there to be known about his brother’s death is already known to the public.
My simple answer to Peter is that we, Malawians, are not stupid to be taken for a jolly ride. The late Mutharika was a president for the whole nation and not just his family. He was living on our tax and not his family.
The money the DPP government was squandering with reckless abandon, flying a dead body to South Africa, possibly to buy time to achieve sinister intentions, was not DPP money or Bingu’s family money but it belonged to the tax payers.
My advice to Peter is that it is because of such an unrepentant and arrogant attitude that Malawians find it difficult to forget the atrocities they suffered at the hands of the late Mutharika and DPP.
Which is why, the JB administration must now tell the nation as to what happens to the shenanigans that surrounded the death of Bingu wa Mutharika.
It is clear the DPP administration had evil intentions that endangered our country’s stability and that is why they tried to hide the death from the public for two days.
