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Why anti-demonstrations talks will fail

We must be honest today and leave no room for any further questions about our movements, lodgings, and evenings-out.  We, the permanent members of this delegation,  Alhaj Mufti Jean-Philippe LePossoin, SC (RTD); Nganga Maigwaigwa DDT (Cyress),  PSC (RTD), MoG; Professor Dr. Joyce Befu, and I the Mohashoi, we have fallen in real platonic love with Salima, this  fast-growing, entertainment-filled land of creative and development-minded people. 

We vow to stay here until the 14-day moratorium against #JaneAnswerMustFall demonstrations imposed by the Supreme Court expires and, by the same token, gets lifted.  When, not if, the talks between the Attorney General and the HRDC, who are organising the demonstrations fail, as we expect, we will get back to Lilongwe, the epicenter of the #Jane’sAnswerMustFall demonstrations.

Don’t’ be surprised. We prefer to be optimistic and are almost always on the side of hope because we believe people who always hear success stories about themselves tend to be successful. They work to be successful and sleep and dream nothing but success. To the contrary, people who hear nothing but stories of failure tend to be unsuccessful, hopeless and poor.

If you don’t believe us, check around you and go ye and stand upon Mount Mulanje and tell the world what you will have observed.

We are pessimistic about the outcome of the talks because the man who appointed Jane Answer to ‘mismanage’ the 2019 Tippex, sorry Tripartite, elections has vowed, while opening his door hallway for talks, not to talk to anybody about the said elections because the Americans, the British, the Europeans, South Africans declared the same Tippex elections genuine, free, fair and credible, implying that we, poor, illiterate, brainless, eyeless, earless,   and ignorant Malawians, cannot  dispute the outcome of our own elections.  The same appointing man has sworn that Jane’s Answer will not resign, will not be sacked, and will be maintained even after her contract reportedly expires in mid-September 2019.

Jane’s Answer’s appointing authority does not distinguish between the HRDC and the opposition.  And this is serious and will have an effect on any talks; whether arranged by Ngwazi Bakili Muluzi, the EU, the UN, the Supreme Court, PAC, the Pastors for Peace Forum, or Rupia Banda, our brother leader from Chipata, Malambo.  The appointing authority is belligerent. The HRDC is belligerent. The opposition is belligerent. The ruling party is belligerent. The public is belligerent.   With such daggers-drawn stances taken, not even Jah Rastafari can fruitfully mediate.

Diplomats and sensible leaders, elsewhere on this earth and yonder, agree that one must go to talks with all options on the table. Talks are a give and take affair and, thus, forming rock positions as one goes for talks is a sign that the talks will not produce any outcome. The trade talks between America and China over have not borne fruit because neither country is prepare to give in.

The Supreme Court imposed moratorium has given us time to reflect on the demonstrations or marches. We are considering abandoning wide and wild street demonstrations. Instead, we are planning something more focused and less disruptive to Malawians who want to conduct their businesses in peace, get married in peace, work the land in peace, be hungry in peace, get ill in peace, and of, course, die and get buried or cremated  in peace.

We will call the new demonstrations approach, Targeted Non-Stop Pressure (TNSP). More next week.

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