Mutharika under unprecedented political pressure- By Patseni Mauka
I normally don’t listen to President Peter Mutharika’s speeches. As the President of Malawi, I wish I could listen to his speeches often. However, understanding what he says is one of the hardest things I have ever encountered. His speeches are incoherent. It’s hard to pick anything from what he says. The few moments that one gets something from his speeches, it’s mostly nonsense. The situation is worse when he is angry. When angry, he speaks gibberish, perhaps only understood by the first lady who must be used to hearing him speak everyday. Recently, his speeches are getting worse because he is under tremendous political pressure with Dr. Saulos Chilima’s launch of the now popular United Transformation Movement (UTM).
When I read on social media that on his way from the Umthetho cultural festival in Mzimba, he stopped over at Katoto roundabout in Mzuzu and went to town castigating as well as threatening UTM members including its leader Dr. Saulos Chilima, Secretary General Patricia Kaliati, National Chairman Noel Masangwi and his own in-law Callista Mutharika, I made a painful decision to listen to what he said. Reluctantly, I listened to the nine minute speech (due to old age, he can barely speak for a long time these days).
After repeating several times to understand his mumbling, I finally got it. I can only confirm what qualified and experienced medical personnel are concluding from his recent behavior and condition; Peter Mutharika is not just suffering from old age, he is mentally sick. Otherwise how else can a person at almost 80 years old, highly educated and internationally exposed go to town castigating his late brother’s widow in public? I listened with amazement the entire president talking about family issues in public like an individual who knows nothing about Malawian culture. Surely, with such public display of savagery, the little respect that some Malawians have on him is fast diminishing.
He went on with threats to arrest UTM members for insulting him. Everyone knows his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members led by Charles Mchacha are the masters of political podium insults. If Mutharika had any sense of clean political podium speeches, he could have instructed his boys to stop insults during rallies. Mutharika should be reminded that we are in a democracy where people are supposed to enjoy freedom of speech. I don’t condone politics of insults regardless of who does it, but I understand that in Malawi most political leaders including those that were church leaders, have some moments of castigation during rallies. This should not be encouraged but when it happens, nobody, not even President Peter Mutharika should threaten people.
This is not the first time Mutharika has issued threats against UTM. He always issue threats when he can’t stand the political heat. The law that he uses to threaten people is long outdated and has no place in a democracy. The law was widely used during the one party rule when the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) was in power. Peter Mutharika passionately hates the MCP era, yet he is happy to use laws from the same era to stop people from criticizing his terrible reign as President of Malawi. What a hypocrite!
Peter Mutharika’s threats just shows how traumatized DPP is with the coming of UTM. They are under panic and just don’t know what to do. Every strategy they try to apply against UTM is flopping. They have tried disrupting UTM rallies by conducting free music shows near UTM rally venues, subsidizing beer and all sorts of cheap strategies but the UTM fire keeps burning and dismantling the DPP. Led by it’s visionary leader, Saulos Chilima, UTM has been articulating brilliant alternative policies that will transform Malawi into a better place for all citizens not a selected few party members, tribesmen, unscrupulous businessmen and cronies.
Instead of issuing threats of arrests, Peter Mutharika should concentrate on explaining the loss of billions of taxpayers money under his leadership. He is the one who deserves to be arrested for being caught red handed deep into corruption as seen by his having a bank account where corrupt businessmen deposit bribes to keep getting government contracts. Unless Peter Mutharika convinces Malawians that it’s a good idea to vote him and DPP back into power despite shamelessly stealing tax payers money and failing to achieve what they promised in 2014, he will be making threats to his boot lickers only after being booted out of government next year.
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