Why was it that I wasn’t surprised when John Tembo, Malawi Congress Party (MCP) leader and its presidential candidate in the May 19 polls, vowed to protect United Democratic Front (UDF) troubled chairman Bakili Muluzi from the courts should the MCP make it to the State House?
It is because it all began in Zambia — from which we seem to copy a handful of unpleasant ideas — when Levi Mwanawasa (may his soul rest in peace) was on to his immediate predecessor, Frederick Chiluba, for a raft of corruption cases, some of which the diminutive former leader is still answering in the courts, way after the death of the instigator, Mwanawasa.
But, Mwanawasa was a bad example, so implied a campaigning Bingu wa Mutharika, then a ‘two-minute’ man under the wings of Muluzi in 2004 in Dedza. Instead, Mutharika advocated for harmony between former and current presidents (something we seem not to be very good at) and he pledged to protect Muluzi from prosecution once elected.
Muluzi, unwisely in hindsight, spurned the offer, arguing he had nothing to hide, had committed no crime warranting protection from anyone. Without implying anything, Muluzi should be ruing his unkind reaction to the free offer.
Now Tembo makes the same vow and so far, perhaps wisely, Muluzi has resisted the temptation to decline that offer. With the way Mutharika’s administration has been on his case, Muluzi should have learnt his lesson.
But, then, Tembo’s statement, just like Mutharika’s before him, bears with it a bagful of assumptions, none of which makes for pleasant reading, at least for a voter who aspires for equality of all before the law.
While Mutharika was looking to Zambia for inspiration, as it were, in making that vow, Tembo’s statement assumes that Mutharika’s government is persecuting — and not prosecuting — Muluzi by the many court cases thrown his way.
But we all live under the assumption that our courts are independent from any political influence, hence we expect them to exercise due diligence by discharging him. In that scenario, Muluzi will not need protection from anybody — be it Mutharika, Tembo or even Amunandife Mkumba.
More worryingly, though, Tembo’s statement assumes that Muluzi is very guilty (for which crimes, we don’t know) but for the sake of a cheap vote, Tembo will be prepared to turn a blind eye to Muluzi’s transgressions. If that is the case, Tembo will make for a bad president, someone who has promised to interfere in domains certainly not his and celebrate with the guilty.
Again, people find themselves in the dock for a variety of reasons, some of which may be beyond the protection of someone as powerful as the president himself. For instance, is Tembo is insinuating that even as a citizen, if I decide to sue Muluzi (as Zain and Maulidi Garage have done), will Tembo come forward and block me from claiming what is rightly mine?
Or suppose Muluzi kills someone (and this is just a remote supposition) and all evidence suggests he’s guilty of murder and deserves a life sentence, will Tembo still shield him from the courts, when some people find themselves jailed for five years for nicking a bicycle?
No, JZU, we can understand your desperation to reach out to the reluctant UDF supporters in what should be your last gong, but absurd promises should not be part of the package.
If I were Muluzi, I would be very careful. The last time someone promised him something similarly, it turned out disastrously.
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