By Weruzani Custom
In recent years, in Malawi, thievery in various work places has become our way of living and identity. It is a daily song on lips of every concerned citizen. Deplorably, whoever wills to amass wealth in an overnight can do so by embezzling the hard-earned tax payer’s money anywhere and anyhow as they wish. Nobody is going to incarcerate you.
These people we entrusted with power to rule us and change the country’s miserable economic status are no respecters of the law and they fear no one. They certainly know what they are supposed to do but they wittingly choose to do otherwise. We are living in the land where everyone is free to do whatever pleases him, his family members, and cronies irrespective of public good and interests.
It is disheartening to learn that they purposely opt to ignore any call for justice, transparency and accountability. They will do whatever it takes to protect themselves and satisfy their selfish desires and wicked motives. Even if it means to kill, they will do so without mercy to bury justice. Accumulation of riches and selfishness is at the hilt of their hearts. They can hardly hearken the crying voice of the oppressed, downtrodden, and marginalized. God have mercy!
Lamentably, even the ecclesiastical pundits, who are expected to plant and water the seeds of justice in our hard hearts, are not virtuous. We have witnessed the gross abuse of funds in Faith-based gathering circles. There is no concern for the dignity and humanity of the poor who pay tithes and oblation to the aid of the church pastor. Truth be told, everyone is answerable for the appalling retrogress this country suffers from.
The millions of moneys that has been fiddled at Chingeni Toll gate and Kalinyeke Toll plaza is of the great concern. If I hear people are dying in hospitals due to shortage of drugs, students withdrawing from college on financial grounds, the grotesque rise of maternal deaths and frequent power outages I will be thinking of this money.
We might think it is our freedom and culture to loot in government, but this is mere misleading falsity. You do not know that you commit that sin against humanity and its source of creation behind the veil of ignorance. Freedom means respect for the law. As doubting Thomas, I doubt if the masses understand this.
To my surprise even the so-called sages and intellectually gifted gurus are in for front stealing in government. We cannot blink. Our eyes are watching every move you make. We cannot talk of prospering together when there is a wider gap between the poor and the salivating politicians.
The massive abuse of public funds is most dangerous than the Satan 2 liquid fueled nuclear missile. How do you expect our hospitals to have adequate drugs if you are incessantly draining government confers? Under five children will die of avoidable diseases such as polio and kwashiorkor. How do you expect the country to have infrastructures of lofty standards if you are keeping the money which is not yours?
Infrastructure Investment Plan will not bear fruits and it will die in the shell. The escalation of road accidents which have killed hundreds of people over the years can hardly be reduced because the money that was meant to construct tarmac roads of high standard has been fiddled by those so-called educated wolves in sheep’s skin.
Today, whether you will pet stones at me or not, I put the blame on irresponsible citizens. Before we point accusing fingers at the failed alliance government, let us first assess ourselves the way we manage and manage financial affairs in our homes and at work places. Are we trustworthy? We are greedy and corrupt. We took a cat to lead the rats.
The house has been infested with stinking economic abuse smoke. That being the case, the country’s economic status has suffered major meltdown. The palpable theft in government will never end if we do not change ourselves. President cannot end corruption alone. I therefore call for the active citizenry participatory in ending corruption. Together we can bail ourselves out of this situation.
