Monday, August 8, 2011

NGOs Taking Malawians as Pawns

Malawians should wake up, and stop listening to people who were never elected. These people are the leaders of Malawian Non-Governmental and Civil Society Organizations.
After the bloody July 20, 2011 Demonstrations- a forum where Malawians were expressing their dismay over forex, fuel and other challenges- these NGO and CSO leaders have taken it as a license to engage Malawians in useless games, a game whose playing cards are money and personal aggrandizement.
Also at play in the game are human lives. Last time, which is July 20, 18 of these lives were played like cards, and lost. But none of the NGO leaders died.
If anything, some of them were just ‘scratched’ by police officers, and ‘washed’ with teargas. Nothing wrong with that, the Malawi Police Service- overrun and outnumbered by the marchers- just wanted to see if these unelected NGO and CSO leaders are really human and can cry.
Good test.
Now, some of these NGO leaders are talking their usual nonsense in the press. Among other things, they are demanding (and not pleading with the government, politely) that President Bingu wa Mutharika meets their petition-demands, or else ‘people’ will march.
Now, I want to know, which ‘people’ are these frustrated NGO and CSO leaders talking about? Do they have people, at all? Who elected them to be looking at problems facing Malawi and, then, organizing demonstrations?
Of course, they have been speaking of marching on the 17th of August. That is hardly two weeks on the cards.
As usual, they will stick (or play with) people’s lives.
Some people will die, but none of these NGO leaders will be among the victims.
All they want is make Mutharika appear bad.
All they want is to make more money over people’s lives; they want to achieve more personal happiness over human souls.
They are heartless people, in fact, because they do not care. They shed crocodile tears.
They have mansions in town; those who die, only ramshackle houses. The people who die, like the Police officers who shoot at them, sometime point-blank, have long-been neglected and live miserable lives.
But the greedy NGO leaders, people who have nothing to offer to this beautiful country of Malawi, live comfortable lives. Of course, contrary to their claims, they have no people- just some two, three, four children.
Some of them violate human rights. They do nasty things to children, and housemaids, and house servants, and relatives.
They don’t really care about this country. They send their children to expensive schools abroad, as our children languish in dilapidated buildings, where teachers are far-outnumbered by pupils and students.
And these people want Malawians to march, and march and march. Some of the marchers will not return home. They, instead, will march on and on until they embrace death. Marching towards the abyss.
When the fuel and forex come in less than 24 months’ time, and all these problems are gone and forgotten, the departed will not come back; they will be forgotten.
The NGO and CSO leaders will continue to smile with their children (they have already neglected their own relatives). They will marvel at the Windmill college degrees obtained by their children.
But the parents and relatives of the human souls that get sacrificed in this game called ‘civil society advocacy’ will never have their loved ones back; they will not even forget.
That time, NGO and CSO leaders will be looking at their brand new vehicles. Adoring the vehicle. Smiling at it.
The truth is, Bingu wa Mutharika is a man of great ideas. He is the best, after Kamuzu Banda, President Malawi will ever have.
When he will be gone, after serving his second term, we will remember him, and see how great he was.
No, the time is now. Let us support him. Not these unelected NGO leaders who employ their relatives and housemaids.

1 comment:

Liz said...

Hi Richard,

I work for Al Jazeera English. Do you have an email I can reach you at?
Thank you, and have a great day.

Liz Martinez