Chakwera disrespects President Mutharika; Addresses him as Mr. in press statement

 

By Duncan Mlanjira

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) President Lazarus Chakwera has disrespected State President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika by just describing him as Mr. Mutharika, saying he is the State House as a temporary tenant.

In a press statement issued on Monday, March 9 in which Chakwera has given 48 hours for President Mutharika to release the arrested Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) leaders, Gift Trapence and Reverend MacDonald Sembereka, the MCP President says failing to do so shall personally galvanize a march on the State House.

Chakwera snubs the President as a temporary tenant of the State Houses and pledges to camp there until the activists are released.

Chakwera said the arrest warrant on the two, together with Timothy Mtambo who is at large, was done following public threats issued earlier against these leaders and opposition parties by President Mutharika and his ministers at a political rally in Blantyre.

“Both the rally and the subsequent arrests are the latest in a series of examples over the last 10 months of Mr. Mutharika’s failure to comply with the law and failure to keep his party matters separate from state matters,” Chakwera said in  press statement issued on Monday, March 9.

He also said this comes about after Mutharika’s failure to respect the independence of state institutions; failure to fulfil his oath of office to uphold the constitution; failure to respect the rights of the majority of citizens who do not want him.

Also failure to rid his party of violent elements and violent rhetoric; failure to unite the regions and tribes that have an equal stake in Malawi’s heritage and destiny; failure to feel or address the anguish Malawians suffer under his leadership.

Also failure to govern; and a general failure to think.

“Ever since the Constitutional Court made an independent determination that Mr. Mutharika’s May 2019 election was illegal, his party has conducted no less than five protests across the country. 

“The police have not arrested his supporters for protesting, because those supporters are Malawians and have a constitutional right to protest, yet he orders police to arrest opposition supporters for exercising the same right. 

“Similarly, on February 27th, Democratic Progressive Party supporters marched through the streets of Lilongwe all the way to Kamuzu Palace to present their grievances, and at no point were they hindered or threatened for doing so.

“Yet he threatens supporters of other parties not to dare do the same and orders the police to arrest activists for wanting to exercise the same right.”

Chakwera further said this selective and partisan application of rights is unacceptable and that by ordering these spurious arrests and doing so from the platform of a political party’s rally, Mutharika is in breach of several provisions of the Constitution.

Chakwera cites as breach of provisions of the Constitution through Section 10(a)  that states “in the resolution of political disputes the provisions of this Constitution shall be regarded as the supreme arbiter and ultimate source of authority”.

“But Mr. Mutharika has turned his back on this by deriving his authority and method for resolving disputes from the rabid outbursts of his rogue ministers. 

He also quotes Section 12(a) whivh states that “all legal and political authority of the State derives from the people of Malawi and shall be exercised in accordance with this Constitution solely to serve and protect their interests”.

Section 15(a) is also quoted that says “human rights and freedoms shall be respected and upheld by the executive, legislature, and judiciary and all organs of the Government and its agencies”.

The MCP President further quotes Section 16(a) that states “every person has the right to life and no person shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her life”.

“But Mr. Mutharika has turned his back on this by having his ministers issue death threats against activists. 

“Section 19(f) states that ‘every person shall have the right not to be detained without trial, detained solely by reason of his or her political opinions,” but Mr. Mutharika has turned his back on this by directing police officers to arrest his critics for not applauding his political failures.

On Section 83(d), Chakwera quote that ‘whenever there is a vacancy in the office of President, the First Vice-President shall assume that office,’ but Mr. Mutharika is now so paranoid that he hallucinates that it is a crime for someone to simply cite this provision out loud. 

“Section 158(d) of the Constitution states that “no government or political party shall cause any member of the Malawi Police Service, acting in that behalf, to deploy resources, whether they be financial, material, or human resources, for the purposes of promoting or undermining any political party or member of any political party or interest group’ but Mr. Mutharika seems not to care,” says Chakwera in the statement.