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Responses to My Diary, Nation
This week I want to share with you what some people feel are burning issues that need to be discussed and thrashed out for all to know.
E. Kam'weleni of Lilongwe says he was shocked by a statement made by Vice President Cassim Chilumpha at a press conference held on 18 November, 2004. He quotes Chilumpha as having said that former president Bakili Muluzi as national chairman of UDF needs to help President Bingu wa Mutharika. Kam'weleni has this to say:
“What has Muluzi done worth mentioning? Let me remind Chilumpha that we Malawians are bitter with Muluzi because a) he mismanaged the economy. As a country we are suffering because of the K86 billion debt which we are repaying. b) Muluzi did not develop opposition MPs' constituencies because, to him, opposition MPs were enemies. c) Muluzi condoned corruption. e) Why have inquiries into the deaths of General Manken Chigawa and Kalonga Stambuli not been brought to a logical conclusion?”
f) Kam'weleni is bitter that the taxpayer has to pay Sudi Sulaimana who successfully sued government for arresting him. He thinks UDF or Muluzi, and not the taxpayer, should cough the money to pay Sulaimana because, he says, Sulaimana's arrest was nothing but political. Kam'weleni further says during the 10 years Muluzi led the country, he transformed himself into a billionaire but sadly the people he led became poorer than they were in 1994. Kam'weleni asks: “Is this what Chilumpha wants Bingu to learn from Muluzi?”
Kam'weleni also says most ministries do not tick because cabinet ministers are not in control of the situation. He wonders why we expect cabinet ministers to bring results when most of the time their itineraries are dominated by opening seminars; conducting visits to ministries or departments; being guests of honour at functions; holding press conferences to dispute truth; escorting the President on local and foreign trips and attending the President's press conferences to clap hands.
Kam'weleni also talks about the influx of illegal foreigners into the country. He queries the Minister of Home Affairs why he cannot put in place mechanisms to sniff out these people from their hiding places. He says there are many of them staying in flats and doing businesses but without temporary work permits. He says all that is needed to smoke these illegal immigrants out of their hideouts is to go door-to-door. He says Uladi Mussa the Minister of Home Affairs should act and not just talk.
From someone who finds a lot of substance in and admires My Diary to another reader who is an acidic critic of the column and seems to have pathological hatred for me. This man or woman (my gut feeling is that he is a man) identifies himself with the name Tembo Mwale (e-mail tembomwale@yahoo.com) which sounds rather phony to me, and I have told him as much. This reader sees nothing good to say about Nation newspapers and is always predicting doom and gloom for them with the author of My Diary column and negative stories about the UDF being the people who will bring this doom. Excerpts:
“I respect you for your honesty and that you notice people follow your column. As you will appreciate, a paper can destroy or build and if you really do your work properly, I have no problem. However, let me clarify on one issue, Nation newspapers have been around not necessarily because you don't cheat people but because they are well financed by its founder, like the Daily Times which is another Banda-funded [paper]. Malawians do not really have a choice. It is like going to watch Bullets playing Mighty because they don't have tv sets and DStv to watch Arsenal vs Manu, your favourite team. THE NATION HAS NO COMPETITOR. IT IS THE BETTER AMONG THE MEDIOCRE ENTITY. Yes, it will be around but if this trend of UDF-bashing continues, believe me its survival will be as precarious as that of Aleke who had to wait for 40 years to become an MP.
“Let me apologise for the tribal insinuation. If indeed you are not tribal then your long stay in Blantyre and education at Chanco has really done wonders to you. Most of your homemates never ever reach that level. To them a Northerner is intelligent, capable, and a special being, the other regions will never produce such beings, an attitude which has cost politicians like Chihana the top post of the land. If you believe that we are same and this is reflected in columns, I will write you back to congratulate you. Leave it or take it, journalists are coming up and if one day a paper comes out, independent, not funded by politicians like the Bandas', The Nation will have a run for its money. Yes, 10 years in print is a cause for celebration but revisit those articles by late Kuntambila, Jika and Lipenga and see why people got hooked to Nation. Compare that to yours and your colleague Chisambo, what can be said to be the difference? If you don't notice the difference, then surely the writing is on the wall. I know it is difficult to convince you that your work is substandard after all others sing praises for you and you are voted number one by people who have no better choices. Well, I look forward to more of your sorry features. No hard feelings. Cheers. Mwale.
What Mwale does not know, without necessarily trivialising the contributions of the people he mentions as being what hooked readers to the Nation, the two Nation newspapers have grown so much in the past few years. Weekend Nation, for example, has actually tripled in circulation since 2001. In fact, Mwale's thinking that people could be buying the newspaper because once upon a time they read a nice story in thepaper, is too naive.
Another follower of My Diary known as Papa Chalo (e-mail teraviv@yahoo.co.uk) writes: “Keep it up. The government and the President must know the truth and the true feelings of us Malawians. Tell Bingu that any compromise he makes on issues of corruption, he will be answerable after his term of office. Sooner or later we will have a government of genuine prosecutions to put things right. Thanks.”
Responding to My Diary of two three weeks ago, a reader I will only identify as Kazima has this to say about the man who cuts a larger than life image of himself—UDF national executive member—Dumbo Lemani:
“Lemani cannot be disciplined by UDF. Lemani has UDF and [Bakili] Muluzi's top secrets. Lemani and [Humphrey] Mvula are UDF spin doctors. UDF is at Lemani's mercy.”
More responses from readers next time.
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