Bingu wa Mutharika: a different man everyday

I am now beginning to understand why it is very difficult to work with my President. Actually if I was given a position to defend my President or in Cabinet, surely one would have to think alot before accepting it. Consistency is a very big asset for a Leader. My President is a different man everyday. Here is part of his speech today:

"If government has not done anything it doesn't meant it can't do anything. All those who are doing nonsense things I can arrest them all if I want to. I want you to know that. Government is government but I'm remaining quite because I believe in democracy. So when some people are drunk talk nonsense...it doesn't mean I can't arrest you. I want you to know, don't think that just because somebody outside said so I cannot arrest you, I can arrest you, let this country go on fire if you want to.
But what I want you to know, ladies and gentlemen of Malawi, I want to let you know that enough is enough, enough is enough, I can't take this insolence any more.

Just a few days ago I was in that hall, some gentleman in there with his clerical collar was saying: 'Bingu, you're the most stupid person, you're a fool'. He said: 'You're stupid, you're a fool'. With that, in those days (one-party days) could he have come out there alive? I want you to know these things, but I'm a patient person, but because of my patience some think I'm a fool. But you're being mistaken because when I spring up you'll see.

I'm saying these things because in this country we've done a lot of things...we've done a lot of things. I have run this country...taking it from the bad position it was in to bring it here. In this country...in this country I have ended hunger, in this country I have ended the HIV/AIDS scourge, in this country I have built roads, in this country I have built hospitals, in this country I have built schools, but all these things somebody says 'no, it's nothing'. What is nothing?

I have set up a committee, a committee so that we can talk. Some people say: 'No, we don't want, we don't want that committee'. So what do you want? I have established a Presidential Contact and Dialogue Group and you say you don't want it, what the hell do you want? What the hell do you want?

I want you to know, you Malawians, I want you to ask these things that: 'What do these people want?' because I have established a committee so that we talk but they say they don't want. That committee the one heading it is a respectable gentleman, Retired Archbishop Dr. Bernard Malango, he is also PhD holder, not a simple person. But they say they don't want. So what do you want?

So if you don't want to talk say 'on such such a day we should start a war' if you want to star a war." - President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi, speaking at the official opening of the 2011 Annual Agriculture Fair in Blantyre on August 25, 2011

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Obama, Ntaba and the long walk towards Tobacco control

Today, a heart rendering and touching ceremony was heard at the Durban Convetion centre in South Africa, 40 million people have died since 1999 from tobacco smoking deaths. The diseases are many so it denial. The Framework Convention Alliance and many Civil Society organisations, are working tirelessly to inform the public on the dangers of smoking. I felt ashamed as a Malawian to hear Malawi mentioned now and then as a country which has not signed the FCTC a World Heath organisation treaty that advocates regulation of tobacco smoking. I am not sure what Bakili Muluzi was thinking, but I am sure my President Bingu wa Mutharika is intelligent enough to read the treaty and realise that in anyway regulating smoking does it kill our tobacco sector. After all as Yussuf Saloojee and Alison Cox say, the crop has not helped Malawians much in their 100 years of growing. I see poverty, we cry poverty and for years we continue to be among the poorest despite not having wars or any sort of conflic
Read more

Protect the Poor Madame President

Finally the evil we all pretended would never come has landed. The Malawi Kwacha for long held at an artificial rate has come crumbling down to an already worn out people. Malawians have moved from position of comfort to that of uncertainty in the past one also years. The devaluation this morning, could not have been as painful as this one will be, if the kwacha was let to float and make its own value stand. Controls should only be done in economies which are stronger to sustain themselves. Today, the dollar is at K252 officially and the countries largest Commercial bank is buying at K247 and selling hard cash at K257. Good news to exporters- especially tobacco farmers. Their take home will increase considerably though we are not sure how the corresponding cost of living will  be at the moment. The cost of living is already high for an average worker in Malawi. The administration of President Joyce Banda, as she personally say running to put things in order. She says Malawi n
Read more