Malawi cabinet ministers destroying themselves over bribery claims

“Most politicians think they get unfair treatment from the media, in part because any coverage that does not communicate their full grandeur — their incisive mind, their sparkling personality, their unimpeachable integrity — must be unfair.” (Paul Waldman, The Week Magazine, 16 August,2016)

 Why have I chosen a Paul Waldman quote? Let us take a most recent example in Malawi. The press exposed Dr George Chaponda in the Maizegate scandal. What did Chaponda say? “The media hates me”,“The opposition are using the media”, lamented Chaponda but when the press called him a “bulldozer” who gets work done, he never commended journalists because the media communicated his full grandeur which Chaponda and his fellow politicians love to hear.

Now, here is the negative side of the press, they create their own problems.

For example, let us take a silly thing. President Mutharika joked that “Ine ndilibe polobulemu” (I have no problems) at the time the President was saying this, “Ine ndilibe polobulemu” was song of the moment and the President was just trying to show Malawians that he is one of them and he enjoys music just like anyone else.Journalists went to town accusing the President that he was mocking suffering Malawians. Really?

Therefore, a Nyasa Times story of 5^th March 2017 cannot just be left “snoozing” inreaders’ minds without analysing it.

Here I go!

Malawi’s minister of Civic Education Patricia Kaliati has exploded over the “dishonesty and corrupt media in Malawi. “We must not dismiss her {attacks on the press} as simply dumb.  The Minister’s sweeping statement might not go well with journalists but upon revisiting the same, it makes sense. In an article published by Nyasa Times on 5 March, the Minister deplored over the tendency of journalists writing news for cash.

Yes, out of Dr George Chaponda (Maizegate scandal) and other “revealing” stories the blame shift has gone to the press. To say the least, journalists are now tire of the apparently interminable news focus on their profession which will have it tarnished.

I now want to analyse the summative conclusion Hon Kaliati has made on journalists.

Investigations

As the saying goes, send a thief to catch a thief…my investigations are showing that it is not only the opposition who are bribing journalists but government ministers are also palm oiling reporters for news. To make matters worse, government ministers are bribing journalists to tarnish the image of other ministers so that they should be in the President’s good books. The Chaponda scandal reveals an infight in the DPP cabinet.  I will let events unfold on their own but the fact remains: one cannot hide the truth.

Empower journalists

The President is talking of empowering the youth, women, loans for civil servants and teachers and yet the President and his ministers never talk of empowering journalists or giving loans to journalists. What are Ministers doing?  They are in two camps. Empowering reporters by bribing them and when they write garbage, the two camps accuse reporters. Very unfair indeed.

Why doesn’t government introduce tax relief and incentives for media houses in so doing; media houses will be able to pay their workers well.

Integrity.

The President is preaching the gospel of integrity every day and here is a Cabinet minister bribing journalists. Is this minister helping the President? If discovered, he should be relieved of his duties.

We are getting our first glimpse of how the DPP cabinet will look like if they win in 2019. The first glimpse is blaming the opposition in bribing journalists when in actual sense it is a cabinet minister from the “Llomwe belt” bribing media houses.  Yes, to sabotage his fellow ministers.

Conclusion

If only President Peter Mutharika shared his ministers’ greed for power, the country would end as badly as the Ministers greed which is eliminating themselves one by one.  THANKFULLY HE IS NOT INVOLVED

Politicians think about themselves and want to destroy their counterparts instead of uniting against hostility and by extension they blame it on the press, Paul Waldam’s point cannot be over emphasised;

“Most politicians think they get unfair treatment from the media, in part because any coverage that does not communicate their full grandeur — their incisive mind, their sparkling personality, their unimpeachable integrity — must be unfair.”

•  The author once worked as a journalist in Malawi and was  once  Timau columnist on Nyasa Times.

Sharing is caring!