The temptation was to look at how the two-day anti-corruption conference ended up being just one of those dreary talk shows. Nothing tangible, really, can be said to have come out of the conference hall.

The temptation was to look at how that conference only proved that we are yet to see a separation of party and government functions. Nothing has changed, apart from the party colours the women wear as they gyrate their waists and sing praises for the leader during what should be serious discussion. And, they have the nerve to interrupt the President’s speech with their singing!

The temptation was to look at how much the country is not learning a thing in harnessing our natural resources, especially minerals. It is clear that mining deals continue being struck without clear terms and how the nation stands to benefit from the deals.

Not so long ago, tonnes and tonnes of rare earth were taken from Mulanje Mountain to China for ‘tests’. How tonnes and tonnes of the mineral can be taken to labs for tests leaves you baffled!

Remember Kayelekera and who really benefitted from the uranium mining? Now we are saying there is a memorandum of understanding between the mining firm Sovereign Metals Limited has signed a deal with Mitsui & Co Ltd of Japan after it discovered rutile in Kasiya.

The temptation was to look at how Brown Mpinganjira and other recycled politicians have joined the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). Anyone is free to join any political party but BJ’s joining the MCP leaves little doubt that there is more than what the ear hears here.

BJ has been a member of the United Democratic Front, People’s Party, Democratic Progressive Party and even formed his own National Democratic Alliance.

The temptation was to look at how once Mpinganjira was a great man who was detained for political reasons by the MCP government in 1986 to be released in 1991. Prison literature by such authors as the Irish Reverend Patrick O’Mailley, poet and linguist Jack Mapanje, Sam Mpasu all recount how great Mpinganjira was in smuggling communications from Mikuyu Prison to the outside world and vice versa.

It seems BJ does not know that he has long erased his heroic acts in fighting the one party rule and is more focused on personal agrrandisement.

But then, what is happening as I write is much more confusing than all these temptations. How do you fight against Presidential immunity when the issue is in the law books?

And then, you hear one of the leaders Silvester Namiwa is abducted and found somewhere in Nathenje. The theories abound. Did he abduct himself? Was he abducted by those who feel hot by the pressure he is putting on government? Or was he, as put wildly by Minister of Homeland Security Jean Sendeza in Parliament that he was abducted by people who do not wish the government well.

Most confusing and most wondrous is how some went on the streets with pangas apparently to protect their property from demonstrators. Is this a show that they had no trust in the police which is mandated to protect lives and property?

Wielding pangas in public against demonstrators reminds us all of Bingu wa Mutharika.n

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