Bingu’s Songs in the US

Is it in politicians? Or because late President Bingu wa Mutharika’s young brother Peter is a political apprentice that he decided to caricature himself into some buffoonery when he eulogized his brother at his funeral on Monday.

Peter Mutharika wanted to impress the cross section of those that had come to help inter the remains of his brother and in so doing wanted to give the impression that the brother was not only the Jack of all trades but was also the master of all.

I have no business discussing all what Bingu was involved in as laid out by his young brother who said their six years gap on their birth made them very close and shared a lot of things.

And so Peter decided to tell the mourners some of those things that his elder brother had achieved in his life time.

What started getting me interested is when he said his brother was a poet who used a pseudo name to publish a whole lot of them. My interest came because at times the lyrics that people come up with are sometimes poetic in their nature and construct.

I never expected what came next when Peter said Bingu was also an accomplished dancer, composer, and songwriter who also did it under a pseudo name. I guess the dancing was not being done under a pseudo.

Peter claims that the songs that Bingu wrote have made it big in the United States of America and they are the most favourite and most played songs. 

He then goes further that he cannot tell the nation what those songs are even when his brother is dead.

For some reasons known by the two Mutharikas, they wanted to keep Bingu’s musical talent a secret.

This space cannot dispute Bingu’s musical ability because for the past two weeks we have been acknowledging it. But what I find fascinating is what Peter alleged and I have been struggling to give him the benefit of doubt but my gut feeling is telling me he does not even deserve it.

Bingu as our leader for 8 years is not a person who would write songs that have made it big in the US and remain quite.

Of course Bingu always said that ‘The work of his Hands would speak for him’ but we also have learnt that most of the times, especially in the last botched up days of his rule, he took over the speaking.

When he was inaugurating the Mausoleum that he had built for his wife, where he has also been interred, he told the nation that he conceptualized and designed the imposing structure.

Peter cited this one as well when he described the brother as a designer, he cited President Joyce Banda as Bingu’s show that he was a champion of human rights, likewise to brag about his late brother’s fishing skills he talked of a big blue fish that he killed during a vacation in Portugal.

Music is a kind of art which is like a lightened candle that you cannot put under a cover. It has to illuminate wherever it is placed.

And knowing Bingu and given the citations that Peter made to strengthen any claim of who Bingu was, what was the good reason for Bingu not to talk about his song writing skills or Peter not to mention any of the now famous songs in America that Bingu wrote.

Peter says Bingu had written Gospel and Country songs and decided not to mention them.

And this left Malawians with music interest start speculating that perhaps some of the songs that famed Kenny Rodgers and Ken Williams were in fact a composition of Bingu?      

If indeed Bingu was good at that, why didn’t he compose songs that he would have been used during his campaigns? Instead he adopted Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda’s ‘Tiyende Pamodzi ndi Mtima umodzi’ which became his ruling Democratic Progressive Party – DPP’s rallying cry during the campaign period in the 2009 elections.

To whose benefit would the hiding of the said compositions that Bingu made be?  Was Peter Mutharika truthful or he was carried away by the events unfolding at his brother’s funeral?

Let me hasten to say here that if Bingu’s song composition is part of what has been tucked away in the US in a treasure trove, would it, perhaps be one of the reasons it cannot be revealed, because revealing it would lead to more discoveries?

The US enjoys the laws that deal with intellectual property right as well as copyright issues. How is such composition enjoying these provisions?  

If Bingu wrote songs that Americans are enjoying immensely, it could be that back home in Malawi here, we are also enjoying the said songs not even knowing that they are a composition of our fallen leader.

How bad can it get? Are you agreeing with me that Peter has to come clean on his brother’s composition so that we place it – depending on its level of ingenuity -  in the hall of fame where songs of Stonald Lungu Dr. 

Daniel Kachamba, Robert and Arnold Fumulani, Evision Matafale and other accomplished artists is kept?

   

Lucius Banda sings Bingu again

I don’t believe that Lucius Banda’s tribute track for late President Bingu wa Mutharika ‘Kuwala’ is the last that we have heard of him and the fallen President.
The relationship between President Mutharika and Lucius cannot, in any descriptive attempt, earn anything close to being rosy.
Politics and Lucius will also never be separable. Ironically, he once declared that he will only concentrate on love songs, which were never to be the case; songs full of political innuendos and some briskly attacking the political authority of the powers that be kept on coming.
‘Mabala’ – his maiden album – was a litany of atrocities that the first President Ngwazi Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda’s government is believed to have committed.
The subsequent albums that followed were merely pointers to President Bakili Muluzi on how his governance had gone off beam; afterwards Muluzi took it upon himself to invite Lucius to the executive residence where he was anointed.
At first, he was a strong critic of Muluzi and he thus rightly called himself, the soldier of the poor, but soon after meeting Muluzi who later became his political God Father, the soldier of the poor became the soldier of Muluzi.
He never took it kindly when Muluzi was a subject of ridicule and this completely changed the tone in his music, which nonetheless kept selling.
Then in the political fray entered Bingu wa Mutharika handpicked by Lucius’ Political God Father.
Just within his top notch quality composition skills, Lucius released the all time political campaign track ‘Yellow’. This is one number that even when one was never going to vote for UDF of Bakili Muluzi, you still wanted to listen to it.
In fact, it is undisputable that this track wooed a percentage of voters towards UDF.
Lucius and his Zembani Band travelled the length and breadth of Malawi with UDF political heads and by the end of the campaign he had made 70 performances. He says despite all this, Bingu pretended that he never knew who he was; thus lack recognition.
Then there was also lack of reward, although the party provided a seven-tone lorry and band equipment, it was never to follow what was agreed that he would be rewarded after Bingu’s victory.
And this explains why he moved a motion in parliament to have impeachment procedures for a sitting president and what came out is something that still makes Lucius seethe with anger.
After only enjoying the status of a Member of Parliament for two years between 2004 and 2006 he did not only found himself out of the august house but had to spend 67 days in Prison.
Now tell me if Lucius is not justified to exact the pain he suffered at the behest of the late President Mutharika by exposing the ills of his government through his music?
He says he has forgiven Mutharika, but I don’t know what he means? That he will never sing about the ills of Mutharika again or will, of course sing about him, but only about the good things that, like his political God Father Muluzi, Bingu registered in his first term?
One thing for sure is that Lucius would occasionally sing about Kamuzu and I doubt very much if he will not sing anything again about Mutharika; more so if there will emerging issues or developments to compare him with the incumbent Joyce Banda.
And talk of Joyce Banda, I am anxious to see Lucius’ next album because he has become our music political barometer. We use Lucius to gauge how far we can go with expressing our dissent over the current political authority through music.
He has those poetic dubbing pieces, like the latest ‘Life’ which, like all the songs he has released during the tenure of Mutharika infected the rest of his albums never to see any airplay on television as well as radios operated by the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC).
I hear he is leading a lobbying machine to have President Joyce Banda open up the airwaves for his ‘banned’ music. At the moment, the President has just emerged from our folds and we share the same disgruntlement over duty bearers who had let greed get the better of them and left us all whining.
Now that she is the Duty Bearers-in-Chief, will she still share our plight, won’t she become another intolerant leader who will ban any music that suggests she is out of step with the accepted norms of governance?
We have not yet heard how things are between Joyce and Lucius as politicians who were once eating from the same UDF bowl. Are we going to see anything better in terms of who places the interest of musicians at a better tier if comparisons between Joyce and Bingu have to be summoned?
Having read my wild intimation, do you still believe we have heard last of Lucius and Bingu?
May the Soul of President Bingu wa Mutharika Rest in Eternal chiming Peace.  

A Befitting Dirge for Bingu

The first time I wrote about President Bingu wa Mutharika was when this column was appearing for the second time. It was titled “Mutharika – The Musician”.

I had discussed President Bingu wa Mutharika not as the then head of the Malawi state, or an accomplished economist, but because he had proven to us all that he was also a musician of sorts.

President Mutharika collapsed on April 5, 2012 while giving an audience to a cabinet member after he had already met two. He suffered a cardiac arrest that eventually killed him.

In March 2010 I also wrote here that ‘Veep Joyce Banda Sings in Nkhatabay’.

It was something to do with Gray Mtila, one of the country’s accomplished musicians. He worked in the Malawi Police Band after graduating from Nullhall Music College in the United Kingdom.

He also became the first black teacher of music at the glamorous Kamuzu Academy, but after retiring from there, he led and taught a number of church choirs. His death, though sombre, was during a church sermon where he collapsed at the pulpit and was pronounced dead of a heart attack.

The two men Gray Mtila and Bingu wa Mutharika have a very direct link to President Joyce Banda and how sad that they both died doing what they were called to do, and both died of heart attack.

The three, Gray, Joyce and Bingu have had a significant role in the music industry of the country.

To start with, I wrote at that time that the late President Mutharika’s musical talent came to the fore during the 2004 campaign, when politically; music also decided the pace of the campaign when musician Lucious Banda came on the scene with his hit single ‘Yellow’.

 Then, Mutharika would sing out former Zambian President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda’s ‘Tiyende Pamodzi ndi Mtima Umodzi’ verses which never captivated anyone musically.

But having gained the incumbency, eventually, and formed his Democratic Progressive Party after ditching the United Democratic Front it looks like he got a totally new mettle for his musical capabilities.

Now this ‘Tiyende Pamodzi’ mantra had a different swirl to it, now that it was being sung by the first citizen who gave it an executive appeal. And when one of his Members of Parliament, gifted music producer and singer Joseph Tembo, [of course the name is now preceded by the title Honourable] took ‘the executive singing toils’ into the studios and manipulated it with his wizardry, what came out is still a hit.

To show how outstanding the track has become one has just to measure how it is still terrorising the beer halls as well as the dance floors.

With the President’s musical involvement, one would not have been surprised to see how many old and new artists went home composing one song after the other.

Exist Bingu wa Mutharika enter Gray Mtila.

Mtila is the man who sired one girl Joyce, who stood out amongst her siblings; she married a lawyer Richard ‘Mwanabola Shoeshine’ Banda who became Chief Justice in his homeland as well as in the Kingdom of Swaziland.

Joyce Banda was said to have joined the musical fray, like Bingu and her late father, when she started singing since 2006 but in the confines of her Malosa home in Zomba.

She however jumped parameter as she went to Nkhatabay South-East on August 1, 2010 where she sang in presence of her husband, two daughters and her sister.

The singing was through the Gray Mtila Music Trophy which she established in honour of her father the musician. In Nkhatabay alone, a whooping half million kwacha was spent for the competition.

Considering that there has been a deep connection of music to the two executive heads I have expectations that our music industry would do us kind with some tracks.

Lucius Banda, I know will forget his sour relationship with late President Mutharika and eulogize his life and works as not only the first citizen of the country but also an ‘accomplished’ musician.

Likewise a congratulatory song for President Joyce Hilda Mtila Banda won’t be that bad, considering that she is a daughter of a complete musician who even taught the art.

Mutharika has also enjoyed compositions from artists in the likes of members of parliament Bauleni M’mana, Billy Kaunda and Joseph Tembo at the time that he was welding the executive powers that was bestowed on him.

Now that he is dead, a ‘dirge’ for the departed leader would be a befitting farewell gift, considering that he has also left a musical legacy that needs to be appreciated as equally as politicians and government will be planning to honour him as much.

Feedback: drummingpen@columnist.com

President Joyce Banda - Take Heed

Dear Madam President Joyce Hilda Mtila Banda,

Let me first congratulate you for making it to the hot seat.

You have always referred to Presidents Bakili Muluzi and Bingu wa Mutharika (May His Soul Rest in Peace) as ‘Abwana’ – Your boss.

And I feel anxious that now you are the ‘Boss’ yourself.

When you fell out of grace with your second boss President Mutharika, you became ‘wiser’ and talked so much on how best the government was supposed to run so that the common man out there is the ultimate beneficiary. I believe your conduct will also prove on whether or not what you were saying was all garbage or you had a point.

In His veritable wisdom God has put you on the mantle of leadership so that you put some breaks to the rampaging wheel of the economy which long lost its track and is straying in the bush; but in order to ensure that what contributed towards its derailment is reversed, everything is in your hands so that the country can get back to its prosperous ways.

You must be very lucky person to become the country’s fourth President. The position you are occupying Madam was first occupied by late President Ngwazi Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda. But you are lucky because you have seen where your colleagues went wrong and where they slipped off it is where you will put your footholds for you to keep going and in the end create a perfect regime, although perfection is only for God.

Forget that your mediocre performance will be palliated by your being a woman; I for one would expect you to perform, nonetheless.

Don’t ignore the hospitals

I want the South Africa Rands or the US Dollars every time I seek for it at the bank. I need to roll down my vehicle at a fuel pump and fill the tank without much ado. I want to be diagnosed properly and treated with suitable medicine every time I am sick.

Remember, President Mutharika thought he would fly to foreign hospitals to get treatment when he will become sick and no wonder he paid a deaf ear to all the cries from our villages that public hospitals had no medicine.

But God never rendered him the opportunity to get sick first so that he enjoys the attention of medical experts of the world. He had a cardiac arrest while deep in his the line of duty and died soon later.

Reproductive Health

Your Excellency, in 2010, you became a member of the Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health and I know it is not in vain that your presidency will mix well with this for the benefit of our country, considering our maternal, child and neonatal mortality rate.

Would you please re-look our situation and establish if at all our efforts to reduce the figures and fulfill our bit on the MDGs was due to lack of political leadership or inadequate resources? Imagine we are the second worst country in the world after Sierra Leone that has a shocking maternal mortality rate.

I need to commend you for the drastic actions taken less than a week in office when you directed that the two gynecologists who have been waiting for an appointment letter to start working at the Ethel Mutharika ‘Safe Motherhood’ Hospital do get such letters as quickly as before close of business on the day you made your directive – thus April 10, 2012.

Search the Forex for us

We have deficiencies in the supply chain of our fuel as well as sugar, not to mention medicine. All this I know is because some where somehow the executive botched up in ensuring that forex was available.

On Medicine, what UNICEF and other donors did and supplied medicine into our hospitals is shameful.

While we all applaud them for the gesture, it is a shame because it is like people organizing themselves to start fending for your family because as the father you have failed to provide bread on your table.

I need to remind you Madam President that when we were voting for you and your predecessor on that single DPP ballot, we were in fact hiring you to take care of our purse and provide for the country by ensuring that forex is available so that by extension, we should also have medicine, fuel as well as ensuring that there is no cut for all the supply chain for our basic necessities.

What it means is that when you failed to provide these, it will be a vote of no confidence, that your predecessor failed to accept and instead used force to cling to power when he even murdered over 20 youths on July 20 last year.

I know you were never given an opportunity to show your leadership skills and ensure that you were doing what we voted you for, now you have no excuse.

We know your predecessor said fighting corruption was his number one mission. But was it not apparent that all that gibberish was meant to hoodwink donors into giving us their monies when we were not up to it, no wonder they stopped us in our tracks.     

Declaring your assets

Instead, the President who had nothing on him when he was ascending to power became a multimillionaire overnight in all the currencies.

He built a multi-roomed, up-stairs home at Ndata, he started dishing out millions to all and sundry, he used to allocate millions to state house and then to the presidency in the national budget which he was failing to account for. He became so big headed that even when parliament would summon him he thought he was larger than us the voters who had hired him for a short period to take care of our country, to explain to us through parliament how he was managing our resources.

I don’t want to trouble you to go back to our constitution and read this so I will provide it for you right here.

Section 88 A (1) of our Constitution reads and I quote:

“The President and members of the Cabinet shall not hold any public office and shall not perform remunerative work outside the duties if their offices and shall, within three months from the date of election or appointment, as the case may be, fully disclose all their assets, liabilities and business interests, and those of their spouses, held by them or on their behalf as at that date; and, unless Parliament, such disclosure shall be made in a written document delivered to the Speaker of the National Assembly who shall immediately upon receipt deposit the document with such public office as may be specified in the Standing orders of Parliament.

 (2) Any business interests held by the President and Members of the Cabinet shall be held on their behalf in a beneficial trust which shall ne managed is such manner as to enclosure conformity with the responsibilities and duties of their offices.

(3) The President and members of the Cabinet shall not use their respective offices for personal gain or place themselves in a situation where their material interest conflict with the responsibilities and duties of their offices.”

End of quote Madam.

Now how come your predecessor is said to have acquired a Presidential Villa and Yatch in Portugal at a whooping price of US$18m; built Ndata which is worth 14 billion Malawi Kwacha; lavishly spent 200 million Malawi Kwacha on his birthday; acquired a $60m hotel in Portugal through the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) and ordered that Malawi Savings Bank (MSB) at Ginnery Corner in Blantyre do extend a K400M loan to Mulli Brothers Ltd to purchase Bestobell.

In the first place President Mutharika never declared his assets and I should also hasten to ask you, did you ever declare your assets as Vice President? If anything he used to brag about how rich he was then when he was conducting political rallies as if that is what the quoted piece of legislation above says.

For your benefit Madam, President Mutharika was a bad financial manager and he miserably failed to run his Bineth Farm in Zimbabwe which forced him to get back here to try his hands on a minibus business which also failed miserably.

It was only after President Muluzi’s greed for power having hit a wal with attempt to stay in power for life through open term bill, supported by Opposition leader John Tembo and third term that he started looking for a ‘bovine’ personality he would install on the seat and remote control from the backseat.

At the time Muluzi made Mutharika Deputy Central bank Governor he had nothing on him. And it is surprising he started dishing out such big monies like that.

I suspect lack of the country’s knowledge on the wealth of the President before he ascended to power is where the problem of stealing from our coffers start from.

Madam President, I know I have been to some of your property including your lakeshore home in Chintheche; which is imposing yes and I would not be surprised if you improve it further.

It will however be wrong if such improvement will start raising eyebrows and while you will feel so big not to bother give the nation an account of how that has been achieved, as was the case with your predecessors, I hope you will spare us such a headache this time round, by at least attempting to make any unconvincing effort to explain.

Nepotism

I always wonder Madam President what fuels what? Does nepotism fuel gluttony or it is gluttony that fuels nepotism? Your predecessor President Mutharika was a shame that you need not emulate. He was so myopic that he divided the country on tribal lines, something his previous colleagues never did.

With his Mulhakho wa Alomwe tribal grouping, he filled all influential positions in the country with his kind. Just check the head of Judiciary, Central Bank, the Police, Immigration; I am not sure about the Attorney General and the Malawi Defence Force Commander, MRA, MACRA, Head of Treasury and the list is long.

Unashamedly he never had any conscious and those that were supposed to speak against it, were never taken seriously. What is disturbing is that those that were benefitting to such divisive acts never listened to the voice of reason.      

You have an opportunity Madam President to better this record or correct things.

Within your ranks you have one similar character that feeds on nepotism in Brown James Mpinganjira. If you so decide to give him any position ensure that his wings are clipped, so that he does not soar higher that reason.

Relationship with the Media

Remember where we first brushed shoulders Madam President? It was while I was working at The Chronicle Newspaper which your predecessor finished off; for he never let the media operate as a free entity and vital organ of our democratic apparatus.

You went ballistic when I wrote a story about you while at the Ministry of Gender and how you managed UNICEF provided resources meant for Orphans and Vulnerable children.

Lucky for me I had all the necessary documents that I showed in your face when you summoned me and my Editor Pushpa Jamieson.

I vividly remember how you threatened me that your husband was a retired Chief Justice and that you would sue me for the story and you never forgot about the issue. Every other time I called you for a different story you would still remember it.

There was a time you were with your fellow lady ministers in Parliament and when I greeted all of you, you never responded, and still showed your anger two years after that story was published.

Now I know how you personally feel about the media and I am now very afraid of the whip that you will hold over our heads as you watch our every move while discharging our duty as the fourth estate.

I know this might also be aggravated by a team of your Media Machine that you will put at your state residence and your office as has been the case with your predecessors.

Propaganda Machinery

I remember to have confessed at one time that chivalry, that virtue I must show the institution of the State House to demonstrate my deference to the residence of this nation’s first citizen seem to have been eluding me.

Pity, it was not out of my own making; I don’t want it to continue feeling the same.

I have known from experience that a composition of people who run the state house second guess their purpose and grope in the dark as a result in order to find meaning of why they have to be where they are. They thus become a propaganda machinery that infiltrates the media apparatus of the state like MACRA, MBC etc. I hope your appointments will avoid this Madam.

State House Media Team

It is demeaning to make out that the State House thinks it should co-exist alongside the mediocrity of righting the wrongs of the media, believing that it walks within its ‘holier than though’ attitude it desperately tries to exhibit through its cheap propaganda as was the case with Mutharika’s style.

Not in a too distant past, we had a kind of personnel who religiously believed in the propaganda of ‘Press Release Theory’.

They had all the characteristics of shenanigans and sycophants who wrongly thought they were within their parameter of duty to scurrilously dispute anything that appeared in the media about President Bingu wa Mutharika.

The strange thing is that even when these people are replaced, they tend to continue from where their friends left off.

Good example is even when Charles Namondwe entered the scene as new Director General of State Residences; he was trying to walk the same route that had seen others fall by the wayside. He never revoked any memory to tread carefully realizing that he took over from an overzealous Chief of Staff of State Residences Ken Zikhale Ng’oma who ended up shooting himself in the foot.

In my experience as a media practitioner I have realized that the State House institution, to start with, is a fortress of ‘secret information’ be it common and classified where when you stumble unto something that needs your seeking its clarity whoever is in custody of such information shortchange you with utmost pleasure. 

When you salvage the little information that is adding up, write a story as a result, they turn ballistic, and become sententious about a version, which they say, is precise but nonetheless still scruffy.

It is a pity they are bigheaded and never see it of relevance to put records within their taste when a journalist is developing a story. Until a story is written and when our Septuagenarian leader took notice and chastised them or realizes on their own that some shouting from Mutharika is on the way, then they would rush to dispute the story through a press release.

As a media person, my duty is to crack the reticence associated with what I call public information like how the taxpayers’ money is extravagantly spent. It is common knowledge that the State House staff will be sanctimonious when giving out any version of story for public consumption knowing well whose skin they have to protect.

The observations above are reprieve of blame shifting where authority fails to accept that it is failing to look at the picture with open eyes and realize that the media and the state house will never share the same point.

Even if we write stories that are to the taste of the directorate of the state residences still some sectors within it will find them lacking. Nevertheless, since we will be trying to find out information that belongs to the public, which the statehouse gatekeepers will try to hide, then we will always be on the wrong side of what the state house perceives to be without its description of professional norm and ethics.    

The President’s Office Media

That is about your statehouse media team; now there are also bad signs with the team at your office, talking from experience.

With Mutharika, whatever anybody wanted to believe I had concrete grounds to declare that he, or his lieutenants, was always trying to manipulate the media to set his agendas in motion.

While we still lamented for government’s contribution or lack of it in delaying the adoption of the much talked about Access to Information Bill by developing cold feet towards its realization, I find all the sanity to surmise that it is for the same manipulative objective that this bill is still a pipedream.

You see, whenever I was looking for any information from the office of His Excellency, whatever or however undemanding that information may be, I would be told to wait by Mutharika’s all-knowing Press officer.

It was either he was busy in a meeting or he would promise to get back to the enquiring journalists after finding out from the president; he rarely did though.

It was understandable considering how sensitive the position for these media guys at such places is as it thrives on the whims of the president and things become worse when the occupant of such a seat was very unpredictable on his bad days as was the case with Mutharika.

But it even became distasteful when the technocrats or officers in the ministries behave likewise or sometimes just more than the president’s press office; pretending to be the best custodians of public information in their domain. This is confidential information protected at the expense of transparency and accountability.

MACRA and LICENCES

It is by extension of the same proclivity that you find bodies like Malawi Communication Regulatory Authority (MACRA) behaving like politicians. They have flimsy excuse to threaten closure of some broadcasting stations and worse still refuse to issue licenses to deserving operators.

Just how do you explain how a well established media house like Blantyre Newspapers Limited (BNL) or Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) would be denied licence but president’s tribal grouping Mulhakho wa Lomwe and his family who have never done any media business qualifies for a TV and radio licence. Is this not taking Malawians for granted? 

I would be so saddened Madam President when you will continue refusing the deserving the licenses and end up providing one for the Joyce Banda Foundation.

Then there is that Spy MACHINE, do you share the reasons MACRA advanced, justifies its acquisition?

Cleaning MBC

Then there are state controlled broadcasters, the Malawi Broadcasting Station (MBC) television and radio stations. You cannot forget how mere employees of the institution like Bright Malopa and his clique used to insult you as if you were not their boss.

Madam President, the lesson you learnt from such behavior should teach you a lesson on why there is need to free the corporation so that it can act professionally.

If you think what your predecessors were doing is okay, and then it is unfortunate that Malawi is blessed with leaders of your kind.

Learn to know that it is not an issue when you stretch a muscle neither is it an issue when you belch or attend a wedding of a relative. We have no business paying tax to watch you or listen to you doing this on our television and radios. We hired you right from our villages and therefore you are a human being connected to these relations first. It is folly to always follow you with state cameras and microphones when you are visiting Domasi or Chintheche to cheer up with relatives.

Madam President, MBC has some of the most talented journalists in the country, but can you see what a circus it became. An accomplished journalist like Charles Chikapa was thrown out into the doldrums. Joshua Kambwiri was penalized merely for coming from the same area that you hail from. Is this the way we are supposed to suppress talent and progress?

 This madness has to stop, and I think it is you who has to give sanity to the way the state broadcaster is to operate. It will be difficult if you will surround yourself with praise singers, because they will be blind or deliberately blind to your shortcomings.

I am in deep doubt that you are any different fro your predecessors if going by your appointment of Dr. Benson Tembo is anything to go by.

Here is a man who was in the management of MBC at the time Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda used it as a suppressing tool. Dr. Tembo is the same person who perpetuated his charge even under President Muluzi when he was the pioneer head of the then Television Malawi.

You cannot describe how it operated then as professional. And this is the person you appoint again and knowing how you used to chastise workers at MBC when you were a cabinet minister for not covering you enough, I know we are back on the same circumstance for another vicious cycle.   

The most unfortunate thing is that the grassroots are sensitive to any mistake that you will make and they will give you, your prize or God will do it on their behalf.

I wish you all the best your Excellency President Joyce Hilda Mtila Banda.

Yours Sincerely

Vitus-Gregory Gondwe