Maybe some people are born with an aversion for the truth. Maybe, after being born without blemishes, some people learn bad manners fast. Maybe it is politics that makes people lose a part of themselves, even if the lost part was good.
Thing is, I do not know whether people who serve as State presidents like to be lied to or not. It could be that heads of State and government know that they are being, or have been, lied to but choose to look the other side.
Yes, maybe they choose not to tell the ‘cheaters’ in the face that they [presidents] know that they have been cheated.
Now, if the presidents know that someone is hoodwinking them into believing that something is being done about something, say a problem, when the opposite is true, then the presidents are, simply put, cowards.
Why am I saying so? Simple. Ever since I was a toddler, I have been perplexed by what most public officers do whenever a sitting president is about to visit an area. If roads in the area are as tattered as a Tropical Cyclone Freddy-ravaged hillside, public officials do their best, even if it means sleeping on site, to ensure that the road is patched up quicker than the president visits the area.
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If a sitting president wants to visit a public tertiary education institution that ‘knew’ paint decades before, the public officials do their best to paint it and make it look as if it has always been in perfect condition.
By public officials, I mean those who work in government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). I am talking of civil and public servants and, sometimes, even contractors.
I am saying so because when people are applying for jobs in MDAs, they know pretty well that they are serving the public interest. As such, they are supposed to do their best at all times, regardless of whether one, including the president, is watching them or not.
Unfortunately, this has not always been the case in Malawi, which explains why public officials panic whenever the Office of the President and Cabinet, through the Secretary to the President and Cabinet, announces that the First Couple is about to visit such and such a place.
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The officials rush to that place to scan the scene, sniff at problem-areas and, whether there is money or not, find means of finding the money as well as means of patching up all faulty parts.
If the truth were to be told, it is a form of cheating they are not ashamed of. In fact, they seem proud doing that kind of public ‘disservice’. Yes, cheating is not a service; it is a disservice to whoever it is targeted at and must be condemned at all cost.
This behaviour has gone on and on, especially after the re-advent of multiparty politics in 1994, time when Malawians chose their political destiny.
When Bakili Muluzi was in power, public officials used to repair damaged roads to make it appear as if the roads were in perfect condition before the First Citizen’s visit.
And the president did not speak against it. If, ever, he wanted to speak, he did not.
Then came Bingu wa Mutharika [may his soul rest in peace) and the same thing happened over and over again.
I thought things would change once Joyce Banda took over the joystick of power. It was not to be— and she kept smiling at public officials that fed her such ‘bluff’ meals.
As for Peter Mutharika? He, too, used to condone the behaviour; for he never condemned public officials who were making hitherto potholed public roads smooth for him.
How about the incumbent president, namely Lazarus Chakwera? The same thing is happening over and over again.
When they say the head of State is paying a ‘surprise’ visit to such and such a place, it is not really a surprise visit.
Talking of surprise visits, Homeland Security Minister Ken Zikhale Ng’oma was at it the other day; visiting the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services in Blantyre and promising that, soon, passport issuance would resume.
Where are we now? Nowhere.
Why? That is the way things have always been in Malawi. It is not a good thing but there is nothing we can do about it— more so because no one says nothing but the truth.
