Sessions of lies

Tom Sangala March 19, 2019

368 2 minutes read

With Madalitso Musa:

The past three weeks, talk in town has been about presidential and presidential running mates debates.

I attended one in Blantyre. It was Thursday. I attended not because I expected to be convinced by the good-for-nothing spews from the pretenders. I was there because I had two tickets; I have had enough of my throat-soothing liquid and I just wanted not to be “left behind”.

We all know that the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidates—meaning Peter Mutharika and his runaway mate (mark runaway mate) Everton Chimulirenji—have decided to prove the literal meaning of what they are, the debate has, somehow and to some extent, not been the best.

It is not like the presence of Mutharika and his Chimulirenji would have brought some charismatic air to the debate. Not at all. What we have missed, actually, is some moment of drama from people who, like me, have a deficiency when it comes to oral expression. But put that aside.

Mutharika and his Chimulirenji’s decision not to take part in the debates is something that we must not worry too much about. We have not missed anything. Actually, we must be thankful that the number of liars was reduced, otherwise, if all the liars and pretenders had decided to take part in the debates, we could have been staggering under the influence of casks of liars.

In 2014, when Mutharika needed our votes, he played humble and took part in all debates. He showed that he was ready to engage people other than being the pompous and spoilt leader he has become. And it has been rubbed off his cabal.

I know of a very close associate who was convinced to vote for Mutharika because of the fantastic lies the then presidential hopeful dished out at the debates. People can be swayed, trust me. Some of the lies such as that once voted into power he would operationalise the Nsanje Inland Pot—which now is just a desolate concrete—that he would build Mombera University up there in the Northern Region have now graduated to bigger lies that he will take Malawi to the level of some European Country. What, so far, Mutharika has managed to achieve is holding the record of a president who has had the masterly of laying foundation stones. It is still an achievement, isn’t it?

We are in the season when all what is said to us is more of lies other than the truth. Just as most of you did, we raised our antenna to listen to presidential running mates debates the past weeks. What most of these people vomited were just those lies meant to convince the inept and vulnerable.

You and I know that what these people have been talking about are rehearsed jokes that can only appeal to the uninitiated. These jokes will be our daily bread until May 21 when we will, just as we do every five years, queue to give a license to the next gang of thieves.

Let us, with pain, accept that we are victims of political manipulation and all these debates we are having are talk shows to waste our time. Actually, if I were to be raw, these are moments we allow a band of liars and thieves to wow us with their rhetoric subconsciously knowing that all what is being said will never come to fruition.

As I said earlier, I had the luxury of attending the presidential debate last week at Comesa Hall in Blantyre and all that I was sure about was that I was part of the many sessions of lies.