Some day this week, some activists—it appears these days, anyone can just turn their beddings to the other side and wake up with some strange zeal to become one—demanded that the printing of passports should commence at their behest.
You see, so many things obviously went wrong for the passport printing system to go down.
Forget about whatever the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services (Dics) has been saying about the scandal, for that is what it is.
As has always been the case, Dics has never come out to tell Malawians the truth about the crisis that commenced in January.
The department vainly attempted to right what we had exposed and initially dismissed the hacking accounts until President Lazarus Chakwera confirmed them during an appearance in Parliament.
- Advertisement -
Even when we reported that passport data had been lost, Dics issues a statement in which it veiledly dismissed our story and urged Malawians to ignore it.
The very same department turned around few days later to declare that the passport data that had been LOST due to a breach of its system had NOW been RECOVERED.
Nowhere in the world do you recover something that was never lost.
It has been very clear that in the whole passport crisis, important details have been hidden, ignorantly or deliberately.
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
But, well, that is not the focus of this entry.
No one likes what is happening at the Immigration, because it is something that should be avoided at all cost.
Still, it does not make sense for some activists, probably high on whatever illegal substance they chanced upon landing their hands on, to demand that passport printing should start right away.
Proper and meaningful activism gets soiled by such senseless demands which we all know are sometimes motivated by personal or extended grudges which cannot stand their test of time.
Malawi has had one of the most vibrant civil societies in recent years until the activism space got infested with individuals only interested in advancing their personal agendas.
At the whims of politicians, they will abandon proper activism and make unnecessary demands, because they are being paid to do that.
As a result, even those who are into activism with a strong and honest conviction are having challenges in fulfilling their mandates because the general picture is that activists no longer fight for Malawians.
That is why the government itself finds it easy to ignore some of the demands because authorities know nothing will happen afterwards.
We have heard and seen some activists giving government ultimatums to act on a number of governance concerns, but they never follow up on the demands neither do they say what will happen when the demands are not met.
The challenge with that is that it is weakening the civic space, and tampers with the real duties of civil society organisations as fighters of people’s rights and checkers of governance operations.
No wonder, it is not uncommon these days to see very few people turning up for demonstrations organised by these so-called activists.
People want activism that has impact on their lives— activism that will bring out the necessary change.
They want activism that is not being motivated by personal agendas, or attempts to influence the shutting of activists’ mouths.
As Malawi progresses in its democratic dispensation, it should be proper for the civil society to also become stronger and influential.
There are many issues that are going wrong, on which activists should have said or done something.
Instead, because no one is coming forward to sponsor their activities, they are quiet.
They cannot genuinely stand for the rights of the marginalised because they do not see any personal benefit if no one gives them money to lead protests.
They will only issue empty threats and retreat into obscurity once again.
It is only unfortunate that there appears to be no way of checking these activists. Because they have freedoms and rights to do whatever they want, they will continue to blemish the civic space in Malawi.
Perhaps, it is only the vitality of genuine activism that can save the situation. Unfortunately, it appears the genuine activists’ attention is also shifting elsewhere.
And that is bad for Malawians, who want someone to speak for them. They want objective individuals who can sincerely fight for their rights.
Well, there still is a chance for others to come out of amidst the population to take up activism roles.
The country has many of them. They should be more motivated now than ever before, because those that promised to take up the tasks have had their devotion compromised in personal and political frills.
