In times of crises, from floods, food shortage to road accidents, Malawian leaders usually blame each other of trying to ‘politicize’ ongoing events. Addressing the nation on Tuesday on the coronavirus pandemic, MCP President Lazarus Chakwera accused government of showing lack of seriousness in dealing with the threat of the coronavirus.
PP President Joyce Banda and UTM’s Chilima also castigated government on the same issue. While some of us are busy searching for hand-sanitizer and thinking of how to stay safe amidst the virus threat, the government in waiting and its surrogates have been rolling out a rallying cry: STOP POLITICIZING THE PANDEMIC!
As several commentators suggested earlier this week, it would actually be wise for the opposition to take its own advice. By rushing to the podium and attacking the government despite all its doing to protect us all against the coronavirus, it is Chakwera/ Chilima/ Joyce Banda and their parties who are politicizing the coronavirus threat, and not the other way around. It seems anything that they can use to try to discredit DPP, they will. That’s how power hungry they’ve become.
But for them to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here, and kills millions of people so that they can throw jabs at APM’s rule, is a new level of sickness. It’s sad, inhuman and outright cruel. You know, I don’t know if this is coronavirus or Chakwera/ Chilima derangement syndrome, but these people are clearly infected badly. This isn’t a time to try and score cheap political points. Lives are at stake.
Coronavirus should not be a partisan political issue. It is time for the opposition to support the decisive actions taken by President Mutharika to ensure the risk to Malawians remains low. As we’ve all seen, covid-19 doesn’t discriminate – it attacks everyone regardless of race, age, religion and (most of all) political affiliation.
Coronavirus isn’t an APM or DPP problem, this is a Malawi problem. We are all in this together. And this is actually going to be a litmus test for the opposition to see if they really have the interests of Malawians at heart or if they simply want to unseat APM even if it means jeopardizing the lives of millions of Malawians. History is going to judge you.
