News that the US State Department has barred 4 former Malawi’s Public officials from entering the US over significant corruption seems to have irked the president of Malawi Dr Lazarus Chakwera.

In a video that was posted on Friday, at the official opening of the Agriculture Investments Conference at BICC in Lilongwe, the President of Malawi after making brief comments about the agricultural sector then veered into what sounded like a lengthy criticism of the US, pinpointing that the US has got the largest incidents of gun violence, that the drugs trade in the US is greater than in any other country, that the US has got the biggest illegal immigration problem, and that the US has the largest problem with Police Brutality on innocent black civilians than any other country. He talked about the Racism that is rife in the US as being the most prevalent than in any other country, and that there are more than 10 million cases of theft or robbery in the US each year…

All this at an Agricultural Investment conference 😒

Chakwera said he wondered why despite all these problems facing the US, the US State Department was still able to pick on Malawi, when he, Chakwera, had already fired the said officials a few years ago from their positions (because of the corruption allegations that had been made against them), to pave the way for justice to be done, without political pressure and while following the country’s legal process.

Chakwera asked why the US was jumping the legal process that was already underway in Malawi to instead tarnish Malawi’s courts, when according to him Malawian courts had a better track record of adjudicating on cases than US courts.

But he emphasized, a few times, that Malawians who speak ill about Malawi are the ones who embolden and encourage foreigners to speak ill about Malawi, and that Malawians should instead be the ones leading the charge in speaking good and positive things about Malawi…

Commentary

It is rather curious that President Chakwera didn’t condemn the corruption allegations again. This was an opportunity for him to say ‘Look if you are a corrupt official and we catch you, there are going to be far reach consequences not only locally in Malawi but also Internationally.’. This was an opportunity to raise the standard against corruption, and remind everyone that his government truly is committed to the fight against corruption, considering the numerous anti corruption actions and crackdowns of his administration.

On a broader point, while the reasons for the timing of the announcement by the US State Department are unclear, it’s unlikely that they would barr any official from entering the US unless they have very good and credible information about the wrongdoing that person has done.

Further, what exactly is Chakwera’s point in comparing the US courts and Malawi’s courts? Of delving into the racism and drugs trade of the US?  How does that help us as a country? How does that help our fight against corruption? I mean you can’t even compare the scale of corruption in some Malawian courts (ironically alluded to by Martha Chizuma, the ACB Director a few years ago – & who, lets not forget, Chakwera’s government tried to persecute).

The same ACB director his government tried to harass and attempted to dismiss, and failed spectacularly – because the people of Malawi were behind her, and supported her actions (they still do).

So Lazarus Chakwera’s comments, to us looks like shameless opportunism, if not deflection from the real issues. They are not statesmanlike.

Nevertheless, when a country is embattled by widespread corruption, and the economy is struggling, when people are finding it hard to earn a living and families are in terrible financial situations, it is unbelievable and embarrassing that the head of state won’t even say one word of condemnation of said corruption(given it’s scale in Malawi), or give a speech that lifts people’s hopes and spirits in light of the dire economic situation.

This is a lost opportunity which could have been used not to get defensive, but to encourage the populace that things will be Ok.