Demo Post Mortem by Rajik Hajat, IPI

I am proud to report that Civil Society in Blantyre had no hand in the riots, looting and violence that ensued during our 'peaceful' demonstration.
It was provoked by Political parties who seized the opportunity to hijack our peaceful march and turn it into a battleground by misdirecting the crowd,

I also hold the following people responsible because:

a) Chiza Mbekeani who applied for the injunction to prevent us from demonstrating for reasons best known to himself;

b) The lawyer who applied for that injunction was later found to be unregistered in Malawi and thus not eligible to apply for injunctions; This should be investigated and punished!

c) The Judge (Kachale) who granted the ex parte injunction at night without checking into the salient facts and/or the eligibility of the applicants; This should be investigated and punished!

d) The Police - for setting up road blocks in various locations to deter people from coming for the demo thereby raising temperature from the start.

e) The Police - for preventing the pickup carrying our PA system from entering into town - thereby denying us the means with which to communicate with the crowd and exert control;

f) The Police - for keeping us bottled up on Victoria Ave for 5 hours in the hot sun without food or water, because of an alleged injunction which did not bear our names and was never served on us. As a result the initial good humour of the crowd soon turned ugly and uncontrollable;

g) The Political Parties - who tried to hijack the peaceful demonstration by whipping the crowd into a frenzy and misdirecting them into a confrontation with the Police that soon became a battleground; It was a disgusting spectacle and visibly demonstrated to me why our beloved country is suffering in this way. There will be no hope unless these parties cease to be 'personality driven' and change their modus operandi completely. Otherwise, we are well and truly doomed to another 50 years of the same treatment we've suffered for the last 47 years and our children will chant the same litany - hunger, disease, envy, and the inexorable dehumanization that has robbed us of our dignity.

Today I have been keeping track of the incidents taking place in Bt, and I can truthfully swear innocence for the despicable acts that have taken place. It appears that these 'thugs' have been incited by the DPP to destabilise Malawi into such a sens of insecurity that the President can declare a state of emergency and thus continue to rule with even more powers than he can presently wield. What a tragedy!

Which goes to show that the demonstration was not an end in itself, but rather the beginning of a long turbulent, tiresome, trek to regain the human dignity that has been lost by every Malawian!
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Rafiq Hajat
IPI