If President Peter Mutharika thinks the Malawian people’s misery due to lack of food can become fodder for his ribald jokes, then it is yet another example of how our leader has become insulated to problems that are confronting this country.
The mainstream media did not appreciate the new found humorous side of the President and largely ignored the so called joke that the President cracked in Mulanje on Saturday to the effect that Malawians who have no food should simply resort to eating mice and grasshoppers as snacks.
Instead it was Bon Kalindo’s shenanigans that occupied newspaper space and radio as well as TV bulletins.
On the other hand, it was Malawians on the socio media who felt insulted and made a meal out of the President’s so called jokes on mice and grasshoppers, thereby exercising their right to freedom of expression on public matters.
But instead of ignoring the online outbursts and advise the President that next time perhaps he should choose better the subject and forum of his jokes, the propaganda machine at Ministry of Information decided to issue a press release and justified the mice and grasshopper talk as jokes of a leader with his own people and that the criticism emanating from such “is thoughtless and unwarranted.”
The press release then catalogues the President’s attempts at solving the food shortage that include allocating in the 2016/2017 national budget the substantial resources towards starvation mitigating efforts, including importation of food stuffs.
It concludes that to think that the President has abdicated his responsibility of looking after his people simply because he referred jokingly to mice as a food supplement is to sink our politics to new levels of pettiness.
The press release does not forget to remind us all that the President has a right to joke when he is interacting with his people.
But I have this to say to the President as well as his handlers who concocted this senseless press release.
It is cruel to joke with people that are starring into the jaws of death because they have no food more especially when the so called jokes have got something to do with their plight.
It is unbridled lack of sensitivity that Malawians expect of their leaders and it is plainly wrong.
More importantly, it shows that both the President and those working overtime to concoct these press releases that simply make matters worse do not get it.
But I know where the problem lies and it is insulation from the problems that are confronting Malawians everyday that the President and his handlers are suffering from.
That is why they have the audacity to proscribe petty solutions to the ills and when confronted, they shamelessly say it was the President’s sense of humour that was at work.
In any case, let them not make Malawians commit the same mistake they are committing by making them laugh. Since when has the President developed any sense of humour?
Let us not waste time on trivia as it is common knowledge that humour is not the strength of the President.
This country will not have another Bakili Muluzi whose public jokes still tickle our fancy until today.
Anyway, back to the issue and it is that it is plainly wrong to joke about poor people who do not know where their next meal will come from about their plight.
It is insulting their dignity.
Mice, where they are mostly eaten in the Central Region, are not a snack. They are eaten with nsima from maize.
In fact, the whole idea of snacks does not exist in the world of the poor.
The home truth for the President, if he needed it, is that 8.4 million Malawians are on the brink of starvation.
By all accounts this is a serious matter and eating mice and grasshoppers is out of question whether that was meant to be a joke or otherwise.
For crying out loud, this is no joking matter. These people do not get it, do they?
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