Prosecuting free speech in Malawi

I groan over the arrest, on allegation of “seditious remarks”, of the general-secretary for Livingstonia Synod of the CCAP Rev. Levi Nyondo, his deputy Rev. Maurice Munthali and Synod Moderator Rev. Mezuwa Banda.

The police arrested the three last Friday after a funeral service of former health minister, Prof. Moses Chirambo.

The whole saga has all the hallmarks of unlawful arrest. I find grounds of the arrest of the clerics to be nonsensical, an affront to democracy and a disgrace to the country.

It is reported that Rev Nyondo spoke at the funeral against the government’s decision to re-introduce the divisive quota system for university selection. In his speech he also criticised the government’s discrimination of the vice president.

To put the clerics’s outburst in context: it is being perceived generally by the people, academia, civil society groups, and the media in Malawi that the president has of late been making lamentable decisions. The decisions which are detrimental to democracy in the country.

The president’s decisions, among others, include: the establishment of the Mulhako wa Alhomwe to champion the course of the president’s Lomwe ethnic group; the change of the national flag; the inclusion of his wife in cabinet; the reduction of the salary of the leader of opposition and recently the endorsement of his brother to be the presidential candidate for the ruling party when the president’s final term in office comes to an end.

In my view all these are legitimate issues worth full debate. Malawians are justifiable in express their views. These are valid issues for the clerics to express their opinions.

It is not seditious if the object of the speech was to show that the government has been misled or mistaken in her measures, or to point out errors or defects in the government with a view to their reformation, or to excite the people to attempt by lawful means the alteration of any matter in government by law established, or to point out, with a view to their removal, matters which are producing, or have a tendency to produce, feelings of hatred and ill-will between classes of the people in the country.

Any reasonable and fair minded Malawian would indeed agree that the establishment of the Mulhako wa Alhomwe; the re-introduction of the divisive quota system for university selection have a great potential to produce ill-will and hatred among Malawians.

Freedom of speech is a lifeblood of democracy. It acts a brake on the abuse of power by public officials. It facilitates the exposure of errors in the governance and administration of justice of the country.

In my opinion the arrest of the clerics exposes a huge loophole in our laws and the police powers of arrest in our country. The protection of the right to freedom of expression, particularly the freedom to criticise public bodies and the government must always be protected by the law.

Modern democratic government means government of the people by the people for the people. But there can be no government by the people if they are ignorant of the issues to be resolved, the arguments for and against policies.

It is deplorable and ironic for a democratically elected government to spend so much time and money prosecuting free speech. The police must never be used to get in the way of lawful free speech.

The law must positively encourage or require lawful free speech among the subjects. Criticism of public bodies and officials should ideally be immune from sanctions. It is time we scrapped the ancient laws of treason from our books and revisit the police powers of arrest.

I am in deep pain.