By George Kasakula

By the time I am writing this, police have not made any arrests after findings from a commission of inquiry on the death of Polytechnic student Robert Chasowa implicated some names closely linked with the former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

This is despite reports that police have formed task forces to bring to book those who are suspected to have ruthlessly cut short a promising life apparently for its political views and activism.

At times such as these, there are always attempts by those who may find themselves on the accused’s side in the matter to say the issue is about the Joyce Banda administration witch-hunting its opponents from DPP.

This would be missing the point and besides the issue.

The issue is that it is tragic that 20 years after we adopted multiparty system of government, people should still be dying for their political views.

I just find it incomprehensible and unacceptable in today’s world that some people, because of the mere fact that they belong to a ruling party, can sit down, plan and kill someone because they do not agree with his political views.

Come to think of it, who was Chasowa? He was a mere overexcited college student full of youthful optimism that he could change the world he was living in to suit himself. It is part of college life and growth.

At that stage, your mind is infused with ideas and ideologies on daily basis. You are at the stage when you are examining and defining yourself. You are hot-headed and believe what you believe. Politics is your playground and it is where you experiment with various ideas such as socialism, capitalism and marxism and you try to find a footing.

Did Chasowa deserve to die for this? The answer is hell no. If this were the case, then half of students in the university campuses across the world would be shot dead for their weird and sometimes foolish views.

As a nation, we said a resounding no to this when we brought down a strong MCP government in 1994 mainly because of its appalling human rights record and failure to respect the sanctity of life.

That some people today think because they belong to a ruling party, they can sit at a table and decide to kill someone should be totally rejected with the last ounce of blood and energy of every right-thinking Malawian.

Chasowa died for many of us who thought DPP had gone too far in treating this country as if it were a piece of their personal estate.

Chasowa could have been any of us. In fact, I do believe in my heart of hearts that if Bingu wa Mutharika were still alive today, some more Malawians could have also met Chasowa’s fate.

There is one way to close this matter for Chasowa’s family and all good Malawians who believe in rule of law: justice.

It is only then that we will let sleeping dogs lie.

This is just to teach a lesson to politicians and ruling party cadres that when they are told to commit atrocities against innocent Malawians, one day justice will catch up with them. Chasowa was a son, brother, cousin and boyfriend to someone.

He was also a Malawian. He did not deserve to be sent to his early grave in that cruel and brutal manner, all because of his political views.
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