He has just had his police murder 18 people who were among the peaceful demonstrators; hundreds more were injured.
The people were demonstrating against his mismanagement of the economy which has resulted in a debilitating shortage of fuel worsened by an equally debilitating shortage of foreign currency.
As they say, wa Mutharika now has blood on his hands; in Zimbabwe we say on his chest, meaning he will forever smell it and it will haunt him throughout his life.
Wa Mutharika on Friday tried to shift the blame, fingering his estranged former deputy Joyce Banda, opposition leader John Tembo and civil society leaders for the death of the demonstrators.
He told them: “The blood of these people who have died is on you. Let their spirits haunt you at night.”
But this is merely passing the buck. The truth of the matter is that wa Mutharika is personally responsible for each jot of blood spilled in the state-sponsored violence that he used to suppress the peaceful demonstrations which had initially been okayed by the police.
Wa Mutharika also tellingly promised to go after leaders of future demonstrations. He said his patience had worn out. “This time I’ll go after you! Even if you hide in holes I’ll smoke you out!”
By these threats wa Mutharika has only confirmed what the world already feared. Expelled British High Commissioner to Malawi Fergus Cochrane-Dyet had put it succinctly in a leaked diplomatic cable when he said wa Mutharika was a “combative president” who was becoming “ever more autocratic and intolerant of criticism”.
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Wa Mutharika has in recent months moved to put in place restrictions on the press and academic freedom. He has had a law enacted that empowers his minister of information to shut down newspapers which he deems “contrary to the public interest”.
Three private radio stations have already been shut under this law so they would not report on the demonstrations. Another offending law gives police the power to carry out searches without a warrant. Yet another law blocks people or groups from taking out injunctions against the government. Local elections have been postponed for six years.
Wa Mutharika has shut down news websites and social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook to prevent users from coordinating the demonstrations and he has ordered Internet service providers to shut down.
In the previous column (Wa Mutharika Cuts His Nose To Spite His Face, The Standard May 1 2011) it was averred that wa Mutharika had never really been democratic but fate thrust democracy upon him. Historians say wa Mutharika was actually a beneficiary of Banda’s development programmes. In 1964 — shortly after what was dubbed Cabinet Crisis, wa Mutharika was one of the 32 Malawians, selected by Banda to travel to India on a scholarship for “fast track” diplomas and possible posting into the then white-dominated civil service. In other words, wa Mutharika did not go into exile in reaction to the political crisis in Malawi but as a beneficiary of it.
According to online publications wa Mutharika has upheld the memory of Banda as a national hero, saying that he would continue Banda’s work. In September 2004, he restored Banda’s name to the national stadium, the central hospital, and the international airport; first post-Banda president Bakili Muluzi had removed Banda’s name from all three places. Wa Mutharika was present at the May 2006 unveiling of a mausoleum for Banda that cost US$620 000.
He also has his own delusions of grandeur. He has built a white marble mausoleum for his late first wife Zimbabwean-born Ethel Zvauya in imitation of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
He has in a short period of time taken Malawi back to the days of Kamuzu Banda and even beyond because, clearly, Malawi is going the Zimbabwe way.President Robert Mugabe has always been intolerant of criticism which he has harshly suppressed ever since he came to power in 1980. Not only did he wish to establish a centralist one-party state in which criticism of him and his policies would be anathema but he was prepared to use the uniformed forces to force his way. This was demonstrated early on in his reign when he tried to violently suppress dissent in southwest Zimbabwe in a period now notoriously known as Gukurahundi.
When credible opposition to his rule was born around the turn of the century, state-sponsored violence to suppress dissent became the norm. The new laws that wa Mutharika has promulgated are an echo of those that Mugabe put in place in Zimbabwe. The powers that wa Mutharika has vested on the police and the minister of information are a replica of those that our own police have been endowed with.
Demonstrations are forcibly suppressed here and wa Mutharika has taken a leaf out of our own book.
The next developments in Malawi are very predicatable. It is clear that because he now has blood on his chest wa Mutharika has lost the legitimacy to rule Malawi and he and his party will not win any future elections in Malawi. Constitutionally he is not allowed to stand in the next elections but like most African presidents, he has attempted to alter the country’s constitution so he can stand for another term. It is said because this was going to be virtually impossible wa Mutharika was working towards anointing a brother of his to succeed him.
But he may try other tricks; he has already postponed local elections for six years. He may do the same with national elections. This might sound too grotesque to contemplate but we will see how from now he will have to depend more and more on the uniformed forces to keep himself in power. His police force has already killed people; they will be willing to continue. Wa Mutharika’s threats reinforce this possibility.
To his advantage he has a youth brigade that is willing to kill on his behalf and it won’t be surprising if in the next few days his generals come to the fore of Malawian politics as securocrats. He has already replaced the army commander.
Malawi’s hope lies in pushing him out as was done to the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt; not doing so will prolong the suffering of the Malawians.
