Malawi:Love for criminals, unsafe abortions and failures

News Roundup Something is terribly wrong with the justice system of the southern African nation of Malawi as displayed by its failure to arrest foreign criminals and extradite them to their home countries. Guess what? For seven years Rwanda has been pressing Malawi to extradite a genocide suspect Vincent Murekezi, but instead of arresting him, Malawi offered him businesses licences, citizenship and a passport. Today Murekezi is in custody at Maula Prison in Lilongwe, after intense pressure from concerned Malawians, the media and Rwandan authorities. The arrest is just a small milestone. How long it will take for Malawi to extradite him is the issue. Murekezi is not the only genocide suspect to be handled with kid gloves by Malawi. Another incident happened in 2010 when Malawi arrested another Rwandan genocide fugitive Charles Bandora. Surprisingly he was released after spending two weeks in the cooler and immediately disappeared. Bandora resurfaced in Sweden from where he was arrested and extradited to Rwanda the following year. He was tried and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. Malawi: Failures and big failures Failed everything in Malawi. One media house in Malawi believes the southern African nation is a failed state. The opposition says the MalawiPpresident Peter Mutharika is a failure. Malawi President believes the opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera is a failure. It seems the easiest thing in Malawi politics is to call someone a political failure and all sorts of unprintable words that one can think of. The missing part of the conversation amongst Malawian politicians is the aspect of offering practical solutions to challenges haunting their poverty-stricken nation of 17 million people. In Malawi, the opposition leader who drives a $65,000 fuel guzzler bought by the taxpayer accuses the Malawian president who drives a $100,000 Lexus bought by the taxpayer of extravagance. From the perspective of some commentators, the difference between the two leaders is that one is one power and the other is in opposition. Zimbabwe’s bond budget If Malawi is a nation of political failures, then Zimbabwe is a nation of economic failures. Or isn’t it The old dude, now almost 70-years old politician Patrick Chinamasa as Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister revealed during the week in his budget presentation that out of the country’s $4.1 billion budget, $3 billion is for salaries. Even those who are not economists know what that means. The instant reaction from the opposition MPs on Chinamasa’s financial gymnastics was straightforward. Boos and lots of boos. The first chorus of boos dinned in Chinamasa’s ears after disclosing that the budgetary allocation to parliament would be just $30.7 million. Each constituency gets $50 000 from Constituency Development Fund. Good news for women in the budget! No duty on raw imports for companies manufacturing sanitary wear. That’s the economic situation in Zimbabwe led by Uncle Bob aka Robert Gabriel Mugabe. Malawi’s anti-abortion protests The clergy in Malawi on Tuesday forgot about its own myriad of follies dating back to centuries ago, oh yes there are many follies in the church too. The Pharisees persecution of Jesus Christ was a folly, so was the Roman Catholic’s persecution of astronomer Galileo over his discovery on the solar system. Despite the Church’s condemnation of Galileo today no one disputes the fact that the earth revolves around the sun as he (Galileo) stated. When condoms were first introduced in Malawi almost all the churches denounced them, it took years for the clergy to accept the use of condoms to prevent HIV transmission. When the news that Catholic priests were sexually abusing church members (paedophilia scandal), it took many years for the Vatican to admit the follies of its priests and started paying huge compensations. More church scandals? Some clerics even force their members to eat grass, snakes and drink petrol. Some even take pride in killing others in the name of their religion. Some religious charlatans make false prophesies. If these are not follies, what are they? Regardless of such follies within the faith community, the clergy in Malawi had a message on termination of pregnancy - Big no to abortion legalisation. “Our clear message is: Life begins at the moment of conceptions,” said the Rev. Father Henry Saindi, secretary general for the Episcopal Conference of Malawi. “Life of the human being was created in the image and likeliness of God himself, so nobody has the right to decide to take life at whatever cost.” Despite the clergy enjoying physical exercises in public in the name of protest, the issue of abortions remains controversial with each side advancing its own views. Different views Pro-Choice stand:

Draconian laws on abortion kill women and never stop pregnancy terminations.
It is important to save women who are dying and sustaining injuries when procuring unsafe abortions from quacks.
Women have the right to control their sexuality and no one should dictate them what to do with their bodies.
The life of a woman is more important than the viability of the fetus.
Nearly all abortions take place in the first trimester, when a fetus is attached by the placenta and umbilical cord to the mother. As such, its health is dependent on her health, and cannot be regarded as a separate entity as it cannot exist outside her womb.
Adoption is not an alternative to abortion, because it remains the woman's choice whether or not to give her child up for adoption.
Abortion is a safe medical procedure when carried out in hospitals by professionals.
In the case of rape or incest, forcing a woman made pregnant by this violent act would cause further psychological harm to the victim.

Anti-choice arguments

Since life begins at conception, abortion is akin to murder as it is the act of taking human life. Abortion is in direct defiance of the commonly accepted idea of the sanctity of human life
No civilized society permits one human to intentionally harm or take the life of another human without punishment, and abortion is no different.
Adoption is a viable alternative to abortion and accomplishes the same result.
In the instance of rape and incest, abortion punishes the unborn child who committed no crime; instead, it is the perpetrator who should be punished.
Abortion should not be used as another form of contraception.
Abortion frequently causes intense psychological pain and stress

Questions

What should be done to save lives of over 70,000 women in Malawi who terminate their unwanted pregnancies annually unsafely at quacks thereby risking their lives?
Should the government let them continue to be terminating their pregnancies using dangerous means and in the process injure themselves or even die?
Should such women be allowed to terminate their pregnancies at health facilities using modern medical methods?
Should the police continue arresting women and girls who decide to terminate their unwanted pregnancies resulting from rape or incest?
Should the church be making laws for a secular nation?
On these questions, what’s the faith community’s solutions and what is the solution from the health workers to solve the problem of unsafe abortions. Who is offering a better solution?
What is the best solution to address the problem of unsafe abortion in Malawi?
These are some of questions that can shape the debate on Malawi’s Termination of Pregnancy Bill.

Malawi:Love for criminals, unsafe abortions and failures

CSJ Contributor

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