Demonstrations; but for what?

It is a wonderful sunny day in Blantyre and there can never be a better day for writing and reading. Contrary to the other Fridays when I wake up with many ideas punching each other for space on the blog, I woke up with absolutely no idea of what I was going to feed to my readers today. That changed when I opened my Whatsapp, which has of late been a good source of article worthy posts and discussions. So… What did we see on Whatsapp today? A picture of people demonstrating against the DPP led government in Zomba, of course.

Prior to the sight of this picture, I came across a Facebook post indicating people’s intentions to demonstrate against the government. I am not too sure as to the reasons that were cited as the trigger to the demonstrations as the post was just about the schedule and the routes people were to take on the way to deliver the petitions to the respective places of delivery in the country’s major cities (if we are allowed to call them that). The organizers? Civil societies, of course. My recent religious following of MBC news tells me that these were organized by a civil society called Human Rights Defenders Coalition or something that sounds like that. I am told that in the light of the demonstrations, our listening government extended an invitation to a round table discussion to the CSO in question. We are not too sure about how constructive the invitation was but it did not get a nod from what top government gurus want to make us believe. Interesting, not so?

When the picture of the demonstrators was shared on some professional forum, others gave a thumb up (emoji) and commended the bravery of those who took it to the streets; highlighting the importance of doing something about the challenges we face as Malawians. One critical member, however, posed a question which hardly attracted any convincing answers: To what and whose benefit do these demonstrations work? If this was a Facebook post, I would have left it right there and asked people to comment. This, however, is Richie Online so I will continue and share a bit of sense on what I think actually goes on.

To begin with, the demonstrations we have had in the recent past have had no palpable positive impact on the issues in question. People have organized and staged demonstrations in a bid to fix the governance and economic issues in the country but the only changes we have seen were the vandalism of property, loss of lives and a chronic worsening of the issues “concerned citizens” demonstrate against. In my own view, if demonstrations have proven anything in our setting then it is just that demonstrations do not work when it comes to bringing positive change when it comes to government related issues. My opinion, eti? My belief that demonstrations hardly (if they) work amplifies the question of whose benefit they work to, considering the number of demonstrations we have had following the sad events of that 20th of July.
The first answer to this question would just be that there might be a number of people who are process oriented (as opposed to outcome oriented) who just want to do something about the status quo without projecting the potential effect of their actions or lack of thereof. Organizers of demonstrations may simply organize the activities and lead demonstrations while they know that nothing will happen or without foreknowledge that their grievances will fall on deaf ears.

Considering the former situation, people may use flaws in the governance system and demonstrations just to make noise and seek attention or they may be doing it for their own interest and in a bid to advance their own agenda. On the other hand, some may have too much faith in which case they may think that delivering a petition while wearing a red t-shirt to the office of some city council may stop nepotism and plunder of government resources by some gurus. I personally do not subscribe to that thought process.

On another note, a certain DPP enthusiast offered an alternative explanation on Facebook. In his post, he explained how the organizers of the demonstrations received money from some funders for organizing the demonstrations. He also explained how honoring the invitation to the discussions by the government would mean cancelling the demonstrations and thus returning the money that was sourced for the demonstrations. In the blue blooded man’s words, the money had already been divided among the organizers who had already used it thus cancelling the demonstrations was not an option. Solution? Not showing up for the round table discussion and going on with the demonstrations, of course.

While some might question the view that some CSOs cash in on the demonstrations, I personally believe that it is not a far-fetched idea. People with interests in our governance systems may be willing to advance their own agenda through the organizations who in turn get significant amounts of money for organizing some ill-conceived demonstrations with no tangible perceived benefits. While this may not be true for all organizations and civil rights activists, it is surely more than true for a few bad apples out here.

Going back to the question of what benefit and to whose benefit demonstrations work, I am convinced that the question was asked in a bid to tell us that the demonstrations were useless and that some people were blindly demonstrating without the knowledge that they might have been advancing someone else’s agenda. I am interested in knowing the impact of the latest demonstrations (which had the leader of opposition in attendance). On the other hand, I feel like we need to look to other effective alternatives of sorting out the governance and economic woes.

Demonstrations have failed miserably. If you are really convinced that it is the blue coating that is messing the governance and economy for you, then you surely have an alternative come next year. Otherwise, work hard and make your own money while pretending that everything else is moving smoothly out there.