Author: Sunni Muslim Supreme Council of Malawi

Date: Lilongwe, (2-3) June 2001.

Title: The Sheikh's Letter to His Excellency President Bakili Muluzi

Original language: Assumingly English. The letter was digitalised by the Malawian Chronicle Newspaper, which may have added explaining texts.

Concerning: The Sunni Muslim Supreme Council of Malawi reacts to the campaign by President Bakili Muluzi to ammend the Constitution to allow him to run for a third presidential term. The thirteen signatory sheikhs portray Muluzi's person and policies during his reign since 1994.

Source: The Chronicle Newspaper (Malawi)

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Compassionate

THE SHEIKH'S LETTER FROM THE SUNNI MUSLIM SUPREME COUNCIL OF MALAWI TO THE STATE PRESIDENT

The entire Muslim Community regards it sinful to sit and remain detached from the deteriorating social, economic and political situation in Malawi which is a direct result of the failures in your leadership and government. It is our belief that our silence and failure to condemn your maladministration will only earn us Allah's wrath on Judgement Day. Remember, it is God who created everything, heaven and earth, including the people of Malawi. The people in Malawi were not created or bought by you, it is God the most High who created them.

We have studied you and your government careful. It is sad that you spend most of your time cheating the people of Malawi with false promises masquerading as the source and champion of democratic culture in Malawi. The most disheartening thing to our community is that you call yourself a Muslim when your acts as the leaders of this country together with your entire government system lacks love, justice, and peace. Muslims believe in God who loves, in God of Justice, in God the Champion of Peace. These beliefs are contrary to what you practice as the leader of our Beloved Malawi. Allow us to quote two Books of God. First, The Holy Qur'an and then The Holy Bible. In our Qur'an, Chapter 5 verse 9, God says:

O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for good, as witness to fair dealing and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just, that is next to piety and fear of God, for God is well acquainted with that ye do.

Before we go on to explain this verse here is another quotation from the Bible. Matthew Chapter 5 verse 9, which says:

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the Children of God

The first quotation from the Holy Qur'an teachers us to stand out firmly as witnesses to fair dealing. It also teaches us not to allow the hatred of others to derail us from the right path and lead us to corruption. With corruption you cannot be just to others. Corruption truly exists in your government. If the democracy, which you preach, is that which exists in western countries, you should have resigned from your office. You, however, still remain in office despite the rampant corruption in your government, bribing and buying support for you to rule even beyond the constitutional requirements. This shows that you are not a true democrat and a true Muslim. You are in fact a bad man.

The quotation from the Holy Bible is similar to that of the Holy Qur'an. The peacemakers are the just who are not corrupt. These are the ones who shall be called the Sons of God. If you carefully study the scripts from the Holy Scriptures and compare them to your leadership and government, you will discover that you are totally lost and in need of redemption. If you are either a Muslim, which you are not, or a Christian, you should have resigned and repented. The two Holy Books disqualify you from being a just man and Son of God. 

HOW YOU AND YOUR GOVERNMENT AND AUTHORITY HAVE FAILED IN RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS.

You might wonder why we consider you not a true Muslim. The following are the reasons:

• A Muslim is always honest but you are not, you are a cheat and a liar
  
• Proper Muslims respect promises (AH'D) but you do not and you cannot
  
• A Muslim will not, under any circumstances, enter a Christian church, stand on the alter and ask to be sang a Christian song. We believe this must also be contrary to the Christian faith whereby a non-convert cannot be allowed to do what you do in Christian churches. When Che-Mwalabu passed away on 1st January 1993, you and Aleke Banda were in the frontline participating in the prayers for the deceased when in fact Islamic laws do not allow non-Muslims to conduct any of the Islamic prayers in general.

In 1996-97 during the month of Ramadhan (Fasting), you went to Chikoko Bay in Mangochi District where Muslims and non-Muslims participated in a merrymaking occasion. There you bought beers, gin, Castle lager, and all sorts of alcoholic drinks and entertained your guests to them during that Holy Month of Ramahan. The following day, Muslims failed to go on fasting because they were drunk. This resulted into the people of Mangochi protesting against such behaviour. You may remember that Mr. Uladi wrote in the paper condemning this evil deed.

You went to tell the Libyan President Colonel Muamar Ghadafi that you were planning to build fifty (50) mosques in Malawi. Later, you sent one of your former ministers to collect money from the Libyan President for the construction of the mosques. We are surprised that instead of building the fifty mosques, you only built two mosques; the Nancholi and Kamba Mosques in Blantyre.

In ijtmahs, it is your practice to turn your non-Muslim Ministers, Davis Kapito, Patrick Mbewe, Dumbo Lemani and Aleke Banda into Muslim leaders. You give them Islamic Robes and Hats (Kofiya) and parade them to sit on the frontline as if they were true Muslim leaders. This is contrary to our Islam laws, beliefs and practice. This also happens in Eid-Ul-Fitr and Eid-Ul-Adha. This is an unbecoming behaviour on your part.

In your October 1999 wedding with Shanil, you spent MK50 million when you knew very well that many clinics had no drugs and that there was hunger in the rural areas. This extravagance and what is called Israf in Arabic, was bad according to our Islamic beliefs. No true Muslim could have done that.

During the same wedding you told people that the Libyan President Colonel Muamar Ghadafi gave the MK50 million to you. We wonder whether the Libyan President allowed you to buy beers using his money when he knows very well that you call yourself a Muslim. If you did not get money from Muamar Ghadafi, where did you get the money from which you spent so extravagantly when many people of this country are suffering from poverty? What type of Muslim can celebrate a wedding by drinking beer?

You have brought about divisions within the Muslim Community in Malawi. You may wish to be reminded that when a group of Muslims from Lilongwe visited you, they advised you not to take sides on the issues involving the Qadiriyas and Sukutis by defending the Sukutis. Sheikh Jawad and Iman Daimani, led the delegation. You ended their visit by giving them money which brought about division. That was very corrupt and your use of colonial tactics of divide and rule were unacceptable.

On your way to Chad, you decided to be accompanied by Che Likonde. Whilst in the air, you appointed Che Likonde to be the leader of the Qadiriyas in Malawi and gave him MK15 million You did this when you knew well that Che Likonde couldn't read and understand Arabic. How can such a person lead mass here in Malawi? You know very well that you do not have any mandate to choose a leader for the Qadiriyas.

You may also wish to be reminded about the Liwonde issue. When the Sunni Muslim Supreme Council of Malawi was born on 17/18 June, 1995 a group of eight people came to see you. These were led by Late Chisuse, Action Islam Milanzi, Late Segula, Sheik Abu Masapula and others. You intervened in the Liwonde issue by promising them cars, sewing machines, bicycles, radios, food supplies, and payment of Madrassahs Teachers on condition that they remove Sheik Bughdad from the chairmanship (Amirship) in Qudiriya Community, the condition which they fulfilled. The removal of Sheik Bughdad from office was not the wish of the community but your wish. When later on this plot failed, they formed their own corrupt and defunct organisation, which they called Sanni Islamic Cultural Society of Malawi.

You interfered with Muslim affairs by attempting to forcefully unite and make the Qadiriyas and Sukutis to work together. You appointed Che Kawinga as the chairperson for this. Could you please first try to unite the Catholics and Anglicans, or the Seventh Day Adventists and the Presbyterians in this country? Where do you get the mandate to interfere in our religious affairs from, when democratic principles respect the freedom of worship, freedom of participation, freedom of association, and so on? Why do you try to dictate to independent religions what they must do for your interest? Please try to get good advisors on religious matters or else you will end up badly. 

Remember, in 1998/99 during the Eid-Ul Fatr, you decided to go to your Eid prayers in Lilongwe where you delivered a speech on the Qudiriya and their spiritual leader, Sheik Abdul Qudiriya Jelan (Q.A.S.A), who was a Auliyauullah (An Anointed One). In that speech, you said "Chifukwa cha umbuli, anthu ambiri akumatsatira munthu wamatsenga amene dzina lake ndi Abdul Qudiriya" (because of ignorance, many people follow a magician called Abdul Qudiriya). This disrespectful statement from you angered all Qadiriyas because you had no powers to issue such a public statement.

Today, the Muslim Association of Malawi has no Executive Committee at all. The entire executive has been divided into two because of you. One group follows Umar Wochi and the others refuse to recognise him. The same applies to the Association's Board of Trustees, which is divided because of the issue concerning the religious education syllabus for schools. When the government decided to introduce Islamic Teachers in Schools, you forced it to reverse the decision.

The Qadiriyas, therefore, condemn you and your behaviour on the basis of the details cited above. 

YOU AND YOUR GOVERNMENT AND AUTHORITY HAVE FAILED IN POLITICAL AFFAIRS

We are revealing this as Sheikhs whom God recognised them to be God fearing people.

And so amongst men and crawling creatures and cattle, are they of various colours, those truly fear God, among His servants who have knowledge: For God is exalted often forgiving (Qur'an 35 vs 28). 

As we see from people, creatures or everything in general, are different in colours or even their cultures. God is saying amongst all these, those who fear God are Sheikhs. For that reason, we are not hesitating in revealing evil things which are happening today in our country. We are now quoting another verse from the Holy Bible as follows:

And though Ezra after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not. And whosoever will not do the law of thy God and the law of the king let judgement be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death or to banishment or to confiscation of goods or to imprisonment (Ezra 7 vs 25 - 26).

The first chapter from the Holy Qur'an states that God promised the righteous people that he will give them inheritance of power as he granted to those before them. When we are talking of righteous people, we mean people who are God fearing, dedicated and devoted, people who are not in a corrupt system, and people who are just. You, yourself, are in a government full of corruption.

In the second quotation, which is from the Holy Bible, God gave instructions to Ezra to get wise men and appoint them to be magistrate and judges. These would execute the laws of God. Anybody rebelling against the laws of God would either be executed, or his goods confiscated, or banish him, or imprison him. This authority, which God gave to Ezra, meant that Ezra had the powers to establish government and to rule with justice. In your government, which you say is democratic, there is neither justice nor respect of culture. The following are your shortcomings. 

In every democratic system, people have rights to form or associate in any political party of their wish. In your system of government, your democracy is that of the mouth while you secretly rule by dictatorship in a system that is overtly intolerant. We have heard how often you have declared that you will rule for fifty years. We hear you and your stooges in your campaign rallies castigating people of other political parties instead of working with them for the proper running of this country's affairs to steer this country towards development and the achievement of its people's aspirations.

Your UDF government is always bent on eliminating oppositions parties by denying them opportunities to use public institutions, which any political party is supposed to enjoy. The glaring examples are the use of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and Malawi Television (MTV). In these media institutions no single opposition party is allowed access. The common news broadcasts are all about you and your cronies. The jingles we often hear are about you and your party which often remind the nation about the "kwacha kwayera" jingles of Kamuzu Banda and his one party system of government.

Your government is busy politically corrupting some opposition leaders by bribing them and seducing them with money to join your party and denounce other political parties. This does not create a healthy democratic environment but creates an atmosphere of barbarism.

Your speeches are always intimidatory, "Kuno ndi kumtunda, musasewere nane ayi" and "Mudzaona ndege zopanda mapiko" are statements, which are barbaric and cannot come from a seasoned politician in a democratic system of government. What Malawians wish to see in you is a father and founder of a true democratic culture whose elements are supposed to be displayed in both word and deed.

Your UDF manifesto is excellent and that is why people voted the UDF into power. However, the people of Malawi are now disillusioned and have nothing to expect from you because you and your cronies have now turned into cheats who cannot fulfil any of the good things which your manifesto embraces.

Your promises are uncountable. You said you would create jobs for the jobless yet redundancies are rampant. You said you would build 250 secondary schools yet this is your seventh year in power and there is no single secondary school, which was built by your government. Instead, we see old shacks, which served as distance education centres being turned into community day secondary schools with very high enrolment rates and no qualified teachers to teach in them. You promised good tarmac roads yet we have not seen one constructed by your government and initiative. You promised that under the "Dr. Bakili Muluzi Initiative Programme" every village would have a medical doctor. There is nowhere in this country where this is happening.

You are a man {of} without any original ideas. You instead rely on what President Chiluba of Zambia, or President Salman Amour of Zanzibar tells you.

You have destroyed the culture that Malawi built for thirty years. Women are walking about naked, wearing see-through. Young men and boys are smoking Indian hemp openly and publicly. There is no respect between women and men, children and parents. People spend long hours drinking beer. All these are not conducive elements for development.

You introduced gender equality between men and women. There was not such a thing in our original Malawian culture. How can a woman be equal to a man when a man was the first one to be created? Why didn't God create men and women at the same time? 

We can see that there is no security in Malawi. Armed robberies are happening more frequently. People's property is being stolen. Rape cases are increasing rapidly every minute a thing that was not happening under Dr. Banda's regime.

Political system that existed in Malawi has failed because it has brought hatred in our nation. It has divided Malawi into three parts: Northern, Central and Southern. These divisions and tribalism are the ones making other countries to became grounds of wars and disasters. Very good examples are Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, Rwanda, Sudan and Ethiopia. We don't want such things to happen in Malawi.

The system of eliminating other political leaders is happening in Malawi by using indirect tactics. When UDF came to power, the government decided to prosecute late Dr. Banda and John Tembo by implicating them in the murder case of late Dick Matenje, Aaron Gadama, Twaibu Sangala, and David Chiwanga. The motive behind was to execute Dr. Banda and John Tembo. Had it not been that Dr. Banda used sophisticated lawyers from Great Britain and the Republic of South Africa, they would have been jailed. What surprises us today is that, when Dr. Banda fell sick you were on the frontline sending him to Garden City Hospital in Johannesburg. You pretended most busy (sic) when Dr. Banda passed away. Such character shows that you are a hypocrite. Later on in your system you appointed John Tembo to be the opposition leader in your Parliament and today he is your great partner.

Now you are busy preparing the groundwork in order for Parliament to amend the Constitution on the issue of 2 terms per president to 3 terms which is causing a lot of anxiety among Malawians.

On political elimination you sent Salim Bagus, Marshall Dukes and his group in 1998 on 31st October to kidnap Sheikh Bughdad at Chinsapo in Lilongwe in day light and the time was reading 9:45 am on Sunday when he had a religious rally there. Unfortunately for them they failed to spot him in the gathering. They managed to kidnap him the following day. At that time the participants were more than 90,000. They kidnapped Sheikh Bughdad, Shiekh Hassan Mkwanda, Sheikh Mussah Kazembe of Dedza and Sheikh Jawadu of Lilongwe. Later on pressure was mounted by the people at Chinsapo who hired cars to search for these innocent men. They were later rescued and were set free. The incident was reported to the police but no action was taken against the kidnappers and this has not happened till today.

The leader of Qudiriya in Malawi Amr Fadhilat Ustadh Abdul-Hamid Bughdad El-Bannah was once banned to conduct religious rallies in Malawi and the instructions came from you. You told Che Kawinga to do that and he did so and he told Sheikh Bughdad not to make any rally but he (Che Kawinga) failed to explain the reason why he was doing that. You later gave rewards to Che Kawinga, Che Nyambi and others by buying cars and building houses for them.

On 7th February 1997, you instructed your Home Affairs Minister, late Wenham Nakanga to give instructions to Police Inspector General to detain Sheikh Bughdad. Surely they did so and Sheikh Bughdad went on strike demanding quick trial and that justice should take place. Later on, the Officer in Charge at Liwonde Police Station freed him after he found him not guilty. They then disclosed that the reason for arrest was because he told a religious rally at Mulipa (Liwonde) that whether one uses a condom or not, it was still adultery.

You encourage "Banja La Mtsogolo" clinics all over Malawi, which are responsible for numerous abortions. You are encouraging people to kill our future leaders who could probably have sophisticated knowledge. The clinics also encourage the nation to use condoms to avoid unwanted pregnancies. These clinics are making profits through deaths of innocent unborn babies. Men are told to practice sterilisation, women use loops. All this is contrary to Christianity or Islamic teachings. AIDS cannot be prevented through the use of condoms. You only create more problems instead of solving them.

On 16th-17th February 1997, Sheikh Bughdad was again picked at night to Zomba for interrogation. There was no proper reason for picking him. He was released the following day early in the morning at 5 am. While in detention they intimidate and threatened him alleging that he participates in politics. That very day we failed to have our general elections at Sunni Muslim Supreme Council of Malawi because the police had cancelled the occasion. This is very undemocratic.

As if this is not enough, of late your government has been victimising opposition parties by disrupting their rallies and instigating violent activities. The Constitution of Malawi, Chapter 4, Section 40, sub-section 1 to 2 gives rights to each and every political party to campaign without any interference. This shows that you are undemocratic.

You are proclaiming that you are the Champion of Democracy and Peace-Maker in our African Continent. Do you know anything about Rwanda and Burundi, let alone the Hutu or Tutsi history? How about Democratic Republic of Congo? How can you be a peace-maker around when your people are busy victimising other political parties in the country through bloodshed? Remember charity begins at home. You have forgotten that there are many people that fought for freedom in Malawi by sacrificing their lives. Some of the examples are Yatuta Chisiza, Henry Masauko Chipembere, Dr. Atati Mpakati who was murdered in Zimbabwe, under your instructions. Mkwapatira Mhango who was murdered in Lusaka (Zambia). Madson Evans Silombera, Canada, Che Saiti Masungu, Che Namalaka. These people suffered for years in the bush trying to change Dr. Banda's system. This is not to forget Chakufwa Chihana who travelled from Zambia to Malawi via Johannesburg by air and declared that Dr. Banda's system should be changed. This happened before the nation heard your voice.

We have got uncountable failures of yours but at this moment this is enough for you to know. It could be very unfair to just tell you that you have failed in political affairs without pointing out your mistakes. Finally your political system and government have failed to benefit Malawians and instead you brought bondage when we compare to the previous regime of Dr. Banda.

YOUR FAILURE IN ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT

After careful observations we have seen that you have totally failed in your economic management. It can't work anymore because if we check in the Holy Qur'an and the Holy Bible we see that God created man that he should stay happily on Earth, by providing mankind with everything and He even extended it by placing him (man) on top of every thing. Holy Qur'an 39 vs 10 says,

"O ye my servant who believe! Fear your Lord. God is (the reward) for those who do good in this World. Spacious is God's Teachers: Those who persevere will truly get reward without measure"

This statement is clear and it means if we stay with love, fear onto God and justice without being corrupt, or exploiting man by man, we will get a reward from the Lord of Creation. But by judging from the torments we are experiencing today, are being created by our own hands through lips, laws and so on. This has also been clearly indicated in the Holy Qur'an Chapter 42 vs 30 

"Whenever misfortune happens to you,is because of the things your hands Have wrought, and for many (a sin) He grants forgiveness."

This verse is evident to Malawians. We created one party system and felt bitter with it. Then we created democracy which is proving to be worse than the one party system. Why can't we adjust our economical structures so that we don't suffer? We refer here to Economical Structural Programme, which was introduced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and other foreign forces whose owners do not live here to feel the bitterness their programmes bring on us. They just impose the prescription, which make Malawians slaves. Below are some of your specific shortfalls in this area.

The system of liberalisation which has resulted in the abolition of price control, has given opportunity to people to charge prices the way they want without fearing God or Government.

The privatisation of companies that belong to Government to foreign companies has created redundancies. This makes workers of say 45,000 per company to be reduced to 10,000 and the remaining 35,000 workers remain jobless and yet the Government remains silent on these issues.

Finance Minister's 10-point plan has failed miserably. Not a single point has been realised. For instance, the Finance Minister promised that by the end of this financial year, the Malawi Kwacha was going to have value and that it was going to be stable, but instead the Kwacha has become hopeless and useless. This has resulted into inflation going up more frequently than we imagined. If we go back to the time UDF was taking power from MCP which was under dynamic leadership of late Dr. Banda, Malawi Kwacha was very powerful. Sometimes the Kwacha ratio against the South Africa Rand was 1:10. There is also time when the United States dollar was 1:1 against the Malawi Kwacha. We were shocked when we heard that Malawi Kwacha dropped thrice under former Minister of Finance, Honourable Chilumpha and 10 times under Finance Minister Chikaonda. Where are we going as a nation?

Our results will be like those of Zambia where the Zambia Kwacha is 2,500 to 1 United States Dollar. At the moment they are buying a loaf of bread at ZK1,500,00. Don't forget that Zambians have managed because they have better resources than Malawi. Zambians have mines (e.g. copper mines), industries, precious stones, emeralds, green tomarine, aquamarine, red garnet and some other precious stones. They get diamonds from Zaire and Angola, the do practice good agriculture and harvest a lot. For those reasons Zambians lead a better life. It is not too difficult as we experience in Malawi. In Zambia, a small boy can manage to get ZK5 million while as in Malawi it can not happen.

In United States of America there are 54 states which are being controlled by 12 ministers who are known as Secretary of States and administrators are governors of State. For example there is a Secretary of Home Affairs, a Secretary of Finance, etc. These 12 ministers control all the 54 states without problems. But if we look at Malawi we find that we have 36 cabinet ministers, 34 junior ministers and 34 principle secretaries. Each one of these earn K30 to 40 million per annum. That amount goes only because of a signature on the letters. If there is economical structural programme why can't you reduce cabinet ministers and abolish the position of junior ministers? Such a reduction can help in rescuing our economy.

Let's take another example of Ghana whose economy was completely paralysed and ruined. At first it was being called Gold Coast under the leadership of Kwame Nkuruma, the Lion of Africa who helped found the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Nkuruma was overthrown by General Acheapeng who failed to manage and to stabilise the economy. Later on he was overthrown by General Agripa who failed too.

After this, people elected Dr. Kofi Busiya who also failed in the end. Strongman General Rawlings took over power and he introduced strong regulations and policies that included the execution of any corrupt minister. As a result he managed to re-stabilise Ghana's economy and it became one of the strongest economy in West Africa despite the fact that Great Britain, United States of America and their western allies were condemning him. He also reduce his salary with those of his ministers. He also reduce his army expenditure, stopped using luxury cars in order to raise the country's economy. In addition he maintained and sold gold, coco, and coffee abroad without putting any money into his pockets. As a result and within 5 years Ghana became the strongest economy in West Africa.

If we now turn to Uganda, she also did not follow IMF programmes. People in Uganda suffered during Apollo Milton Obote's regime. He was overthrown by his brother-in-law Alhaj Idi Amin Dada. Because of this Ugandans suffered an embargo from Great Britain, United States of America and western allies. They did this because Alhaj Amin was a ruthless dictator. He was forced out of power by the help of Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique and others. He went into exile in Saudi Arabia. Obote returned to power but he did not last longer on the position. Then the government was changed and power shifted to Professor Yusuf Lule. People lost confidence in him and he was forced out and in his place came Bina Issa who was overthrown by a strongman with a gun, Yoweri Museveni. Museveni started by minimising his cabinet and minister's salaries. He also encouraged the growing of sugar and coffee and exported it to countries abroad. Today, Uganda's economy is stabilised. He rejected democracy that was being proposed by the IMF, European Union, World Bank and instead introduced his own way of running the economy. Because of this, Uganda prospered economically and is one of the best in Africa.

The privatisation of companies and telling Malawians to go and buy shares from those companies does not benefit Malawians at all. Since we are ten million in population, and assuming 100,000 people buy shares from companies, it does not mean that the remaining 9.9 million will become rich. They will suffer. They cannot afford Maluwa soap at K7.00, a loaf of bread at K33.00, 1 kilogram of sugar at K45.00 per packet, Geisha soap at K40.00, paraffin at K37.50 per litre, a candle at K8.00, transport (fare) is too high, imagine if one moves from Zomba to Blantyre the cost is almost K90.00, slippers (patapata) are at K9.00 per pair which were previously costing K6.00, a 20 Kg bag of mealie-meal is at K250.00 in People's Trading Centre (PTC), cement is at K665.00 (a 50 Kg bag used to cost K335.00), fertiliser is now at K1,350. 00. 

There are many more commodities which cannot be mentioned here. People have now forgotten about Makadi and Nyakula but are now looking back and remembering and praying for Dr. Banda to come back to life. All this because they know that a K1.00 card, K3.50 school fees and K3.50 tax are much better than the taxes we are paying today through commodities. How much sales tax do we spend per day, for example? It is too expensive! UDF government is cheating people that there is no tax, yet when we look at the teaching profession we see that teacher's salaries which are around K5,000.00 per month per individual become nothing after government deducts a tax of K2,000.00. This means that one teacher is paying tax on behalf of 675 people in the village. Then how many teachers are there in Malawi? And how much money does the government deduct per month or per year? That answer multiplied by the number of teachers in Malawi. How much money does the government earn from teachers alone? This is indirect dictatorship!

Stop proclaiming that we Malawians don't pay taxes. We don't import sugar from abroad and we have a sugar company which has large estates of sugarcane in Malawi. You also have a share in this company and you distribute sugar through Ntaja Trading Company. So why should sugar be so dear as it is at present? If we ask you why the prices rise you always say "Kodi president amakhala ndi Grocery?" "Does the president have a grocery/shop?" How about Ntaja Trading or Illovo Sugar Corporation? 

There is a fertiliser factory here in Malawi at Liwonde. If we observe we find that you have a share there. The same applies to AGORA Company. Then why should fertiliser be so dear as if we are importing?

Cement is being manufactured at Changalume in Zomba District. Why is it dear too? Last year the Libyan Government donated more than 75 metric tonnes of fertiliser for distribution to poor peasant farmers in Malawi. But the same fertiliser was found being sold to farmers by your own company in Mulanje. Why and how?

You announced about poverty alleviation that is for "Kuthetsa umphawi m'Malawi" "(Tackling poverty in Malawi)" Its a lie. How can you tackle poverty by distributing K10 to K15,000 daily to women who dance in front of you during your rallies? Which part of Malawi has poverty been alleviated? When will you fulfil your promises? Why is one minister possessing up to five cars? One for official ministerial duties another for his wife, the third one for picking children to and from school and the remaining 2 for standby with many more benefits. Yet you tell the people that Malawi has no money.

Just because you wanted late Dr. Banda and John Tembo to be in trouble on the so called Mwanza case, you decided to waste money from Malawian Government by hiring archaeologists from abroad to exhume the late Gadama's bones for examining to find whether they were murdered or died by a car accident. This was just a waste of money for nothing. Who benefited on that? Is it the Malawi Government or the archaeologists?

Ask yourself why you use a helicopter when other richer Presidents use presidential cars? Which one is expensive between a helicopter and car? This shows that you don't have the heart of sacrificing for the sake of our country's economy. Now we are asking all who would like to be leaders to sacrifice in order to serve Malawians. Accept eating "Makaka" (dried cassava) when other people are living on cassava. We hope that the news of advising leaders will reach all parts of Malawi. Remember we have been appointed by God of Creation who made you taste sweet to give guidance to your people against doing evil as it is stated below:

We have appointed from among them leaders giving guidance under our command, so long as they persevered with patience and continued to have faith in our signs (Qur'an 32 vs 24)

Mischief has appeared on land and sea because of (the mead) that the hands of men have earned. That Allah may give them a taste of some of their deeds in order that they may turn back from evil (Qur'an 30 vs 41) 

We think the message here is relevant to you and your government, we have done our duty. If you do not do something you are not responsible for punishing but God himself will do something as we mentioned above. May our Lord bless our nation. May our Lord redeem us from bondage which was brought by foreign forces.

May our Lord bring peace to our land of Malawi from today till doomsday.

Signed by:

Sheikh Amir Fadhalat Ustadh Abdul-Hamid Bughdad (Liwonde).
Sheikh A.B. Elbannah (Machinga District).
Sheikh Hassan Mkwanda (Machinga District).
Sheikh Abdullah Mumuniat (Nkhotakota District).
Sheikh Muhammad Mustafa (Salima District).
Sheikh Mussa Kazembe (Dedza District).
Sheikh Imuran Mboma (Lilongwe District).
Sheikh Jaafari Abdullah (Mangochi District).
Sheikh Twaha Nnungu (Balaka District).
Sheikh Idurus Salimu A. Karimu (Zomba District).
Sheikh Imuran Idurus (Chiradzulu District).
Sheikh Yusuf Manyumbwa (Blantyre District).
Sheikh M. Rubain (Mulanje District).

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