The long rod of the law and justice

When he was not so drunk with the stupor of power, Nicholas Dausi once said: The law is like a rod, you use it to whip others but once they get it, they use it to whip you. In this Republic, those that wronged Malawi or seemingly raped the soul of the nation are being arrested, that Dausian word comes to mind. Dausi told the rest of us the other day, arresting those in the ancien regime was persecution.

He was wrong. The long rod of the law was just taking its natural course. The law is never kind on criminals, especially those who imbue an unnatural course of injustice and petty thievery of the national coffer.

Let us face it. The criminals who ruled us, or seemed to have it lord over us, and robbed us, thinking the long rod of the law will whip them someday will have to have it tough some day. When I was a cub, I used to go to the courts.

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One thing that magistrates and judges used to say when delivering such judgments was they were doing so to deter other would-be offenders. But criminals scarcely understand that. In the past few weeks arrests have been made of those so drunk with the trappings and the stupor of power, that they thought the soul of the nation will not come to know of their dealings.

Now is the time for them to realise that the nation is far much a larger entity than fulfilling their egos. For murder, we hear, some are incarcerated in several prisons. For the murder of one suspect, Buleya Lule, some are having it cold on the floors of Maula and Dedza prisons.

We hear SUV cars are being abandoned for those who can’t survive the hit of the abuses they inflicted on innocent souls time and time again. For that matter, while the rest of us were having taxes axed liked nobody’s business from the little we get and the little things we bought with our hard earned money, some were busy building for themselves in places unfathomable. They were busy on extravagant curtails that run to the lowest of our national pulse.

To get and recapture the true soul of our nation deserves one thing: Those that robbed us must face the law. For murder, extortion, fraud, terrorism, corruption and all matter of wrong, they must dance to that tune. Because no single soul has ever been above another.

We are all equal before the law. What this typically means is that the rod that is the law is in other hands. They must face the whip to deter other would-be offenders.

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