Malawi Parliament has finally passed the so-called “Police Bill” – a legislation that has the capacity to further erode Malawi’s already fragile civil liberties. Malawi may already be sleepwalking into such state. The bill allows for police warrantless, and where the warrant is issued, the minister of responsible for internal security is empowered to issue the search warrant. The bill has also made it illegal for citizens to hold demonstrations or protests at houses of parliament, the state house and the courts.

It’s not difficult to see that there are two practical problems with this legislation. By giving a minister powers to issue a warrant of search, and possible arrest, the police service is inevitably being politicised – a minister though not always a politician, is a political appointee. This would lead to some form of witch hunt, there is nothing to stop the minister targeting those with different political views. In short, this is not a legislation for a democratic sate that Malawi sees itself as.

It is not take a scientific research to realise that this legislation poses security risk. Thugs would easily break into people’s house posing as police, no search warrant needed! The legislation weakens and undermine the integrity of the police and not strengthening it. I would be amazed if the policymakers are unaware of this potential problem. This bill has nothing to do with protection of citizens, it is in the interests of the state.

History indicates that tampering with civil liberties has been a problem with Malawi parliament. The first amendment to the current constitution was to take off the recall provision, which was the only section that empowered the people to hold their representatives to account. The section empowered constituents to remove their legislatures if they are not working according to the wishes of the constituents and their campaign promises.

There have been arguments that the recall provision was never practical in the first place. There maybe be a grain of truth in this but the fact that it was removed altogether instead of trying to improve it has some strong correlation with the current proposals. Malawi has only been democratic, if democracy means voting, for fifteen years and the country is already be returning to the dark days of dictatorship when coercion and state terrorism was the order of the day.

Democracy is much more than voting – civil liberties are a big part of it. Democracy allows its citizen freedom and expression in whichever way or form they please, so long as it is peaceful. Banning demonstrations at public institutions is an attempt by politicians to hide from people they ought to be accountable for. Politicians do not own the courts, the state house and the houses of parliament, the people do. These are public spaces. The people must be allowed to have a say on how these institutions are run. You cannot empower people by depriving them of their civil liberties.