US embassy cable - 05LILONGWE279

UNCLAS LILONGWE 000279 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR AF/PD, AF/S, AF/RA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER, ASEC, KMDR, KPAO, MI, Media 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION - IRAQ, LILONGWE 
 
1. "Short memories, rude awakenings" 
 
2. The independent daily, "The Daily Times" of 
March 9, 2005, carried an opinion piece by one 
of Malawi's prominent writers, Jika Nkolokosa, 
on his regular "Take it or Leave it" Nkolokosa 
argues that people in Malawi don't get the truth 
from politicians.  He makes a summation of world 
events and relates them to Malawi's political 
scenario.  Excerpts follow. 
 
3. It is amazing how short our memories are. I 
don't mean just Malawians, but we the people of 
the world.  Pardon me if I bring back painful 
memories to some of you.  Soon after 9/11, US 
President George W. Bush was foaming and 
frothing about terrorism and, I guess, rightly 
so.  Actually, from time to time, he still does. 
He promised to take the war to the aggressors, 
the main one of whom was identified as Osama bin 
Laden. 
 
.Mr. Bush and company made a silent retreat from 
the mountains of Afghanistan and took the war to 
Iraq and Saddam Hussein on grounds that he was 
an international terrorist as bad as bin Laden. 
 
.The humiliation the former Iraqi dictator went 
through must surely pass for one of the most 
blatantly violations of human rights.  Never 
mind that he was a mere shadow of his former 
self, he was the war's biggest trophy.  I wonder 
if those who lost their loved ones in the twin 
towers of the World Trade Centre in New York on 
that morning of September 11, 2001, thanked Mr. 
Bush for Saddam's capture.  Many people have 
actually forgotten all about Osama bin Laden. 
They only remember him when he makes his 
audacious appearances on al Jazeera.  Fewer 
people still remember there once lived a 
Slobodan Milosevic. 
 
.When American troops opened fire on a freed 
Italian hostage and her rescuer, secret agent 
Nicola Calipari, the Italians dropped their 
cappuccinos and recalled that these people had 
been caught in a war they had never supported. 
Perhaps for an hour or two they will remember 
that they sacrificed their hero to a cause they 
did not share. 
 
.When Frederick Chiluba harassed and abused his 
predecessor Kenneth Kaunda, it never occurred to 
him that he might one day find himself in 
Kaunda's shoes. 
 
.Zimbabwe's Jonathan Moyo thought he would be 
immune to his draconian media laws which muzzled 
dissent with a rude finality. 
 
.Take it or leave it, those who only tell us 
about a future of playing diamond studded lutes 
under a golden staircase fail to tell us the 
truth.  We want the whole truth, the harsh 
truth.  Even a people with short memories need 
this rude awakening. 
 
Gilmour