Day of Chaos and Confusion - Background (Part I)

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Yesterday, 20 July 2011, President Bingu wa Mutharika was due to speak. In advance of this address regarding the nation’s problems, civil society (NGOs and other organizations) prepared to hold peaceful demonstrations. Rumors quickly spread that the demonstrations would be broken up by police, who would arrest protesters and use tear gas to disperse crowds.
Tuesday, my boss came into my office to tell me not to come into work the next day. He expected chaos, and heard that the police would use live bullets. Even he planned to stay in his house all day.
I arrived home to learn that the President had sanctioned the demonstrations, which pleasantly surprised everyone. Civil society leaders met with police commissioners that evening to discuss protest march routes and procedures. Everything was set for a day of peaceful demonstrations.
Roughly two hours later, around 11pm, an “ordinary citizen” went to the High Court to seek an injunction against the demonstrations, and succeeded. Of course everyone believes that this citizen was an agent of the government.
I woke the next morning to hear that the injunction meant there would be no official demonstrations. How do you get an injunction against the people???!!! I also heard that civil society members, carrying red handkerchiefs in their pockets (red being the color of opposition), had already been arrested. That occurred around 6:45am as they were simply walking toward town.
The state tv channel, mbc, showed a high ranking police officer who said peaceful demonstrations were acceptable. This of course contradicted the injunction order, but apparently the officer had been filmed the day before and ‘mbc’ was merely replaying the tape. The ticker on the bottom of the screen mentioned the injunction, but few details were given. And so the confusion begins. Anyone without a tv or radio (most people) may then turn to the newspapers. Both The Nation and The Daily had front page pictures of the DPP Youth Cadets brandishing panga knives (machetes) in Blantyre from the day before, with headlines that said something to the effect of “Government Oks Demonstrations.”
I wanted a newspaper, and the house was in need of groceries, so a bunch of us headed up to 7-Eleven, which is about a 20 minute walk. One of the Americans said he’d walk with us then keep walking toward town, just to see if anything was going on. We were all a little curious, and I for one wanted to walk down and planned to turn back if there seemed to be any trouble. We were all dressed in neutral colors, and Mindy noted that most other people were, too. Red meant opposition, light/bright blue is the DPP’s color (DPP being the President’s party).
There were few people in the streets, and the overwhelming majority of businesses were closed.

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