Renowned Journalist , Dickson Kashoti says President Dr Lazarus Chakwera should not open embassy in Jerusalem, Israel saying the move can embroil political and religious battle between Jews and Muslims.
Recently, Dr Chakwera expressed interest that the country will open an Embassy in Israel.
But Kashoti says , President Chakwera should not involve issues of his personal religion when making decisions of state.
“His decision to have an embassy in Jerusalem is flawed. The capital city of Israel is Tela Aviv, that’s exactly where our foreign mission should be. Malawi is a secular state therefore we should not get embroiled in the useless political and religious war between Jews and Muslims (Palestinians).” Kashoti says.
He questions the need of opening an Embassy in Israel yet the country is struggling economically.
“But do we really need a full fledged embassy in Israel when the country continues to face harsh economic climate?”
“I know that our state president is spiritual and sometimes goes to Jerusalem to pray and meditate to deepen his faith therefore the opening of the embassy would facilitate his travels there and lessen challenges he faces whenever he wants to go to Jesus’ birth place. But that should not be done at the expense of the nation,” he says.
Kashoti says there is also no any need for the country to have an embassy in Nigeria.
‘The president should have informed us, the tax payers, in detail the necessity of having embassies in Israel and Nigeria.
As a country, we should be thinking of closing down some embassies which are not performing but the DPP led government kept them running to keep top party officials’ wives, children, relations and girl friends in foreign office job,”
“Opening new embassies when the country has three dozen non-performing foreign missions whose staff are in the countries merely as tourists or spend much of their time in classes seeking further education (because they were sent into the embassies without right qualifications), defeats the whole purpose of public reforms,” Kahoti says.
On Sunday, Chief Palestinian Peace negotiator Dr Saeb Erekat announced that the Palestinian Authority would sever relations with any country that opens an embassy in Jerusalem.
