By Suleman Chitera
The Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) did not collapse by accident. It committed slow political suicide by abandoning principle and embracing partisanship. By operating as a de facto appendage of the MCP, HRDC forfeited the moral authority that once made it a national conscience.
What killed HRDC was not state repression, fatigue, or public apathy. It was selective outrage. It was the deafening silence when abuses came from those in power, and the sudden roar only when opposition politics required it. Human rights do not belong to any party—but HRDC treated them as campaign tools.
Malawians noticed. Credibility evaporated. Trust drained away. A movement that once mobilized the nation became predictable, compromised, and irrelevant.
HRDC’s death, therefore, was natural—caused by its own choices. When watchdogs choose sides, they stop being watchdogs. They become lapdogs. And lapdogs do not defend democracy; they bury it.
