Introduction
If
you love Malawi and you don’t love the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), you don’t
wish Malawi well. As a necessary force to check excesses of power, the MCP has
played its role so well, without them we would never be a ‘true democracy’ we
profess we are today. Or perhaps I should say without them, this little we call
democracy could never be there at all. For one thing, the MCP has always
demonstrated great restraint and tolerance, losing elections but accepting with
little contest and then great quietude. It often never happens like this
elsewhere. Besides, the MCP have also displayed mild reaction to general
criticism though, I must confess, I always find them falling short of what it
is they must do to make the majority of Malawians accept they are the party to
lead Malawi into that land of promise. One would perhaps feel that it's high
time they were given some chance to rule, that perhaps they are a changed grouping
after all. Unfortunately, everyone knows that the MCP has a soft belly, namely
its failure to engage the demons of its history as well as internal wrangles. Sometimes I believe that her
problem is her fear or luck of a robust and honest strategy or first-rate strategists
who can see from afar and put together issues that would help the people accept
the MCP while realising that they were people after all. The MCP always think
that history can erase itself though it is common knowledge that history has the
mouth of a hippo, huge, in fact, so huge one can only shut it up through some honest engagement.
In
this post, I will challenge the MCP to reconsider their position and adopt a
new strategy to engage Malawians with an honest heart, so the people understand
what the MCP is or was and how that, given another chance to rule, it can never
repeat on them that chapter of terror. It is not enough to say, as said their
President Professor Lazarus Chakwera, the other day in Ntcheu, that once in power they will work on
reconciliation. Others have given us assurances of what they would do once
in power, but always ended up giving us punishment for our vote. We do not need
a promise of what you will do when in power; we need to see a respected system today
to prove to us that, once in power, you will indeed be the leadership Malawi
desperately needs. And as far as I am concerned, this does not require moving
mountains; it requires you setting up a system that will prove you are a
different party, that once in power you will be guarded by that system and not
somebody’s whims as was the case in the single party era.
Why this article
This
post follows two developments (a few days ago) on the Malawi political scenery,
one of which gave the MCP the type of message they have desperately wanted to
hear—the ‘good news from the Afrobarometer Report’, and the other, a blatant
attack of an event that has come to symbolize their power—the question of
relevancy of celebrating Kamuzu Day (May 14 every year).
The
first part of this post will answer why, as a person I always ask the MCP to
come out and assure the people they are a different party. It is what I know
about them that scares me both as a citizen and a writer. This part will be
from the bad memories I have of the one party era as a young boy, incidents
which pump fear in me over why the MCP without that genuine assurance is a
dangerous substitute. These events happened when I was between 7 and 13 when I
lived at a place called B and EA in Zomba, for a very long time, Malawi’s seat
of politics.
Why you should trust my
oral accounts
The
other day I felt greatly blessed when Professor Steve Chimombo (Late) and
Professor Chinyamata Chipeta visited my office at the same time, of course, on
issues purely publishing. What I told them that day surprised them both,
because I proved to them I knew Chancellor College and the first members of
that Institution as the back of my hand. I reminded Professor Steve about his
orange Fiat with a white top, and his response was one of shock: “How do you
know that, Kingsley?”
“I
had seen you many times driving that beauty,” was my reply.
“It
ended near the KAR (King’s African Rifles—Keyala) gate (Zomba-Blantyre road at
the junction to Cobbe Barracks). It was a terrible accident; beyond repair,” he
said. In fact, he expressed surprise he had come out alive that day.
As
for Professor Chinyamata Chipeta, I reminded him that in the late 1970s when
they were playing for University Staff Football Club, I used to be their ball-boy.
I explained everything about the ground (close to where we now have The Great
Hall). He giggled with great surprise too at my accuracy of those heydays.
When
The Great Hall was being constructed, I was there. When the tippers started
bringing in the first load of sand, I was there and I saw it all. I remember
our worry then (as young boys), it was that we were losing the green patch, our
ground (we used to play football right where the The Great Hall stands today). We
were not allowed to do that (and Kaunda, father to Robert, and he lived in our village
just a hundred metres from the Mulunguzi Bridge as we go towards Sikinala or
Chinamwali along the Zomba-Lilongwe road), was always on us, chasing us all
over. Whenever he did that, we would withdraw to the edge of the premises (the
boundary between our village, B and EA and Chancellor College was just a wall
of cypress hedge). As soon as Kaunda retired, we would be back on our
‘stadium’.
And
a few months before his death, Professor Chris Kamlongera boasted, and
rightfully that he was the man behind the Little Theatre and additional
structures at Chancellor College. “Do you know that Dr Banda had planned to
build The Great Hall only, but it took my lobby for him to reconsider his
stance and add to the plan The Little Theatre and those other buildings?”
I
have said when they started building The Great Hall, I was there. I knew the
Supervisors, one of whom Manuele, short and always in green or khaki shorts and
heavy dark tan military boots. I remember their green Mercedes Benz truck which
took us to Ulongwe to support Roberts Construction Company Football Club play
against teams from there. Roberts Construction Company was the firm that
erected The Great Hall. As for the houses of the members of staff, it was the
United Construction Company—UCC.
I
know Peter Hill and his blue Morris, and how he enjoyed that we shouted his
name every time we had seen his Morris. Whenever one of us shouted ‘Peter
Hill!’ we would all stop our game and rush to the road, boys in tatters, naked
feet. He would deliberately slow down and allow us to escort him, each time
accelerating whenever we were about to catch him.
Why
all this history and boasting? Well, to make sure you believe my next story.
The MCP I know from my
early days
Once
again, between 1977 and 1982, I lived in a village called B and EA in Zomba. It
was a village bordering Chancellor College, just to the north of The Great
Hall. This village had existed before Chancellor College structures were built
at this place which used to be a farm run on irrigation from Mulunguzi River,
the water tapped right from the Zomba Botanical Gardens just close to what used
to be Malawi Parliament (sadly, now turned a court where the poor are condemned
largely for having no voice) or rather near what is now the National Archive storage
facility, a building which used to be the post office.
If
I may digress a bit and say something on the planning of Zomba, the colonial
capital city. Elite and poverty were separated by the main road. The other side
of the road were everything government—State House, and a few metres down—the
Gymkhana Club for the white man to enjoy himself. Only a few metres from
Gymkhana Club (on the other side of the road) was Kandodo Shop (and a
bookshop) where the white man did his shopping. Kandodo Shop (now Metro) faced the District
Commissioner’s Offices. Still on the elite side was Parliament and a Government
Hostel (now Hotel Masongola), the Government Print, the Post Office, the Army,
Police Headquarters (though the residential area was the other side of the
road), National Statistics, offices for various Ministries, the magnificent
CCAP Church (where my father used to play the piano), the Anglican Church (St
George’s Anglican Church), a white man’s hospital (Top Hospital), mansions for
masters, their hotel, et cetera. The other side of the road, i.e. the side for
the lowly, were single rooms (Mable Lines) or two-bedroomed Ndola houses (for
‘senior’ civil servants serving the white man). This is why Steve Chimombo in Wrath of Napolo describes Zomba as a city
of segregation—one side was everything that stood for a white man’s power,
pleasure and enjoyment, and on the other, was everything for a person with the
skin meant to serve the master. Following the December 1946 Napolo disaster,
the authorities had planned to transfer the city to Blantyre, but this didn’t materialise and later, in the late 1960s Dr Banda decided to move it to Lilongwe
(and this was against reason, for the West, Malawi’s traditional partners then
as well as most people from the Southern Region, including our man Gomile
Kuntumanje opposed to this).
I
know someone will say, “But Sir Harry Johnson Private School is on the poverty
side of the road.” True, but I believe it was a question of space rather than
convenience, because I cannot see where such a school with a pool could be
situated on the elite side of the Capital City.
Well,
I was talking about B and EA where I had lived as a young man. Before, I say
something about what I witnessed when I stayed there, something that always
cautions me to tread carefully as far as MCP and power is concerned, first, let
me say something about why this village no longer exists.
From
about 1978 or 1979, the Government of Malawi started placing articles in the
papers that residents of B and EA ought to relocate because it was too close to
the modern facility of Chancellor College (Chancellor College itself had relocated
from Blantyre in 1973, and from what I heard from my mother, two construction
companies were behind the building of Chancellor College—‘Mwanabeki’, I think a
corruption of Monabec and Nikolasi, another corruption, I think of Nicholaus. Of
course, I know that later some newer halls of residence were built by Lusitania
Ltd) circa 1980). Then, over three-quarters of the houses in B and EA were
grass-thatched. Government said the village was painting a very bad picture of
Chancellor College, perhaps they meant it provided a shameful contrast between
modernity (of the College) and backwardness (of B and EA). Several other
reasons were cited including that the villagers from B and EA were crossing
into Chancellor College premises or precincts to steal property from both students
and members of staff. At one point, it was even rumoured that a white female student
had been stabbed to death with an Okapi knife right on campus, and that B and
EA was the initial suspect.
Several
meetings were held between the single-party Malawi Congress Party officials and
the villagers right in the village at a small patch of ground just before Chief
Magombo’s grass-thatched hut (though the Chief then was Kadzem’mawa, Chief
Magombo’s son, a brother to Mrs Gulamu who now resides close to the Learning
Centre, near a traditional beer hall as we are going to Matawale. And for your
information the mango trees you see on that beer hall including the mango trees
you see at the place we now call Islamic High School in Zomba had been planted
by my own father, John Jika). I witnessed two of those meetings, but the last
one is what sticks to my memory because the villagers had responded to the
demands of the mighty Malawi Congress Party in a fashion I will never forget.
The
delegation in that last meeting included Mama Dorothy Makwinja (Late) then
Chairwoman for Women’s League for Zomba District, a very powerful post in the
Party. In Zomba, at the time, there were four names that represented everything
Malawi Congress Party—Dorothy Makwinja, Mayi Chipatala, Mayi Malola and Bambo
Malefule (the man who used a quiff hairstyle). Even Kamuzu himself had built
houses for these ladies, two of which along the street to Chancellor College
Proper, one of which now turned into a lodge just opposite the Chancellor
College Clinic, a building which used to be Registrar’s house in the late
1970s.
Others
in the delegation were the District Commissioner and other party officials. It
was like a full party meeting with glittering Land Rovers, et cetera.
The
Party officials presented their side of the story, giving justification why B and EA
should relocate among which, that it was painting a very bad picture of
Kamuzu’s College (Chancellor College was Kamuzu’s own College). Chancellor is
the other way of saying ‘Kamuzu’ but then he would not name it Kamuzu College
because he was to be Chancellor of a number of Colleges under University of
Malawi. He was Chancellor, so Chancellor College was his own College as
Chancellor. In short, it should have been called the Chancellor’s (Kamuzu’s)
College.
After
the Party officials had presented their arguments, Chief Kadzem’mawa stood,
then a very young handsome man, tall with a light skin (owning a white Volvo).
He was polite but courageous.
Soft-spoken,
he said the village was not contesting relocation, but relocation without
compensation. He explained that Chancellor College as an institution of higher
learning found this village there, and that the white man had carved up the
land and gave this village Chief Magombo, apparently in exchange for a job well
done to a white man. It seems B and EA had been a residential part of a farm
where were also kept cattle, and when the farm was winding up, the owners
(white men) gave the workers this gift of land.
Kadzem’mawa
said even their graveyard was there in the village (and it stood close to where
Chancellor College later opened a garden operated by the Chinese. That garden
is now in ruins) and they could not just relocate just like that. Then, he
fished out documents the colonial government had given Chief Magombo, giving
him the village. At that, the villagers had roared in defiance, celebrating the
young chief. I remember Mabasiketi’s son jumped up to brush with his hand the
Chief’s clean black jacket. I remember the Chief’s reaction; he palmed
Mabasiketi’s son’s hand away. The meeting ended there. I have never seen anyone
more courageous. This was 1981 or 1982 when the MCP was at the zenith of power,
and here was a small chief embarrassing Kamuzu’s delegation.
That
night everything came to a standstill, everyone thought the Malawi Young
Pioneers (Kamuzu’s personal army) would descend on B and EA for insulting the Life
President, Dr H Kamuzu Banda. Even my own mother behaved as though she was
walking on needles that night. I remember her saying a few words to the effect
that anything could happen that night. It never happened. Eventually, the
villagers were compensated, and I remember my mother receiving K81 and some
tambalas at the District Commissioner's office. Then this figure was enough to engage Arafu to mould bricks for our
house at Matawale just behind Mama Dorothy Makwinja’s home. When she heard the
small rickety house just on the edge of her garden belonged to a family that had
relocated from B and EA, she got furious with Kanjinga, the gentleman who had sold
my mother that small land, but of course, she didn’t do us any harm. Moreover, we
didn’t stay there long (for in December 1983, we moved on to Mtendere Village
at the foot of Zomba Plateau where we bordered Cobbe Barracks).
One
can argue that the relocation story means that the MCP were not always as
dangerous as the people had always painted them. Those who cherish this position,
could definitely love the following story as well.
The
other day at some meeting for writers in Blantyre (some three years ago), a one-time
journalist who served under Dr Kamuzu Banda but later fled the country to a
neighbouring country told me an interesting story about how Kamuzu spared him gaol or life itself. I still don’t understand why
people like him keep such stories to themselves. My greatest fear is that it is
not on for us to lose such stories; they are oral, and can easily get lost.
This
man said once when he had accompanied Dr Banda to London for some meeting, some
overzealous Malawi Congress Party officials, by whatever means, discovered that
he was keeping some photos of the so-called rebels. Perhaps these could be
Kanyama Chiume, Masauko Chipembere and others, I am not sure (he didn’t tell me
the names). He said, these party Officials brought him before Dr Banda (in a hotel room right
there in London), and he said anyone who stayed close to Dr Banda knew what it
meant when Dr Banda removed his glasses. He said he felt it was over with him.
“This
man is in possession of photos of rebels,” the sycophant said.
He
said, at the words, he was trembling, afraid.
But,
something ‘funny’ happened. He said Dr Banda said: “There are times when we
must keep history. We cannot destroy history. He hasn’t done anything wrong.
These photos shall be needed some day for our children, for our history.”
This
is how GOD used the same Dr Banda to spare this man’s life.
Can
the MCP use such stories to instill belief in the people, and reconnect with
those it had ill-treated so they can sense the ‘new’ MCP means business, is for
unity and won’t repeat history? Well, not the satisfied MCP I know. The MCP I
know knows no opportunity, and lets herself exposed to beatings all for hoping
that history eats itself out from the inside. A lie, a very big lie.
MCP’s soft underbelly
The Nation,
dated Wednesday, May 31, 2017, carried an opinion by Undule Mwakasungula. The
paper described Mwakasungula as governance and rights campaigner. The opinion,
bearing the title “Remember Kamuzu’s Victims”, made interesting arguments why
it is not necessary for Malawians to celebrate Dr Banda’s birthday—May 14 (and it happens to be my birthday as well).
Mwakasungula divided his paper into four parts: ‘Reign of Terror’,
‘Detentions and Expulsions’, ‘Crying for Justice’ and ‘Re-glorification of a
Dictator’.
First,
Mwakasungula compared Dr Hasting Kamuzu Banda (Malawi’s first Head of State and
the figure behind the thirty-year reign of terror under the MCP) to some of the
world worst dictators—Idi Amin of Uganda, Mobuto Sese Seko of Zaire (now
Democratic Republic of the Congo), Emperor Bokassa of the Central African
Republic, and of course, Germany’s wartime despot, Adolf Hitler. Whether it is
right for Mwakasungula to put Dr Banda side by side with people like Hitler is
not the subject of this discussion. But anyone who has suffered a human loss,
any human loss, is bound to use any words; you can never argue with them; they are
the ones who feel the pain.
He
(Mwakasungula) then mentioned by name some of the people, from journalists to politicians and
writers—those who suffered deaths, incarceration and exile at the hands of Dr
Banda’s Malawi Congress Party dictatorial regime. Mwakasungula concludes by
saying, “Celebrating Kamuzu is just like glorifying Idi Amin or Adolf Hitler. .
.Only the strong minds (sic) and the wise will stand boldly and refuse this
hypocrisy.” His last statement calls for what he calls ‘deliverance from this
hypocrisy’.
What
I want you, my good reader, to take note of is the fact that Mwakasungula’s
article came within days of some of the most interesting piece of news in the
ears of any MCP die-hard, namely that the MCP could be on its way to State
House, and this is according to State of
the Nations: Malawians’ Reflections on Political Governance: Findings from
Afrobarometer Round 7 Survey in Malawi. The Afrobarometer Survey is a
non-partisan survey measuring attitudes of citizens on a diverse of topics
including democracy, governance, economy and the civil society on a country, in
this case, Malawi. In Malawi, this Survey was conducted by the Centre for
Social Research at Chancellor College of the University of Malawi.
According
to the Survey, which was conducted
between December 26, 2016 and January 6, 2017, in that period, only a third of the population (36%) trusted the
President, only 34% trusted the ruling party—the Democratic Progressive Party,
and only 33% trusted the Electoral Commission. Interestingly, a telling 81%
trusted religious leaders, 73% the Defence Force, and 67%, traditional leaders.
When
asked which party they would vote for if it were an election time, 32% said
they would go the opposition Malawi Congress Party way; 27% the ruling
Democratic Progressive Party way; 11% the former ruling United Democratic Front
route; and lastly, 7% the immediate former ruling People’s Party path.
The
news was enough to send the MCP rubbing their hands in glee, albeit the time in
which it was conducted and the changes that have taken place in between, don’t
put in the fact that the 27% for DPP and the 11% for UDF had been gleaned when
the two had not made it plain they would go to the polling booth as one entity.
What
I want the MCP to see is that within days of receiving this good news, came
Mwakasungula’s opinion on MCP and her past. What is interesting is that
whatever gain the MCP can make, there seems to be a soft spot where, if one
manages to sneak in a blow, the MCP goes groggy, punch-drunk. And this, plus it's failure to resolve her internal wrangles spells disaster for a party gearing for victory.
Was
Mwakasungula wrong to argue that May 14 should be buried with our history?
Allow me not to answer this question now. But let me say this one thing which
Late Professor Chimombo (I still call him such) made in 1999 when asked why he
was still on the theme of the guilt of
the past effecting the present:
One
of the most recent (books) is about (on the theme of) the guilt of the past affecting
the present. Its first critic asked me if it was not time writers turned to new
themes. My response was as above: we
aren’t yet done with the old themes. For one thing we were not allowed to
verbalise them in those days. This is the first chance to do so. For another,
it is the only way to cure ourselves of those days. We are still wrestling with
the demons of the past. (Steve Chimombo, “Arts, Truth, and Reconciliation”,
Lessons in Hope: Education for Democracy
in Malawi, Past, Present and Future, edited by Moira Chimombo, National
Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Series No 1. Zomba: Chancellor College
Publications & GTZ-Democracy, 1999, p 87).
Interestingly,
on the same page, Chimombo makes this observation: “The process of doing
violence to artists, forcing them into exile, and even killing them did not start with Banda. On the contrary,
they started in the colonial days” (p 87). His argument is that when Dr
Banda came in, he surpassed the colonial master through a piece of
legislation—The Censorship and Entertainment Act, 1968, and an Institution it
created—the Censorship Board. And Steve believes that nothing changed after
1994, because “Dr Bakili Muluzi unfortunately inherited the system created by
his predecessors . . . artists are merely political beasts of burden. You
coerce them either to campaign for you or to engage in civic education for your
own political development” (p 88). I don’t know what his stance would be in
this era. Could he have said we have changed and now the artist has gained his
independence? I don’t know.
The
problem with the MCP is that they do not know what an opportunity is, how to
seize on it or other things to be seem to advance healing in the country. Say a
little praise, they are all over, claiming they are in power come 2019. It has
always been like this.
The
MCP seems not able to grasp the two greatest weaknesses of Malawians,
weaknesses they could use to their advantage as a party.
Dr
Banda was a beneficiary of two ‘weaknesses’ among Malawians. Muluzi came in and
assumed the same benefit too. The DPP came, the same thing. The PP came, the
same thing. The second DPP has come, the same thing. The MCP are nowhere near
to read all this, and they are all over claiming they are almost there. To add
to the fallacy of the whole drama, with that news some who believe in the wind,
flocked there, and mind you these are not new members; these are the same old
people who have been to every party, and for whatever reason the MCP believes them.
There
was a time when I said that in the worst of situations, the UDF would always
work with the DPP. I say the same thing again: in the worst of situations, the
PP can easily go back to the DPP. It is foolhardy for MCP to believe in
anything from DPP, UDF or PP. The MCP has to go it alone, interact with the
people countrywide, and when the people notice that great change, they will
easily say, “Perhaps it’s high time we tried the changed MCP.” Otherwise,
forget it.
I
have talked about the two ‘weaknesses’ guiding Malawians, and mind you I do not
mean to say these ‘weaknesses’ made them or make them fools, because for me
they are important weaknesses. The first one is that we tend to trust fellow
humans, persuading ourselves that people are generally good and they often mean
good. The second is that Malawians love to give in the hope that those given do
understand their role, namely to give back bountifully and without taking it
for themselves for good.
When
Kamuzu was still in London and expressed willingness to support his people in
Nyasaland fight the colonial master, the people here thought it was all for good
intention. Nothing rang anything in them to question how that a fellow
countryman who sent ten pounds sterling in 1946 as his life membership fee, would eventually want to assume
leadership for himself for life. And it was upon that same trust that on his
arrival on July 6, 1958 at Chileka, Isika Gomani, widow of the 1953 hero of
passive resistance, Chief Gomani II, laid a leopard’s skin on his shoulders,
entrusting upon his shoulders the role to lead in saving his people. That
installation as leader of the struggle was upon great trust. Even the choice of
Isika Gomani was calculated, to show that widows too looked upon him to make
them happy again for their losses in the name of freedom for this country.
The
Nyasaland African Congress or NAC (the predecessor of the Malawi Congress
Party) was founded in 1944 by Levi Zililo Mumba, James Frederick Sangala, Lewis
Mataka Bandawe, Issa Macdonald Lawrence, Charles Mlanga, and Charles Chidongo
Chinula yet within a month of Dr Banda's return to Nyasaland in 1958, the people
surrendered the leadership to him at the Nyasaland African Congress meeting in
Nkhata Bay. Trust.
When
Orton Chirwa (with Aleke Banda and other younger leaders) formed the Malawi
Congress Party in 1959 following the ban of the NAC, Orton surrendered the
leadership to Dr Banda upon Banda’s release from prison. Trust and belief that
he would never betray them.
The
MCP has one job to do—recreating the image of an authoritative entity rather
than an authoritarian one they were known for, for over thirty years.
Unfortunately, every time one makes such suggestions to the MCP, they think one
is bought, one is fighting on behalf of the DPP, that one is hiding behind the
pen to propagate a DPP propaganda.
I
have the picture of MCP as an authoritarian entity. I can never encourage the
people to vote for this authoritarian entity, because it scares. I want an
authoritative MCP. And the difference is simple. I think I can use a setting of
a classroom here as one Samson LW Macjessie-Mbewe (citing Clifton 1993) once
put it:
Teachers’
use of authoritarian means to
discharge their duties results in what Clifton (1993) calls ‘ritualism’, where students follow a set of rules without purpose.
Such use of power to control people’s activities in a democratic society is not
a suitable strategy and teachers who use it have problems with their students.
In the new Malawi, teachers have to be authoritative
(the authority of knowledge) rather than authoritarian (the power of status) to
discharge their duties without facing discipline problems with their students.
Under
authority, ‘orders are voluntarily obeyed by those receiving them’ (Clifton
1993) (Samson LW Macjessie-Mbewe, “Power versus Authority in the Democratic
Malawi” in Lessons in Hope: Education for
Democracy in Malawi, Past, Present, Future, p 21)
This
article (“Power versus Authority in the Democratic Malawi” proffers three methods through which a teacher can turn
himself or herself an authoritative entity—I will make use of these,
applying them in politics (and please, quote me right, Dr Macjessie-Mbewe was
not applying it to politics).
The
first (method) is that authoritative teachers make their aims and objectives
clear to the students. In political terms, this means being honest with the
people, engaging them to understand you mean good. This is because once a
student understands or is aware of the aims and objectives, he or she works
towards achieving them. In politics, this means that if a party can make the
people see good in the activities or aims and purpose of that particular party,
they can work towards making it come into power, i.e. giving it the support for
it to be voted in. I am sorry to say the picture the MCP gives me is that they
want power to go to the Central Region, and not in the hands of the people,
Malawians. In that case, what then would be the difference between the current
DPP and them?
According
to Macjessie-Mbewe, the authority of teachers is reflected in their rapport
with students. If one can borrow this into politics, one can as well say the
authority of a political party is born from the manner of interaction and
communication it engages with the people. This means how open and ready it is
to interact with the masses. I believe it naïve to expect a people to
support you when you do not engage them, and you can never engage them if you
do not have a system they can respect and look to, to defend them.
Finally,
the article says the authority is realised through their competence in the
subject matter.
If
borrowed into politics, the last point means that the MCP must demonstrate that
they understand the subject matter, i.e. the issue at hand, real politics. This
means a show of commitment, connection with the people, a heart to build
systems that check against abuse of power both within and without.
One
weakness of the MCP is that they major on mistakes, and are hardly heard saying
good about national projects. If a project is for the good of the nation,
demonstrate your support, but use wisdom to show the people that you could do
even better (if you were in power). You do not just oppose because you have over twenty years’
experience in opposition.
People
of the South and East can only buy MCP when they notice that it has a system
that will defend them once the MCP can begin to go the brutal way of old.
Where springs my fear
of the MCP
Well,
I have said a number of times that I lived in a village called B and EA. And I
have said that Zomba used to be the seat of politics until recently (if it isn’t
still), and this is because Zomba used to house the Malawi Parliament, and
still it has the largest institution of prison in the country. The four
prominent politicians who were murdered in 1983 were abducted right here in
Zomba.
Well,
to the north of B and EA was what we used to call the Malawi Office. It was a
place where Dr Banda’s Youth Leaguers and Malawi Young Pioneer boys and
girls gathered. If you ‘offended’ anything MCP, you were brought there first.
Thieves, ‘rebels’ or anyone said to be associated with any activity deemed
anti-MCP, was brought there.
There
men were brought arms pinioned at the back from the elbows to the shoulders using lanyard
(linya) or ropes made from bicycle or
motor-vehicle tyres. These people were mercilessly and helplessly beaten like nobody’s business. They would
then force them to drink a bottleful of fanta—water in which were crushed
balls and balls of hot piripiri
pepper. This was not all, the helpless men were rubbed all over with chitedze, pods of a bean species with
thistles that itch on the skin like nobody’s business. I have seen these things
with my own eyes.
And
the Youth Leaguers reigned with astronomical defiance. There was a woman who
played the village crier—a whistle in her hands, announcing an impending Party
meetings. She would show up even at the river (Mulunguzi) where men were taking
their bath, to deliver the message live. And no man would dare lift his hand
upon her though there was once some rumour that some men had engaged her right
there at the river.
Many
times I witnessed people being beaten. Even at that young age, I developed fear
of the machinery of the MCP.
When
I stayed at Mtendere (some call it Zilindo), I witnessed a man, Mwenyeheri
(Adija’s son), weeping like a small baby before Chitsonga (a feared Youth
Leaguer in our village). Mwenyeheri had threatened to evict my mother (and thus
us) from his house on rentals, and my mother reported him to the Youth
Leaguers. It was hell, and right before my eyes. I jumped up and down
celebrating, but years later, I asked whether it was right after all to so do.
If
the MCP are to win over a man like me, they need to show me they are truly a
changed party, that they are a party for Malawians, not for the people of the
Central Region. This is why I keep saying the MCP made a big mistake to entice
Chakwera for the leadership position. It should have been someone else, and
Chakwera’s role should have been a conciliator, kind of patron to build a national
Malawi Congress Party, a replica of that 1959 organisation, people-owned.
The
comment in The Nation today (June 6,
2017) carries sentiments under the headline “MCP’s infighting bad for democracy”.
The comment bemoans the party’s inability to resolve the issue about whether to
hold a convention this July or not. One faction led by a Southern Region heavyweight
and MCP veteran, Gustav Kaliwo, has interpreted the MCP Constitution as saying
he, as Secretary General, has the powers to call for a convention to resolve
differences in the party. The other camp led by the Party President himself,
Professor Lazarus Chakwera hears none of it.
The
paper thus bemoans the fact that a strong opposition party of the stature of
the MCP could be all over amongst themselves yet they claim they see one leg in
power come 2019. What impresses me most is the last bit of the comment, which
is a fascinating question, one I entirely agree with: “If the Party does not
have the capacity to amicably resolve its internal issues, how can it be
trusted with the larger responsibility of running the affairs of the whole
country (and if I may add, of a population of close to 18 million)?”
Interestingly
MCP always say such wrangles are sowed by the ruling Democratic Progressive
Party. Now my question is: If you are a party strong and you know all this,
what is it you’re doing to show Malawians you practise civilized politics to
rise above all that? None.
Change for the sake of change
is a project dead on arrival
If
the MCP wants to make us believe they are the genuine change that Malawi
needs, they need to first of all demonstrate that once in power they will abide
by the integrity systems. The term integrity systems simply means how well and
pro-people the following institutions functions in our country: the Executive;
the Legislature; the Judiciary; the Auditor-General; the Anti-Corruption
Bureau; the Police; the Electoral Commission; and the Political Parties.
A
great party should take a stand on this and put in place documents to guard
themselves both in theory and practice to abide by this. If one fails, why
should one believe them?
It
is not by pointing the finger at another that we succeed; it is first by checking
our stance in entrenching the integrity systems at all levels right from within
the party that a people can begin to believe in you.
It
is not only by majoring in pointing the finger on corruption. If I may remind my
readers that in Zambia, the Corrupt Practices Act was passed as far back as 1980 although the Anti-Corruption
Commission Act was passed in 1996. It took Malawi fifteen years (after the
Zambia’s Corrupt Practices Act of 1980) to enact a similar law (Malawi) Corrupt
Practices Act (Chapter 7:04 of the Laws of Malawi). This is why every time
people claim there was no corruption in the MCP I laugh my lungs out. Which
corruption do they mean? Political corruption? Bureaucratic (grand) corruption?
Petty (quiet) corruption? Which one was not there? Unless you don’t read your
history well, corruption in Malawi has always been there from the day we
received Independence, that Monday July 6, 1964. Of course, it has gotten worse
now, and one reason could be, we are able to see through many things. I am not
justifying the current government for not putting a grand fight against
corruption, for they have an opportunity which they do not want to utilise to
change things once and for all. At the same time I know, very few people have
tended to mix the fight against corruption with politics, and this is our worst
scandal. Where we should fight corruption, we start the battle of politics and
paternalism. Where on earth can a people progress that way?
People
should understand that the best way to measure whether a party will be able to live
by its pledges for genuine, well-entrenched integrity systems is to watch what
they do when outside power—how they receive dissent and criticism, whether they
do not share elements of bias, greed and nepotism themselves, and whether their
call for support is simply for others to support them so they should be at the
helm in the control of power—ritualism and paternalism.
Has
the MCP demonstrated a divorce from greed? I cannot answer that. You know them.
Have they demonstrated they need others to advance for them the agenda for the
Central Region? I cannot answer that. But if they are the same mould as the
DPP, then why should we change one eater for another? So come out and show us
you are a genuine change, a national entity. I can never vote MCP because my
mother called Salima home. I will vote for someone who shows me it is time we
bid poverty, corruption and intimidation bye the genuine way.
Is Criticism good for
the MCP?
If
MCP wants to rebrand itself, it must learn to absorb criticism. When Joseph Booth
worked in his business in Australia, he had no intention to come to Africa to
teach the Word of God. It took the criticism of Joseph Symes for Booth to
discover his weaknesses and therefore make a decision to come to Africa. “Symes
was a former Wesleyan minister who had deserted the chapel for the platform of
the atheist lecturer” (Independent
African: John Chilembwe and the Nyasaland Rising of 1915, by George
Shepperson and Thomas Price, Zomba: Kachere Monograph No 13, 2000, p 23).
Symes
is said to have challenged Booth so hard, Booth decided to come to Africa to
evangelise. In May 1891, Symes is said to have said:
“Are
there no savages in Central Africa, and if so, why do you not go to them
instead of casting these doubtful pearls (meaning evengalisation) where no one
wants them? Why don’t you go, without purse (like Jesus Christ without riches),
without weapons, without societies (i.e. where no one knew him)? Is not ‘Lo I
am with you’ good enough? Have you forgotten this Christ’s message to men of
possession, ‘Sell all thou hast and give to the poor’? When is the sale coming
off (i.e. when are you, Booth, selling your property to use the resources to
save ‘heathens’ in Central Africa where they need the Gospel most? When shall
you start to be a Christian?” (Shepperson and Price, p 24)
Booth
ended up selling his business in Australia and left for London to make
preparations for his journey to Central Africa. He was to leave London for
Central Africa on January 2, 1892.
Some
criticisms, no matter where they are coming from are for our perfection so long
as they do not mean to demean anyone because we are never called to demean
people, especially those under the anointing of the most Holy GOD, a principle
I always ensure I observe.
Should May 14 go?
No,
not at all. Isn’t it great that despite what the people faced in Malawi during
the one party era, the people have allowed forgiveness to flow even where the MCP
has not seen the need to debate and heal on these issues? I look forward to a
day when some great leader shall decide to go back in history, not to punish
but to unearth truth for genuine reconciliation, and lead in making Malawians a
one people they deserve.
Conclusion
Malawi is undergoing economic challenges, and the MCP say they have a formula
to end all this. No one has ever seen that formula; they have never given us
that formula, so where is their love for their country if they want to show the
best only when they are in power? Isn’t this greed? For me, the ‘good news’
from the Afrobarometer Report should not be a substitute for not working hard
to convince Malawians they mean good for them all. The Malawi Congress Party
should not be carried away by a Survey
involving a small percentage of the population and for a period December (2016) to
early January (2017). It must stop the internal wrangles, and shouldn’t be cheated that
internal wrangles are healthy for our democracy, for that is a dangerous excuse,
sheer dereliction of duty, an excuse not to commit themselves. The MCP must visit us in
the Eastern Region; visit us in the Southern Region; visit my in-laws in the
North. The MCP must teach its people to accommodate dissent. They must show us they
understand their past, and are ready to engage it to make a great single future for all Malawians. The MCP must allow the widest of debates, check against
jungle justice by her boys and girls who mistake dissent for enmity, those who call critics nkholokolo, a newer version of the same old kapirikoni or traitor. They must
practise openness (Open Government and all its 42 standards) to the highest
degree, do away with recycled politicians, and embrace modernity and
reconciliation to change our perception. Otherwise, thank you very much, Sir—better
the devil I know, Sir. This is not to say I do not love the Malawi Congress
Party, for I do—it has been instrumental in checking against abuse of power
ever since the birth of multiparty democracy in 1993 though it has always
failed to take advantage of the nature of its birth (national) to embrace as
much diversity as possible to turn itself a truly liberal national party.
Debate on public issues should be
uninhibited, robust, and wide open, and that . . . may well include vehement,
caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public
officials.—William Joseph Brennan Jr (American Judge)
References
ACBF
Operations Research (2007) Institutional
Frameworks for Addressing Public Sector Corruption in Africa: Mandate,
Performance, Challenges and Capacity Needs. Harare: The African Capacity
Building Foundation.
Chimombo,
Steve (1999) “Artists, Truth, and Reconciliation” Moira Chimombo (ed) Lessons in Hope: Education for Democracy in
Malawi, Past, Present, Future. National Initiative for Civic Education
(NICE) Series No 1. Zomba: Chancellor College Publications.
Macjessie-Mbewe,
Samson LW (1999). “Power versus Authority in the Democratic Malawian Classroom”
Moira Chimombo (ed) Lessons in Hope:
Education for Democracy in Malawi, Past, Present, Future. National
Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Series No 1. Zomba: Chancellor College
Publications.
Shepperson,
George and Price, Thomas (1958 and 2000) Independent
African: John Chilembwe and the Nyasaland Rising of 1915. Zomba: Kachere
Monograph No 13/CLAIM.
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