AFORD: THE LAST NAIL ON ITS GOLDEN CASKET?

Who would have thought, if we turned the hands of time to 1991, 1992, 1993, that AFORD would be in the shape it is today? Probably no sane Malawian would except those that have "helped" AFORD to be where it is today. AFORD called the shots in the years prescribed above.

Something must have happened on "the way to Damascus" for AFORD, instead of gaining back its sight after 1994 elections when it was given a "bloody" nose and a huge and immense wake-up call, it kind of remained blind to all things that mattered to it and the Malawian people. Since I have no information on what happened, on this "road to Damascus" I will not attempt to delve into the field, however, I will offer my opinions on what I think and what AFORD should do to kind of attempt to regain its meaning and purpose to the Malawian political scene.

Arguably, when Loveness Gondwe, MP was pronounced "President" of AFORD recently, there were people in the "room" like me behind my computer, who said "really?" I could be wrong for those in the "elections room" but I did just that...first and foremost I never would have imagined Loveness Gondwe, MP would rise up and take up the mantle of leadership in AFORD, let alone after CC (RIP). She simply never crossed my mind to end up in the top position of AFORD's small world. Not that the rise of Loveness Gondwe is detrimental in itself, what with the sensitivity we have to approach issues of gender equity, but I doubt her capabilities of "rebuilding" the party...I could be wrong.

AFORD, in my view, at this point in time needed a "leader" that can redirect the party, reshape the Party in readiness for a national challenge, in my small world too, I have no inclination to believe Loveness Gondwe, MP has the guts, clout, charm, eloquence, vigour, strength, political prowess to do that to the Party, we probably have to wait and see...her rise, in my view, may as well be the last nail on AFORD's golden casket...again I could be wrong.

AFORD, at some point in its existence, could well have been described as an "oasis and fountain" of good political composition, professionals from all walks of life and from across the Malawian nation grouped together to stand up for the Malawian people, you remember Dr Meki Mtewa, you remember the Mapopa Chipetas, the Mayinga Mkandawires and all? AFORD lost a golden opportunity to do to Malawian politics what it ought to have done in a good, subtle, beautiful way.

AFORD can redirect the party and the sooner it does that the better. AFORD needs to look at Malawi as standing in need of good leadership and that good political leadership will only be able to sprout from organised, stable and serious political groupings which, AFORD, arguably, started with and failed to sustain over the years...let me be quick to point out that not all is lost because that image can determine their road map in order to regain it...the mirrors are still there where this, that 1991/91/93 image is reflecting and lesson can be learnt.

The ball is in your court, AFORD, you have passed it on to Loveness Gondwe, MP...we will wait till she starts kicking it around - in the view of this Malawian citizen, an opportunity to rebuild the party has been lost by passing the ball on to Loveness Gondwe, MP, what with the Norman Nyirenda’s in the field of play?

We will keenly watch your direction.

Isaac Cheke Ziba
Edinburgh – Scotland

David Mkwambisi, Greenwell Matchaya and John Mthupo have made the following comments on this issue: -

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Isaac

Over the years, I have tried to write something on AFORD and national development. In so many cases I have deleted and rejected full articles on AFORD as a party and AFORD and its leadership. But over the same period I have been very sensitive and stupid enough to fail and articulate clearly how my message can avoid writing on AFORD as a regional party rather than a national party. Therefore among my unanswered questions, is to give section b of your gaps, will AFORD come out as a national party or will remain a regional property under Gondwe the MP? What will be consequences of creating linings towards a regional entity rather than opening the windows to the rest of the people? Is this what we do observe within the MCP and UDF as regional oriented political groups? I was here. Did you hear me Isaac?

Greenwell Matchaya comented: -

Dear people,
It is indeed sad that we seem some parties like MCP and UDF and
ex-aford
blossoming like regional parties on the whole and this must be
discouraged.
But for politicians, they will find it inevitable in the short run to
regionalise or racialize or villagize or districtise hahah their
parties
just to be in power. The price to pay is great but it falls on the
people
they rule not the politicians themselves. Had Aford not succumbed to
UDF
trick they would have been great by now and politician would not be
worse
off there. but gosh ndalama mchilombo, money corrupted one aford member
after the other until the party went unconscious.
The only problem is that, unless something dramatic happens, parties
bolstered this way would suffer national injustice in inverse
proportion to
their sizes. Parties representing minorities would find it tough to win
national presidency and this might not be without its problems. This is
why
parties must not be regionalised, villagised, districtised ohh what a
coinage

Greenwell



John Mthupo macked in as follows: -

Isaac,

Your observations are common to all parties and our politicians. Unfortunately politicians are so greedy that they become blind to the realities on the ground. I don’t want to underestimate Loveness but I think, if AFORD gurus really wanted to resurrect the party to its old self, they should have done a thorough research on a “fitting” Presidential candidate, someone with the acumen and stature of a president. This “someone” does not necessarily have to come from AFORD. It can be somebody from another political party or it can be somebody currently not in politics. Somebody who can have a spontaneous appeal on Malawians. This is where I give credit to Brown Mpinganjira and the UDF in its early days of its inception. These guys decided to look for somebody “with a name” to be their first leader. I am told they approached the likes of the Late Justice Chatsika and the Late Dr. Chiphangwi before they settled for Bakili Muluzi. Had the first two accepted, we would have been talking of a different story today. The choice of Bakili was not bad either considering that he was well known and respected at the time because of his previous political record and positions he held in the “old” MCP.

Things started going wrong for the UDF when Bakili became President. Many influential personalities who would have naturally and easily assumed the UDF mantle either died or were forced out of the party. I am talking about the likes of the Late Edward Bwanali, the Late Shaibu Itimu, the Late Chizumila, Aleke Banda, Justine Malewezi, etc. Today the UDF has problems identifying a natural successor because of greed and lack of foresightedness. If the UDF is not careful, especially in the way it will handle the issue of succession, it will crumble just like AFORD. Because each aspirant, if frustrated, can choose to go their own way and this will mean taking away their own chunk of supporters thereby weakening the already frail UDF.

This problem is also felt in the MCP. With the brutal murders of Gadama and Matenje and the political persecutions of prominent and natural successors to Kamuzu the MCP succession plans are not clear up to today. Can you imagine what the political landscape would have been like and how political powerhouse the MCP would have been if we still had the characters of Gadama, Matenje, and Sangala around? Koma because of “ndikhale ndi ine” all these people are not there and things are not the same. Today one cannot easily point at a single personality in MCP who can succeed Tembo. Potential candidates within the party are afraid to come out and show their political prowess. They know the consequences of doing so.

As for the DPP the same scenario applies. People are busy persecuting each other in order to establish themselves as small “gods” within the party. They don’t care what impact their actions may have on the image of the party. All they want is to climb to the top. The party had promising young talents in Kasambala, oratory skills in Mussa, and imposing personalities in Ng’oma and yet the party and its leadership decided to let these go without any “remorse”.

Yet what all political leaders forget is that one of the strengths of their parties and their own personalities after their offices is in grooming or identifying powerful and visionary leaders for their parties. Personalities that will easily assume leadership without fights like those we are witnessing in the UDF. Fights that may, eventually, kill the party. Nyerere died a hero and with dignity and his party, Chamachamapinduzi”, is still very powerful and ruling because Nyerere had the vision and humility to accept that there are others who can do better than himself and decided to quit after carefully grooming a successor. The same applies to South Africa . Mandela is respected today and has the hero status because of his humility in being accommodative. He quit politics after only one term and groomed a successor who is looking after him very well. ANC is the strongest party today and it is obvious that the next six or so presidents of South Africa will always come from ANC if things do not drastically change. All because Mandela professionally and fatherly steered the party to what it is today. If he did not handle it properly, chances are that we were going to have so many splinter groups from ANC and things would not have been the same.


So AFORD is not alone in this game. All political parties have the same disease. “Ndikhale ndi ine” syndrome.

John

I have made some comments to the thoughts of David, Greenwell and Joh as follows: -
David,

I tried to hear you...and i listened too.

Over the years, AFORD has lost its natinal identity - I am not sure
if this came about by default or by design - anybody can have a go at
that.

What i am sure of is that AFORD started as a National entity and most
malawians never gave the party a second thought on what they were up to
- Governing malawi in a democratic culture. My view is that their
"terrible" loss in 1994 was because of something...one of the conspriancy
theories purports that when asked to come up with a shadow cabinet, CC
(RIP) drafted more than three quarters of the would be Cabinet from the
North - some people argue that this was not necessarily because of
regionalistic notions but because CC was looking at potential and capability
- however if this were true, CC should have been the first one to
project that this arrangement may politically backfire and it did - mind you
this is not based on something I know for a fact - but of "conspirancy
theorists."

Following this, achina Che BM, the HKB etc, anangoti "mwamuwona" -
that was now behind the scenes and there and then AFORD was adrift, going
off shore and the people on the control panels did not do much to halt
the change in direction...I do not know.

Since 1994, the leadership of AFORD because dangerously unstable,
politically bedding UDF, MCP, MCP, UDF in very strange and intersting
patterns and styles; in the process "AFORD the giant" continued to shrink,
losing credible people on the journey and the AFORD we see today is one
that needs a lot of clever, painful, shrewed, bold, immense, and huge
political aligments, moves, decsions and machinations...and when i get
to that and hear that Loveness Gondwe, MP, is the leader, i stop to
think of an AFORD that will ever again, be fit for its original purpose,
but then, i have already conceded that "I could be wrong."

Norman Nyirenda's outburts the other time only drifted AFORD further
to its "fate"

Grenwell and John,

You both mack in very well on this issue...the political scenery in
Malawi, looked at from "our" political parties, presents a very
non-promising picture of a progressive democracy. Some of us have always
contended that "democracy needs to mature" at party levels before we can notice
any significant changes at a national level...so our task as Malawians
is to tackle the causes of undemocratic seeds and notions at party
levels and naturally things should, somehow, knit themselves in place at a
national level.

It is the responsibity of each and every political party member, each
and every malawian, to, at each oportunity presented, to stand up for
democratic values in and within their parties. We will, as a nation, only
be able to breed good, democraticlly mature leaders at a
national level if we cross-bred them at political party level...

N'nati n'nensotu ine abale!!!

Isaac Cheke Ziba