Malawi: Opposition parties in turmoil

I have alluded to a few material facts in the course of the past few days about the opposition parties in Malawi on Nyasanet and Malawi Talk - of particular interest are the UDF and MCP. Malawi Congress Party is known for its ruthless (mis)rule for a good 30+ years from 1964 to somewhere in 1992 (allow me to use 1992 – please). They are also known for having resisted to the bone the fast approaching multi-party system of Government - but the Malawian people were not to retreat and in 1993, a resounding yes vote to multipartyism through a referendum saw the end of the road to the once-mighty party and the 2004 general elections only fixed the last nail on MCP's coffin. It is quite by luck and chance that MCP still exists today - may be we could have done better, right in 1994, to outlaw this party based on the history that it had bagged for itself for all the years it was in power.

UDF is known for its (mis)rule from 1994 to 2004. For lack of a better word, UDF (mis)ruled Malawi by hook or crook salvaging every opportunity they had to loot and plunder the already meagre Malawi's economy. UDF echelons power, UDF's elite, UDF's leadership, arguably, within 10 years of their days in the ruling elite of Malawi gathered for themselves a lot of wealth and riches whose source is far more questionable than understandable. This party is also known for its kid-glove approach to issues of economic recovery, governing by systems, wishy-washy policies on every aspect of our lives and above all, it is also remembered for its leadership's willingness to cling to power after the two five year terms came to their close. The first coinage was for the presidential terms to be limitless - open terms - they called it - this crashed and there was a sister-coinage - third term they called it - this too crashed, falling headlong in the backdrop of violence that the UDF unleashed against its own people for purely selfish gains. The UDF is known for something else - the lack of diverse talent from which they can select their leadership glaringly showing its head in recent times when an attempt has been made, not clearly out of the way yet, to let Muluzi have another go at the Presidency. If you stop and pause, you will discover the UDF's willingness to always want, or at least, at every opportune time they have, to bring our Constitution to unnecessary jitters, in power or out of it.

The two parties, UDF and MCP, have now combined forces to try and undermine the current government for reasons best known to themselves. They argue, in the recent political impasse, that DPP has "poached" their MPs. What this argument fails to acknowledge is the free will of those Mps exercised in their shift of focus and their willingness to participate in the developmental processes that are genuinely taking place in and within our country, much to the dislike of their partys' leadership, Joh Zenus Ungapake Tembo and Bakili Muluzi, to be precise…it would bne interesting to dig deep into what Muluzi kept saying about John Zenus Ungapake Tembo during his 10 years as President. Some good analysts may want to have a good go at their newly-found unity of purpose or is it unity of convenience?

Bingu's forward looking leadership, despite all the daily politics that seem to always be intent at bogging him down, poses a stiff challenge to the history of both the UDF and MCP and it seems to unleash the old self, inherent in these two parties to not, almost always, stand up for ideals that define progressive movement of the Malawian people. They are used to underhand tactics. Take, for example, Bakili Muluz’s unwritten policy on developmental projects – if there is no UDF MP in some constituency, forget about development. Bingu has beaten this record by far – Go to the very constituency of John Zenus Ungapake Tembo, you will discover that Bingu and Muluzi are different when it comes to a national agenda on development.

While one would want to appreciate the freedoms that come with a democratic dispensation, neither the MCP nor the UDF can stand on a moral higher ground than the current government to have stood for, let alone standing for, greater freedoms for the Malawian people. The very things that MCP and UDF are doing today, would have earned Malawian citizens the wrath of these parties during their hay days - today that happens without much ado...JZU has the guts and audacity of saying "he stands for justice, they can kill me but they can not kill justice" - how times change, really. The UDF, in the present circumstances, has the space and freedom to exude all sorts of strange political stand-points without the fear that some form of Young Democrats will be on their backs, beating, injuring and maiming. Who do we, as a nation, owe this to? In the view of this writer, we owe it to a leadership that wants to put Malawi first, Malawi that is progressively moving towards a positive direction where Malawi defines its own destiny.

We do not have to go very far to notice that there has been a phenomenal change of events - look to the University of Malawi - the students see the need to support government, not because, as many quarters want to portray it, Government is funding the support, no, but because funding to the institution of higher learning has increased and stabilised in its supply making learning easier to undertake - a big contrast to the UDF's way of funding and approaching University education - that the same, I mean university education is a luxury, was the thinking of the United Democratic Front.

Our MPs, the third arm of Government, need to stand up and be counted. They need to start thinking "development and progression" of the Malawian people - I mean until when are we going to leave and let our people survive on less than a dollar a day? Is it not time, that if there are Malawians amidst us, who can direct this ship and dock it safely where we all want to go and be, those Malawians need to be supported by all of us - yes including by the opposition parties, - opposition does not mean oppose for the sake of it - it is about offering alternatives, alternatives that can, in stature and well- meaning ness, outweigh and outplay, the policies that the government that may be, at any particular time, implements.

It is time we shelved the daily politics and start competing with each other on good policies - let us leave the daily politics for campaigning periods and not when it is time to govern.

Isaac Cheke Ziba
Livingston
Scotland.