MALAWI ON THE MOVE

We have seen Malawi move forward from colonialism to a one party dictatorship state to a democratic transition and then to an economic zygote that is happening right now with the current regime. MCP and UDF cannot just accept this and bury the hatchet with the current regime. The type of leadership Malawi has now is very rare in Africa especially in this age's political scene as simply put by Canadian Lewis, in the article written on Tuesday May 05/09 in the Daily Times entitled "Bingu praised at US summit". He may not be an excellent politician per say in comparison to former president and UDF chairman Bakili Muluzi or MCP opposition leader John Tembo. But he certainly is a dream come true for Malawi's developmental plans. I can assure the people of Malawi that any manifesto the other parties are presenting is of no comparison to Mutharika's because what they are saying is typically a niche of what Mutharika is already offering for the lovely people of Malawi in his manifesto. His manifesto is a train carrying all these other manifestos as passengers.

Malawians do not really need and exceptional politician at this point but rather there is need for a superb leader who can take people's welfare and development of the country into a realistic future. Yes Mutharika is already above average as a politician and that is enough and the rest is indeed told by his work done and that which is still in the pipeline.
The other politicians are indeed just "politicians" playing "politics" with no extraordinary and sufficient manifesto and with no paramount and concrete ideas. Most of the supporters of these opposition parties are just moved by the political speeches of the leaders of their parties and not by the economic and development side of things. This is clearly evident because if it were about the economics side of things, well Mutharika has done it, is going to do it and has a good team willing to work and develop the country for the next 5 years and the evidence is plainly visible, right there in uppercase and bold.

But the opposition is getting the people of Malawi to view all the 5 year developments and Mutharika's vision with a blind eye. They are practicing the old politics during the one party rule where Malawians were completely like lambs, blind folded and made gullible into perceiving that government was infallible hence needn't any correction, in disguise and yes, consequences indeed did follow to any opponents. This is true as the leaders of the two opposition parties are the same who held influential positions in the old one party regime. Their political approach has only changed on two fronts according to what I see, which are:

They are more politically tolerant to other parties as undeniably, it is of course, an era of democracy and secondly, No use of force, torture or death on political adversaries (which I am quiet uncertain as of yet because there has been some few disturbing developments on the ground).
But apart from these, everything else has remained the same we can clearly see what that is too, without need to explain here.
With the so called coalition right now, which to me is a failure as coalitions are problems in Africa ably because there is less to no focus on the needs of the country and its people but fixing political differences and sharing power and positions just to satisfy individuals and political pacts. A coalition between UDF and MCP is of no substance because these two parties have no common grounds in their manifesto and let alone interests and if we could go back in time to when UDF came into power, the language and stones these two parties threw at each other was enormously disdainful.
Its best to expose some of the media coverage of such a political impasse during that era for people to be alerted that history decides the future. And if they get back in power, there will definitely be a lot of bickering and problems to misunderstandings hence the shift in focus from country to appeasing individual interests and materialism. UDF has a good number of historically greedy politicians. And MCP on the other hand, will definitely not entertain nor will it condone that because they would need to serve their own purpose and interests too. It is complicated in Africa and its better to make political parties sovereign and let democracy take its course. In fact, if the coalition wins, how will they be in the next elections since what seems to be the main and common goal between the two parties to get into a coalition was achieved; which basically was to unseat Dr Bingu Wa Mutharika according to the main architect, Dr Bakili Muluzi, whom this was generally his personal vendetta against Mutharika and not for the country.
We have a saying in Malawi that there is a lot of ideas and smarts as to how to climb up a tree but not when getting down. Its the same with these political parties, especially big parties like UDF and MCP forming a coalition.

Malawians lets not complicate things more than they already are. Malawians, we listen too much.We were forced to listen, dragged to caucuses just to listen, told not to travel or do what we wanted to do just observe some day by listening to the radio by our the very own old regime and we still are in that state until now because it looks like the syndrome is being passed from generation to generation. We get diverted from truth, future dreams, history, knowledge,what is correct and what matters and we listen and support that which is the loudest negative. Let those who play politics do that but do not let them blind fold us by their sharp utterance; lets not let our reasoning and intellectual capacity be subdued by total deception when we have already seen and experienced what some of these politicians are capable of achieving or not. Lets give way to those who are willing to develop the country, those not willing to play cheap politics but move the country forward without malice, greed or personal vendetta, but only for the love of their beloved motherland, Malawi, the Warm heart of Africa.

Kamlepo's comments a shame to young and aspiring politicians

Dear Readers,

I would like to emphasize that the fact that Kamlepo was arrested was of concern to me too like everybody else but however, what he said was a shame. I am not here to comment on his arrest or other statements that he said that were too obvious to mean what he said because only the nature of our law can justify that and determine the next course of action. I am here to condemn his remarks especially when he said, "where was Ngwazi (Bingu) when we were fighting for democracy". Those remarks are pathetic and appalling and without clear thought. Mr Kamlepo, this is why we want new blood in our politics.
These remarks are going far away beyond his physical words and are extending to every young and aspiring polician. It is a message to every generating political seed barring us from recognition simply because we never
Now, why do I say these words carry a lot of weight not only on Bingu but everyone else?
Mr Kamlepo simply endorses someone who was there in 1993-1994 period and got involved with what was on the ground. I tell you what, this is the same reason Bakili is insisting on validating his candidacy feeling not(thinking) he will lose everything if he does not. These politicians do not see or recognize anyone new as a likable material into the political scene against the old guns. It seems they base on how far they have come. No wonder they are in politics until today and cannot give it up but expose same old colors and ideas for a new and changed environment like Malawi is today. Their style of politics is the same as if they are still fighting against colonialism and/or autocracy, just exactly as I mentioned in my previous article. Of course, I understand politics is a career but it doesn't sound like it at all when any new blood cannot be recognized and such nonsense statements are uttered publicly. When I say new blood, I am not referring to Bingu here. In actual fact, he was there for the political change although whether in Malawi at the time or not because that doesn't matter. But anyway, the subject is not about Bingu.

Allow me if I may take this opportunity to ask Mr Kamlepo Kalua: How about the John Chilembwe era, were you there? If you were not, then do not say anything as well because we cannot endorse you either based on these grounds and how far the political road has come while also considering the number of lives we have lost in the course to gaining our political, economical, social and mental freedom that we proudly are privileged to today.
These statements in turn reveal how much these people will never give in; how much they will pursue the throne until they run out of every single thread of breath of their lives that would have at least helped to shower them with other best things outside political retirement but they chose to go on and on to satisfy some coveted but yet unsound idealism.

In conclusion, let me say my fellow Malawians, it is time to change the course of politics we have today, life style how things are done too otherwise most of our politicians today will teach and infest in us the past that most of us already know about other than the future that we and our children are very much anticipating with excitement. Do not get me wrong, I am not trying to scrap everything of the past and condemn every senior politician in politics today.

Are the reasons for Muluzi's comeback legit?

To my beloved Malawians,

I have asked myself questions like how come John Tembo still has supporters despite the treatment Malawians received during one party regime. How about Bakili Muluzi?
We say Tembo did horrible things during MCP regime. But he still has support in Malawi from grassroots diehard fans of which, in a country of 12 Million, he takes a very good share of fans within the overall population that does shake the country in times of elections which makes MCP the main opposition party.

Could Malawians have forgotten about the realities of the harsh treatment under MCP regime? I do not think so. Do we think that Tembo can lead the country with such a history behind him? To be honest, that, I am not sure. But I would agree that he has something to offer. He still has one or two things left in his closet for the people of Malawi. But should we make the gamble to vote for him when we all know the history for the past 30 years of his administration? I don’t think Malawians are ready for that gamble. But yes, he has something to offer. I get frightened by his statements of revenge and retribution. It takes me back to that autocratic era.
In African politics, especially Malawi, which is of my interest, we have the tendency of viewing any arrests and prosecution as a political agenda when we can clearly see that there was a law broken. This will take a very long time to go and I think its still the same old generation of politicians who are dragging us back into thinking like that every time because of their clever choice of words to move crowds for their own interests in their speeches while carrying and hiding their guilt.
We tend to ignore the fact that the person indeed was in the wrong. The fact that we are for that person comes first than law and everything that, that politician eloquently utters at a rally, politicizing that arrest, moves us and settles within our midst and minds. The question I end up asking myself is does it mean I can get away with it like that too? I mean politicians exploit the legislation for their own personal interests. To me, a politician that always deems an arrest or a prosecution as political of an agenda every time when there is a clarity in the offense committed, is like telling a lay citizen like me to do the same. People will protest the arrests on the streets and the like to protect the politician of their choice but we forget that it wont be the same with us when we commit an offense maybe, perhaps, even an offense of the same kind. The same politician we chanted for will put us in jail clearly as stipulated by law. Most African politicians are very eloquent for their own good and not for the people of the country. Malawi is no different.

Bakili Muluzi is a legislation exploiter for his own personal gains. Yes his eloquence draws crowds from people who listen to what he says than what he does and some people cannot tell the difference because they are absorbed into his art of utterance, coniving and manipulation. His persistence to stand again and exploiting the constitution by even hiring a foreign team of lawyers raises questions and eye brows as to what’s his agenda really because,really, these are not the 'political' freedom fighting days. Those days are over and it might or would have made sense then, but not now. Today it is either no or yes and one has to listen and sit back and without persistence because we have the freedom and opportunities to do more in our lives and communities than ever before away and outside politics. Besides Muluzi was president for ten years. We can actually see that the agenda is personal than ever before. His ego is escalating every time he reaches a barrier and he keeps on trying to squeeze through until he gets what he wants. He even uses words like no one can stop him from standing again which is a pity really because he doesn’t respect anyone in the country at all, not even us citizens; the same citizens he is dying to serve. He is a controlling freak and wants to be the god father of Malawi perhaps. This sort of character he is exhibiting now clearly answers all questions as to why Dr Bingu Wa Mutharika didn’t want to be under him. We can actually see now since the Pandora’s Box is open wide. I mean the law is stopping him. If there is ambiguity in the law, then he must be aware that the decision can fall either side and he has to accept it because that’s what ambiguity means in its real terms. Otherwise it will be a never ending conflict and it won’t be good for him and Malawi as a whole because he doesn’t understand the meaning of ambiguity if that’s what he sees in the constitution. And how did these ideas come about anyway and when did they come about for him to start perusing through the legislation looking for loop holes? There is a chance that he was aware of this ever since he became president and was just looking at the opportune time to exploit it. Isn’t this scary people? Especially when we know he tried the open third term bill that ended up being rejected by Malawians; in a referendum and most importantly, during his own regime? Do we call someone like this a states man or someone worthy being a father to a nation? Instead of fixing this he is exploiting it? It’s like hacking in computing. And for Christ’s sake the decision has not favored him at all and he still cannot take it? He wants the ambiguity to favor him and that is about it. The freedom fighting era is gone and this type of politics is of the sixties to early nineties.

In conclusion let me say its time to judge by performance, the supporting team someone has and their track record and abilities and not moved by empty words only because words are merely nothing but a tool to manipulate individuals by politicians especially of this nature. They want us to listen to them because they know we love to listen because that’s how they made us during the autocratic system. They even made us listen to the radio without a choice. This is what some people do not know. We got trained to listen and mind you it’s the same people who are here now who turned us that way back then. I hope this article will trigger something in people’s minds as I do not think I have said anything that is very new here. Wait for my next article about some published articles during the MCP and UDF regime carrying quotes in speeches by Muluzi and others.

I am not affiliated to any political party and some of you may claim so because I haven’t said anything about DPP here or Aford. The reason is simple; there is more authentic and substantial information for the past 10 years and 30 years of rule as opposed to 5 years because those days are now viewed as history. And the subject of our story today is about history as we know that Muluzi and Tembo for example are in our history books but they still want to be in the present story in person; other than "being present but in history".