The Chilling Perfect Storm

By Pacharo Felix Munthali
The storm was frightening, perhaps the tempest that may not happen again. The storm may have been brewed by a rare combination of never before imagined factors, but it was the felt storm in an after cold war democracy in Malawi.
The political storm created countless stories high, and winds of stories about Malawi swaying in the foreign media. The political storm whipped the mental functioning of the people to the inconceivable levels, yet very few people saw the storm as a perfect one. Yet it was a perfect storm.
If it were an earthquake, the day that an idea popped up in Bakili Muluzi’s mind that politics of imposition is important will remain an epicentre of this perfect timeline of the perfect storm. Former president calls himself a political engineer. If the very act of influencing the whole party, however the opposing views are, then he has the point. But such an attempt contradicts a mere literal retrieving of the meaning of “United Democratic Front.” The word may as well mean a grouping having one voice that is the representative of all in it.
However, the past, disputes all this. UDF is a party that is a party of Bakili Muluzi to Bakili Muluzi and for Bakili Muluzi’s views. Ever since Bingu dumped this party, former president has used it as a tool to express his views – thus the party has been used to frustrate what Bakili Muluzi sees as Bingu yet are the Malawians that got the raw deal in the end.
The dumping coupled by John Tembo’s frustration that the victory was snatched from his nose, as per revelations by other bigwigs in the UDF, made the life for president Bingu Wa Mutharika unbearable. On top of that, a number of MPs thought it right to practice ratting – crossing the floor from UDF, MCP or other small parties to the DPP.
In the end Parliament became the field for tit-for-tat politics.
Despite all the political mangling that the nation has witnessed and perhaps continues to witness, this is good news. The nation is still in the transit, especially democratically. The country is gaining mileage little by little.
It is through this storm that the Constitution of Malawi has been tested, and continues to be tested if issue of Bakili Muluzi’s eligibility is anything to go by. During the fracas, it has been revealed that our constitution might indeed be perfect, but it does contain what other experts have called “linguistic defects.” They are defects like these that politicians with all political trickeries like the former president want to capitalize upon. This explains why the donor community is pressing Malawi Electoral commission to declare Muluzi’s eligibility quickly.
Perhaps the biggest highlight of this political storm was president Bingu Wa Mutharika’s defection from the UDF to later form his DPP. It was a never imagined before. This surely should serve as a lesson in future conducts of the parties. They will ask why such a scenario should never happen again. It is this seen that is a source of many predicament turbulence that spurred the political confusion that marred the local political scene.
It is during such a storm that the independent MPs have as well learnt their perfect lessons. Bitter though. Most independent MPs were either poached or themselves joined the ruling party. In joining the party they claimed that they did so with the consent from their people. Unfortunately when the time of primaries came some of those independent MPs have miserably failed to win at the DPP primaries.
Some of them have gone back to their independence stance. This is a lesson. If one stands as an independent MP, it is better to stand on, as an independent. But due to that spirit of making more money by associating with the government, like leafs falling from trees in the dry season, these independent MPs are feeling the heat.
Out of this storm it is the right time that the electorates will surely separate their true representatives, and gold diggers that are in the game just to appease their political party leaders. It seems in the parliament some MPs even forgot why there were there. Now such MPs are returning to the people, the people this is the right time to make right decisions.
The wrangles that are going on in primaries can be a bad thing altogether. But it is a step towards the right direction. In the last two elections, the primaries did not take place at the scale the primaries are taking place this year. Of course the irregularities are just many in most parties, DPP, MCP and UDF.
But that is not a thing to worry about excessively. Out of these problems the parties when it comes to the primaries in 2014, will have to deal with such weaknesses. The parties after the elections like DPP especially with Davis Katsonga and Nicholas Dausi case will have to sit down and agree on who votes. The mere fact that each brought his list means the structures were not in place well.
The parties might as well say who in future should oversee these elections. Is the idea of having a minister overseeing a fellow minister contesting with someone who is not a minister justifiable?
The storm was beautiful. When the MCP president was forcing his MPs to deny the budget the MPs wrote him a petition. The MPs argued amongst other reason the MCP president had dictatorial tendency. It is perhaps not surprising to see the MCP president arguing that now he is a changed man. People might ask what kind of change, but to him he says he is now more democratic, no more dictatorship.
He might say that because of next year’s election while his actions are not like that, yes it’s possible. But it seems the old man is striving to walk the change. His party is as well doing primaries, impositions are there but not as in the past two elections. Change little by little is creeping in. The tenets of democracy are coming, the nation might look at the past and the present defects with despair, but these are defects of hope.
Correcting the past mistakes is the only way the country’s democracy can flourish. Repeating the same mistakes is not helpful. Fortunately, very few are the ones that seem to resist change; the majority will be there sooner than later.
Now if the storm that threatened the nation is not to take place again, at least the presidential candidates must be elected legitimately. The act of imposition is dangerous. The Bingu Chair saga is an example. Further to this the Malawi Electoral Commission has huge work at its disposal, to execute its operations professionally.
It is next year’s elections that will mark the end of this chilling perfect storm, and bring in a mild breeze.