Compiled by James Sikwesi
The acrimonious infighting in the Tonse Alliance government has revealed deepened mistrust that exists between MCP and UTM parties that has seen senior leaders becoming conspiracy theorists.
Many Malawians across the political spectrum have agreed that something has gone terribly wrong over the past year with this alliance. It is either MCP is wrong or UTM is right or vise versa because the assumption is that agreements between these two parties have broken down instead of respecting “testament they signed and uphold it to the fullest.”
With deepening economic crisis, inflation, rise of pump fuel, spiking of corruption at presidency and in all government agencies, the rise of nepotism, failure to fulfill campaign promises, unfriendly business opportunities among others, it could have been better for MCP and UTM to rally their energies behind the promises they made and wait for their “appropriate time to preach about 2025 polls.”
Several governance defenders have said since the approval rating of President Dr Chakwera and his Vice Dr Chilima, have dipped to a new low, it was wise for these two leaders to ‘reconcile’ and reconstruct their vision and win back the colossal damage the alliance has so far suffered for poor governance and bickering.
The “perception poll” by Afromobarometer is clear indication that the captains of the ship have gone to bed while the ship is passing rough waters.
“President Chakwera is the 5th President since Malawi attained democracy some 25 years ago. But there is nothing like this that within one year of his presidency, we can have a president who has lost sympathy vote among independents or swing voters like this. The agenda of helping Malawians has suffered a string of defeats because the two leaders are busy thinking of 2025 election. With inflation concerns crowding out support for the government, it will be toll order for mainly President Chakwera to convince Malawians to vote for him again in 2025,” said Lutafo Kilembe, a Malawian political analyst based in Zambia.
Kilembe says there is something absurd with this Administration that it can not mirror the “legion of negative voices that are roaring in the corridors,” begging for change of leadership style so that the voters can at least manage to buy basic needs.
Concurring with Kilembe, a USA based economic expert, John Mbewe says the key question for this Administration must be is it in our jurisdiction to start fighting now than negotiating with manufacturing companies on how they can reduce prices of basic needs for poor Malawians!
“Malawi is slowly becoming a political ‘war zone’ with MCP and UTM fighting for supremacy at the expense of poor Malawians who are looking forward to get their “dues” after been promised a “list of items” during campaign period. But I want to make it clear here that the biggest casualty between the two, Chakwera and Chilima is President Chakwera because he is the one leading sinking ship now. If nothing changes on corruption, nepotism, greedy, unnecessary trips local and abroad, inflation continues to bite, continued power blackouts, nothing on job creation and loans for the youths among others, he must as well start packing his goods for Malembo his village now,” said Mbewe.
Mbewe added the pastoral letters from Episcopal Conference of Malawi, Nkhoma CCAP Synod Public Affairs Committee can not be thrown in dustbin because their letters are letters of voice for the marginalized and the voiceless and if indeed Chakwera is filled with Holy Spirit, he must start reflecting where he has gone wrong and seek counsel soonest. But since he is surrounded by “family members” they won’t tell him the true story on the ground.
A local political analyst, Ceaser Kondowe says in politics it is about keeping your base and find ways of convincing swing voters to stick around your philosophy.
“The moment traditionalists start departing from you, that is a trigger point for your fall because that pushes swing voters too further from you and opt for other parties and in this case DPP will have a good chance of welcoming all voters who deserted the party because of its past battered image.
“President Chakwera ratings among the youths who are in majority according to MEC records, have dumped him and now are looking for someone who will be alternative to your their aspirations,” said Kondowe.
Kondowe added that utterances of two influential chiefs from North, Mbwelwa and Kyungu are true representation of many voices in the streets across northern region and that is an cause for worry for Chakwera. “Chiefs normally speak to please the president” and that is from history but now things have changed.
Kondowe further says “If MCP and Chakwera take the crowd that gathered at Mgona ground where Leader of the Opposition Kondwani Nankhumwa organized with his faction, then someone in MCP is mad. Of late MCP has controlled the central region jealously, but Nankhumwa seems to have broken the jinks and ‘slept on their bed’ while they are busy fighting UTM instead of fixing the broken economy. Having that crowd amidst deep divisions in DPP is not a joke and MCP can not ignore that red warning. In fact they must not underestimate the political magic of Nankhumwa. He is already loved by many evangelicals, Catholics, Protestants, youths, swing voters, northern region voters, for they call him “Mr Unity” for is believed to work with any person regardless of region or language,” said Kondowe in a telephone interview from Mzuzu.
The Afrobarometer report that was released recently has shown that Malawians have lost trust in President Chakwera and his Tonse Alliance
Truth must be told here forthwith, “Tonse Alliance was dead on arrival.” From the look of things the alliance didn’t have a blueprint to fall back on in case things went haywire. That coupled with lack of experience in any sort of management worsened the scenario. Because of inadequacy, Chakwera focused so much on vendetta, hence having priorities totally wrong. He went into government with an attitude of cleansing; what he wanted to cleanse he too didn’t know because instead of removing his so called rubble he created more stench infested rubble made of family friends, church fellows, families, kinsmen, regional followers etc etc. He surprisingly sacked experienced personnel in government departments and inserted mediocrity ladden wannabes. This can be proven by the degree of delivery in all services so far since he took over.
As far as the status quo is ongoing and maintained, expect more hardships and suffering. The man at the top has completely messed it up and he literally has no clue. The lectures he embarked on that afternoon at Kamuzu Barracks on his inauguration will continue because he feels that is how leadership should be practiced. Unfortunately he is surrounded by ‘Madeya’ who can not advise or suggest to him how to do things differently. The unfortunate thing is that the mess being done will have a damaging effect on local villagers in the country who are being led blindly. The price being paid by the electorate will live with us for many years to come. As ponted out in the write-up, it will require miracles for Tonse Alliance parties to convince voters during campaigns from early 2024 onwards. The writing is on the walls warning them that people have lost hope and trust in them hence the massive turn-up at opposition rallies in their own backyard. In developed countries when things reach that point the person responsible simply steps down. But knowing where we are, the dude is yet to amass unprecedented worthy to be stuffed in his bank accounts, hence the arrogance.
In all what is happening in the country today, the best benchmark to determine the nature of performance can be gotten from just across our neighbours Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia. These are in our time zone, same climate, they too are blacks, more less similar natural resources, same level of education if not even better etc etc, but with them it is a different story. The leaders are able to progressively run productive governments successfully. With us our leaders are busy lining their pockets with embezzled money from our taxes and at times donations ie Covid-19 funds.
Finally, these political parties are busy bickering and shadow-boxing in readiness for the next election because they want to still maintain their offices for they are aware that if the offices are lost they will end up in prison considering the amount of money they have stolen. But for how long are they to go on like that before the stakeholders decide to kick them out in 2025? Surely their presence leaves quite a lot to be desired. They have like over-stayed their mandate. Come rain or sunshine, Tonse will unceremoniously be ushered out disgracefully and never in life should the country be led by fraudsters, chicanery trial and error goons. There are capable Malawians out there who could have turned things around in the wasted two years under Tonse Alliance.