APM living in denial
Hon. Folks, it must have been a show of bravado for APM to declare that the Public Affairs Committee (PAC), a grouping of major religious communities which plays a watchdog role in governance and human rights spheres, is a spent force which no longer represents Malawians.
Or could it be sign of stress? His diatribe came on the heels of PAC’s April 6 statement which declared that the ruling DPP “has failed to perform and that APM “has demonstrated indecisiveness on critical matters”.
In 2012, PAC had a similar showdown with the late Bingu wa Mutharika who, after winning the 2009 general elections, ruled with the arrogance of a tin-pot dictator.
Bingu was emboldened by the record 66 percent of the votes he garnered in the presidential race while his party, DPP, scooped 114 of the 193 parliamentary seats.
Yet PAC confronted Bingu between February and March 2012 with an ultimatum to change or step aside in 60 to 90 days failing which, they warned, he had to brace for massive nationwide demonstrations.
In public Bingu, fondly hailed by cronies as chitsulo cha njanji (a rail bar), openly told PAC off and challenged he was so popular he could win again if he chose to contest for a third term.
Sadly, we never had the opportunity to see the logical conclusion of the showdown as Bingu died of cardiac arrest on April 5, 2012, hardly a month into the PAC’s ultimatum.
Unlike Bingu, APM rose on a minority 36.4 percent of the votes, thanks to the unpopular first-past-the-post system and his party, DPP, only secured 50 of the contested 192 parliamentary seats.
The London-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) forecasts APM victory in the 2019 polls based more on the perception that the opposition is too weak to dislodge a president who has the advantage of incumbency than there being tangible achievements.
A survey by the Department of Political and Administrative Studies at Chancellor College, the results of which were released in March, revealed that the President is the least trusted leader when compared with MPs, councillors, NGO leaders as well as traditional and religious leaders.
In fact, contrary to what APM said about the popularity of PAC’s leadership, the survey showed that Malawians trust their religious leaders most!
The problem is that APM has misdiagnosed what Malawians expect of their President. He believes people are satisfied with his achievements in infrastructural development. The simple question he deliberately ignores is: who among his predecessors failed to deliver on the construction of roads, bridges and school blocks?
I bet any Malawian assuming the high office of State President can deliver on infrastructural development if only because it is 80 percent donor-funded. True, such development is necessary but if it were also sufficient, Kamuzu Banda who was Life President would never have been ditched.
The task before APM is to lead us to a better Malawi than the one he inherited from Joyce Banda, Bingu and Bakili Muluzi. Yet the truth is that more than half way into his first term, our lives are no better off by gross domestic product (GDP) or Human Development Index (HDI) measures. We are taxed heavily so the President and his cronies can maintain a Hollywood lifestyle.
Under Muluzi, corruption was estimated to erode 30 percent of government revenue. Now it has evolved into Cashgate and yet there is nothing to show for government’s effort to take the anti-graft fight to another level. Either those in government have no clue or they’re beneficiaries of the loot.
Malawians want their country back. They want leaders who are answerable to the electorate, ensuring greater transparency and accountability. They want jobs and business deals in the public sector to be allocated on merit, not as payment for political loyalty or a favour to homeboys.
To ignore good governance, grossly fail to reduce poverty and claim to be popular based on staged road shows in Blantyre and Lilongwe that greatly inconvenience residents at peak hours is living in denial. Kamuzu was commanding bigger crowds yet he lost in the 1993 referendum and 1994 presidential race. Hetherwick Ntaba and Nicholus Dausi can attest to that!
