Federalism Debate: Federalism calls hinge on governance

Last week, the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) held a two-day stakeholders conference on inclusivity and federalism in Blantyre. The conference aimed to provide a forum for the public to debate the raging federalism issue. It attracted mixed feelings from the public regarding the body’s role to moderate the federalism debate. I sought views of one of the delegates, Garton Kamchedzera, who is associate professor of law at Chancellor College.

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Q: If you balance your expectations and what came out of the conference, what was your immediate reaction?

A: I feel the conference was a waste of time, energy and resources.

Q: You sound too harsh.

A: You see, the idea of a federalism debate was great, but the conference was not properly conceived. The conference, to me, was supposed to dwell more on discussing issues that are moving people to demand federalism. And I raised the question at the conference regarding why were we debating a suggested solution [federalism] without an analysis of the problem itself? The issues that propelled people to demand federalism were not on the floor.

Q: What do you consider to be critical issues that needed urgent attention at the conference?

A: My first impression was: How could you talk of demerits and merits of federalism without tackling the issue that political parties in the country mobilise on regional lines? To me, by just proceeding to debate federalism it meant that we have resigned to fate that we are now entrenching regionalism.

You see, the political nature of the country is regionalistic. People might be tribalistic, but the fiction of regions is a great tool for political mobilisation. It is a fiction that politicians manipulate to their advantage. We should have looked at this issue critically.

Q: What are you reading in the calls for federalism?

A: It is interesting to note that some people who are calling for federalism were there in the previous People’s Party (PP) government. They never stood up to propose federalism. They started talking about it after they lost the election. What these people are saying is: “We are not happy with the way the cake of power and the influence that comes with it is distributed.” Not only that. They are adding: “We cannot wait for another five years to have this cake. We should share the cake of power right now.”

I do not think their calls for federalism have anything to do with the country’s development. It is about power.

Q: Why do you think politicians are behaving this way?

A: I think there are some observable tendencies that are hegemonic and excluding in the country’s politics. This is something that plays to the concept of ‘us’ and ‘other’. The current administration has shown the tendency of playing the ‘other’. If you do not belong to them, then you will be relegated to the servant role. This is something they are doing cleverly. For example, they promised that technocrats will not lose their jobs. But what we are seeing is the opposite. People who are being considered for key positions are not necessarily those from the President’s tribe, rather a particular clique. In the formation of the Cabinet, most of the people who were arrested with the President have been rewarded.

Q: How do you assess the character of our government that, you feel, is propelling federalism calls?

A: Firstly, I need to underline that I do not accept the President’s view that he wants to see the nation debate federalism. In other countries, when you have a topic as emotive as this, government quickly comes with a position that is in the best interest of the people and let people debate. However, our government appears to be saying “hands off, let’s see how this will play out” when we know that secretly they have made their position. We know that Vuwa Kaunda, the President’s advisor on national unity, is all over meeting chiefs. Unfortunately, government thinks it can dupe the nation to believe that the President does not have a stand? These are underhand tricks that people are seeing.

Beyond that, I have noticed that from Bingu wa Mutharika’s second term through Joyce Banda’s two years to Peter Mutharika’s six months in office, there has been a tendency among these three leaders to lead by conscietising people about their tribal and regional affiliations. Issues of tribalism and regionalism are not strange to most Malawians, but the level of interest and debate under the three leaders has been huge.

Take the current President, for instance. He has done things that could make some conclude he is a tribalist. Remember when he was caught on tape badmouthing Chimunthu Banda that he cannot win because he is Tonga. Lately, he was quoted talking about his imprisonment where he discredited judges as having come from the same village when they were technocrats doing their job. That is how his mind operates. People get animated by what their leaders do, say and not do.

Lastly, the effectiveness of these governments is another critical area that needs serious discussion. You see people are not foolish. When they vote, they expect their government to deliver. People are waking up and are looking at issues critically. If you look at Bingu’s first term, he was the same Lhomwe, who had problems in Parliament, but not with the people. Result? He advanced issues of national interest and people gave him a huge mandate in 2009, which he abused.

Simply put, federalism debate is not about delving into the mechanics of its merits and demerits. It is about probing issues of governance that are central in propelling proposals. If people were well governed, we would not have these debates.

Q: If you were to conceive a debate on federalism, how would it look like?

A: Firstly, analyse the state of governance and its traits. Then look at the options that could be part of the way forward. Trust me, if that was done properly, federalism could just be one of it. Unfortunately, some people did their own analysis and came with federalism as a solution and all of us jumped into it without examining the quality of their analysis.