‘Ruling party is not my employer’
She has been making headlines for various reasons ranging from academic freedom to minority and labour rights. She is Dr Jessie Kabwila, Chancellor College lecturer who was recently chosen as the spokesperson for Malawi Congress Party (MCP). In this interview, she speaks to Paida Mpaso about her many faces and her new steps into the political arena.
Q
You have been an academician for the most of your life and now you have been appointed as spokesperson for MCP. Are you turning into a politician?
A
My career path is continuing to be multifaceted. I have always been many identities including academician, activist and researcher. The role that I played in the academic freedom included being the face of a movement and a mouthpiece of people’s views. I have been a spokesperson of people on land issues and organisations in and out of Malawi. So, my career has always slanted towards spokesperson for causes. I am very honoured to be appointed spokesperson of MCP, a party that is committed to visionary leadership and is anchored on issue and evidenced-based politics.
Q
You talk of a multifaceted career, but don’t you think that your association with the different agendas of different movements can be interpreted as some kind of uncertainty as to where you fit in exactly?
A
I fit in all of that, their mandates are interlinked. Actually, the answer to that question hinges on how one defines politics. The issues I was involved in be it in the academic freedom struggle, Cama or with civil society, all concern politics. Politics is something we all do every day in one way or another. The only difference is that some of us are career or podium politicians, when others are not. Before I became spokesperson for MCP, I was speaking for [Chancellor College academic Staff Union] Ccasu, Cama and other groups of people. I spoke about issues such as rights, national budget, devaluation and declaration of assets. Now, I will be talking of the same issues, representing the institution of MCP, a grouping of people that many Malawians believe can rescue Malawi from the crisis we are faced with.
Q
Some people have interpreted this wearing of many faces as a symptom that you are hungry for publicity. What do you say to that?
A
I am wearing many faces because I am concerned about many issues in Malawi. I frequently take the trouble to help as much as I can to make life better for Malawians. My help can wear the face of activism sometimes that of academic, sometimes that of a researcher.
Q
But do you think these Malawians will take you seriously?
A
It is up to people to decide how to take me. I have always done many things. I have worked on land, women’s rights, consumer issues and I think, if you went to the people I help in my various and different positions and asked if I should be taken seriously, they would probably see that question as an insult to their predicament and one of the few educated people who chooses to help, rather than watch injustice happen. There was a girl child who got selected to secondary school, but had no fees. I could have decided to look aside, but I did not;I helped her source funds, she is now at Providence Secondary School. I wore the hat of fundraiser and did something about that. The question is should people take me seriously? I believe I went to school to be of service to those that cannot access the spaces that my education allows me to access. I count my success in terms of how many lives I am able to impact and make better and the more the merrier, for me.
Q
There have been calls from the ruling People’s Party officials and University of Malawi registrar Wokomaatani Malunga for you to resign, but you are saying that you will not be resigning. Don’t you think your new post in MCP could interfere in your work?
A
Firstly, the ruling party is not my employer so they have no business talking about my employment. Their press release asking me to resign reads more like a party that is intimidated by my joining MCP and is in retreat. I suggest they do not parade their inferiority complex in this manner. Secondly, this new post will not interfere with my work. I have always held posts that involved me speaking for a certain group and gone into class that did not interfere with my ability to do my core duties.
Q
You have been saying that you cannot resign because other lecturers who joined politics in the past did not resign. Does the fact that others did not resign make it right for you to mix lecturing and politics?
A
All I am asking is that I should be treated like other employees of University of Malawi. Some members of teaching staff are not just speaking for a party; they have formed political parties and they were not asked to resign. I wonder why I am being asked to resign. Is it because I am speaking for MCP?
Q
Why have you chosen to speak for a MCP, a party that is associated with 31 one years of atrocities it committed during its first rule in the country?
A
MCP, like most parties in Malawi, has a troubled past, but we should remember that MCP past is not all negative. MCP is also heavily associated with food security, fiscal discipline and quality service delivery. One just has to look at the roads, university campuses and buildings constructed under MCP reign to know and value MCP’s past. MCP has impressed me as the rebranded party that does not have recycled politics; it is not based on family links. The MCP’s convention demonstrated democracy of admirable levels; it was very transparent. All this illustrates that MCP, under the leadership of Dr Lazarus Chakwera, is determined to lead Malawi into a national paradigm shift that is founded on systems-based leadership.
