Bravely cutting off your nose to spite your face

Communication to the public that Patricia Kaliati was no longer Minister of Civic Education, Culture and Community Services could not have come at a worse time for the minister.

The morning of April 6, 2012, Kaliati entered the history books as one of six Cabinet ministers who went on public television and lied to the world that President Bingu wa Mutharika was alive and well. The whole time while arrangements were taking place to fly his body out of the country under the guise of seeking medical treatment.

Of those six ministers who put up brave faces as Bingu’s body was lying in the morgue, only Kaliati has had the misfortune of being kicked out of the inner circle.

April is the month of doom in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration and to be specific the Cabinet.

The Mutharika brothers have a special thing for April and September, the months they reshuffle the Cabinet. A Cabinet member who does not anticipate a reshuffle in these months must have the confidence of the Midnight Six team and by extension that of the famous  Lumbadzi cellmates that they will never be evicted from Peter Mutharika’s adminstration.

Losing her job on the morning after the fifth anniversary of the night she courageously faced the media and lied through her teeth that Bingu was very much alive must be painful.

Being the first one to be chucked out of the untouchable Midnight Six crew must be humiliating.

But what must be even more hurtful to Kaliati is the fact that her ouster is being linked to her alleged loyalty to the Vice-President Saulos Chilima.  That the President, and by extension, DPP sees something wrong with that tells you the kind of primitive politics played in Malawi.

What Mutharika has done, in the case of Kaliati at least, is cutting his nose to spite his face.

Mutharika needs the Midnight Six crew. They give him that false sense of security that there are people in the DPP who will stick with him through thick and thin; individuals who are loyal to the bone, however much that loyalty really lies with his late brother.

Mutharika needs the Midnight Six to survive the vultures on the outskirts of the inner circle, waiting to pounce and take over the presidency at the slightest chance.

However, it is the false sense of security that he gets from his fellow Lumbadzi inmates that could be his undoing come 2019.

APM lacks the courage to shake the Midnight Six off his coattails and they continue to drag him with poor performance and the executive arrogance that comes with knowing you are untouchable.

It is in APM’s Cabinet selections since 2014 where cronyism is practiced with abandon: Three ministers from Chiradzulu and before George Chaponda and Kaliati’s removals, three from Mulanje.

It might be that APM is very loyal to those he has been with in good and bad times. But this is far from it.  Some might mistake this cronyism for loyalty but it is far from it.

The rest of the remaining members of the Midnight Six cannot be the best that he could identify amongst his cronies.

But this is a good start. After Chaponda and Kaliati, the President should consider letting Goodall Gondwe enjoy his deserved retirement. How about not saddling Jean Kalirani with a portfolio she has no experience in?

Would the Cabinet really miss the services of Kondwani Nankhumwa and Nicholas Dausi?

The removal of Kaliati is a great start for APM. He has potential after all, to finally remove the yoke that is his fellow treasonous friends.