Judging leaders by history

Why does a candidate’s background matter when choosing leaders?  EPHRAIM NYONDO writes.

History’s greatest triumph is in its hour of crisis.  The past is rich with great wisdom to save the future from previous tragedies. Yet the only lesson posterity learns from history, it appears, is that not many learn from it.

But when the historical tragedies resurrect, striking the present with ruthlessness, nations go on their knees, pleading for answers from history.

Gazing at history, one wonders: How could Bingu wa Mutharika’s seven-year-old presidency be defined by K61 billion plunder, autocratic arrogance, introduction of repressive laws?

The 1997 Council of Ministers Report, which ended Mutharika’s reign as Comesa secretary general, perhaps gave clues to another side of the deceased leader—a history of abusing public funds for private interests, breach of laws, insubordination, poor implementation of policies, lack of collective actions and with “no vision to take Comesa in the next century”.

Debatable as it has been, the report painted a disheartening image of the man who would rule the country between 2004 and 2012, hinting at what he was capable of doing when given power.

Yet even against that background—with The Nation publishing the whole report just a day before 2004 presidential polls to enlighten the voter to his leadership style—a majority of Malawians, led by his predecessor Bakili Muluzi, voted Mutharika to presidency.

Do Malawians consider history critical when choosing leaders?

It appears Mutharika was just one of a lengthening list of beneficiaries of Malawians’ failure to harness the past to foretell the future, and Muluzi seems to be justified when he said sitimachedwa kuiwala. Surely, we are quick to forget important events!

Even Muluzi, who is  on trial for allegedly diverting K1.7 billion into his account, rose to the presidency in 1994 promising a corruption-free  democratic nation.

But there was nothing of that sort during his tenure. Apart from serving as the secretary general of Malawi Congress Party (MCP)—a decision-making position in a party that inflicted the worst dictatorship and terror on the nation—he was implicated in a widely publicised incident involving theft of six pounds while working in government.  The case which happened in 1968came to haunt him between 1991 and 1993, when he was vying for the topmost job in the land.

Despite this disturbing history which left the media awash with questions about his integrity, Muluzi was entrusted with the throne and national coffers.

Further mirroring Malawian’s contempt for their leaders’ legacy is the story of how Hastings Kamuzu Banda rose to the presidency.

Writing in his biography in 1992, MCP pioneer-turned-nemesis Kanyama Chiumie said that by 1957, Nyasaland Africa Congress (NAC)—the latter day MCP—was ripe to demand independency.

“It had national following, the structures and the leaders of various ages,” Kanyama writes.

Yet, NAC founders invited Kamuzu Banda—a medical doctor with no political connections to the grass-roots population—to come and lead the party to independence. When he arrived in 1958, Kamuzu did not take time to reveal his dictatorship.  For instance, Willie Chokani, the country’s first black Minister of Labour who fled the country after the 1964 Cabinet Crisis, recalls how Kamuzu could say that nobody among NAC members, whom he called boys, could tell him what to do.

Still, Malawians, in 1961, ignored the manifestations of his iron fist and voted him to office with a landslide victory.

This, once more, invites the question: Do Malawians consider leadership history as a critical factor in choosing their leaders?

The overriding wisdom of the question reflects the critical link between leadership and a country’s development.

As Joseph Chunga, president of Political Science Association of Malawi (PSAM) told Weekend Nation’s Talking Elections last month, leadership has been an important factor in the equation of Malawi’s failure to develop since independence.

“Malawi lacks a leader that can hitherto give the country a sense of direction—someone who will facilitate a long-term national agenda, a leader who can be trusted.

“Most importantly, [we need] a leader who had a record and character  to inspire trust that she or he cannot only say things (which all aspirants do) but will walk the talk,” he said.

To get that leader, argues Catholic University (CU) associate professor of political science Nandine Patel, Malawians need to start taking keen interest in understanding their leaders’ track record.

Patel said: “Integrity has to be the fundamental criteria in the selection of leaders to be placed perhaps before competence and knowledge as the leaders can always be guided by specialists.

“In Malawi, particularly at the highly placed positions, there is a visible tendency to accept and even reward people with questionable track record with higher and more prominent position.”

Sadly, Chunga finds Malawians guilty of doing hardly enough to scrutinise the tales behind the faces on the ballot, an omission that reflects the country’s failure to build a culture of issue-based politics.

“Because of this failure, we end up choosing leaders on factors other than policy direction they have,” he said.

To Patel, the gap demonstrates the crippled role of the constitutional watchdog bodies and the generally weak entrenchment of democracy.

“This is so because most heads of State we have had have managed to get away with impunity for their past dubious deeds and got back into the system after years as heroes,” she says.

So what should be done?

John Nyirenda, a Chancellor College graduate of political science, argues that it is high time Malawi reviewed the constitutional requirements for one to qualify for presidency.

“Apart from the seven-year period after conviction provision, we need also to tailor the law in a way where we should have an independent committee that should assess the integrity of the candidates.  Those with proven record of having been involved in abuse of office should be barred from contesting,” he says.

From the issue-based perspective Chunga advocates, Patel argued that as activists are calling for issue-based politics, the call of integrity and credibility in leaders should come out clearly in the checklist for voters.

Otherwise, as Chunga argued, if Malawians do not tackle this leadership question seriously, the country is doomed to   remain trapped in self-underdevelopment.