From the sad but awakening political events in Rwanda, Kenya and South Africa, we also learn that peace and reconciliation work well if the winners of elections, military and ideological battles humble themselves for the common good.
Had Paul Kagame not been humble enough to forgive and reconcile with the defeated Hutu majority, Rwanda would not have been where it is today. Had Uhuru Kenyatta not been humble enough to assure Raila Odinga, the Luo and other minority ethnic tribes that as Kenyans they would work together and transform their country. Kenyans would probably still be at loggerheads today.
Had Nelson Mandela not assured President Frederick de Klerk, the White community and the Zulu that they were free and safe, South Africa would have already joined the list of failed African States. Humility disarms enemies just ask Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela did.
Malawi’s uneasy peace
Historians indicate that since the Cabinet crisis of 1964, Malawi has known nothing but an uneasy peace. Although Malawian ethnic groups tolerate each other, in general, they don’t trust or like each other. This became pronounced in 1993, when the results of the first and only referendum since 1964 showed that the North and South were not satisfied with the regime of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), which, by design or accident, became dominated by politicians from the Centre.
The 1994 parliamentary and presidential elections showed that although the South and the North did not like the Centre, they did not like each other as well as each region voted for the party that represented it best. The North (including the Central Region constituencies that share cultural and linguistic characteristic with the North) voted for Alliance for Democracy, the MCP maintained its strength in Centre, except for Ntcheu, which voted with the South, and the Lower Shire Valley.
All elections since 1994, substantially changed nothing even though people spent time and money to campaign. In 2009, the DPP won massively throughout the country, but a closer look at those results shows that traditional supporters of the United Democratic Front (UDF), particularly in Machinga, Mangochi and Balaka, refused to change even though president Bakili Muluzi had joined hands with MCP. In some constituencies, voters just went to vote for their MP, but refused to vote for any presidential candidate because their tribal-cum-religious candidate was not on the ballot.
Because the South has produced three strong parties and presidential candidates, while the North has virtually been swallowed into these parties, MCP feels buoyed up and hopeful that, this time around it will win the elections. Déjà-vu? It is not because Lazarus Chakwera has better ideas than Joyce Banda, Atupele Muluzi, Mark Katsonga Phiri or Peter Mutharika, but it is because the ethnic arithmetic seems to favour the Central Region.
It is not by chance or mistake that both People’s Party and the UDF have picked running mates from the Central Region. It is equally not by accident that MCP picked someone from the North as Chakwera’s running mate. The regional arithmetic is that even if MCP loses Ntcheu, it can still win the elections with the support of the North. If the landscape remains the same, Chakwera will win in 2025. He has a political geography on which to lean.
Conclusion
Because of our politics of segregation by tribe, religion and region, we do not think as one people. Because of our politics of segregation by ethnicity, cultural beliefs, and geographic location, we selectively listen, echo chamber concept to campaigns, preferring only those media and political rallies that please us, thereby shutting ourselves from other parties and competing ideas.
As a country, we don’t buy into our long-term vision because we do not find the time to sit down to discuss our future. As a country, we are only interested in “eating” from the government, but very few are willing to sacrifice for the country to move forward. As a country, we have not found time to create in the so-called poor and rural voters the requisite awareness, knowledge and attitude moderation, so that all of us forget the crimes our ancestors committed against each other and reconcile ourselves to the fact that the living don’t live in the past. As a country, we talk about development, but we do not define our development pathways.
