‘Opposition hibernates’

 Political analysts have said opposition leaders are letting down the nation by failing to stand up and comment on critical issues affecting Malawians, including the prevailing tough economic situation.

University of Malawi political analysts Blessings Chinsinga and Mustafa Hussein said in separate interviews the hibernation of the opposition is a matter of great concern to the nation.

The immediate-past governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its electoral partner United Democratic Front hardly share their alternative views or take action on pertinent issues affecting Malawians.

Some of the issues affecting Malawians are the recent rise in prices of goods and commodities—including soap, cooking oil and fuel—and the introduction of value added tax (VAT) on some banking services.

But DPP spokesperson Shadreck Namalomba in an interview on Wednesday attributed the silence to the party’s efforts to rebuild because their house is divided.

But the political scientists said another reason could be the tendency by ruling parties to silence outspoken opposition leaders using State agencies such as Anti-Corruption Bureau and Malawi Police Service.

Chinsinga said it is unfortunate previous administrations used this tactic and it worked.

The tactics, according to the analysts, include arrests of opposition leaders on alleged corruption and plunder of public resources and denying them government business.

Chinsinga said most of the post-1994 politicians joined politics for personal interests and when their political parties are out of power, they cannot stand up and speak for Malawians.

He said: “When they are out of government, you see them hibernating or joining or associating with a party that has come into power. When this happens, Malawians are denied that critical voice to oppose bad policies.

“The new administrations, perhaps, find it alright to use the State machinery to silence the opposition, but this is unfortunate. Politicians must go into politics to serve people.”

Chinsinga said if members of the opposition know that they have skeletons in their closets, chances of hibernating and giving the governing elite a freeway are high.

However, the political scientist said the problem goes beyond the fear of the unknown among members of the opposition and whether the State agencies have genuine cases to pursue against the politicians.

Chinsinga, in direct reference DPP that lost power to the Tonse Alliance in the June 23 2020 court-sanctioned presidential election, said the truth is that the opposition politicians are busy fighting for leadership positions.

He said: “Politicians in the DPP are fighting for positions and have no time to attend to critical issues that require their attention.

“This brings to light the fact that when parties are in government, they use government funds to [solve] political problems. When in government, members can hardly criticise their leader because he uses power and money to [solve] emerging political problems,” he said.

Hussein said excuses by members of the opposition that government is persecuting them are

 to lame because there is nothing to fear if they are are clean. “Such excuses are a sign that most of our politicians join politics with ulterior motives, for self-serving.

“The danger is that if they don’t, the governing party will have an upper hand and there’ll be no checks and balances. This is not a good situation because we will end up having bad policies that are not in the interest of Malawians passing.”

But Namalomba, who recently warned the ACB against harassing the country’s immediate-past president Peter Mutharika, said in the interview it was not true his party was not critical to the Tonse administration for fear of arrests.

He said: “We have not broken any law in Malawi to warrant any arrest and our silence should never be misconstrued to mean we are afraid of something. Since Tonse Alliance came into power, we’ve witnessed arrests DPP members on trumped up charges aimed at silencing us.

“But we still forged ahead and stood up in Parliament and opposed bills we knew were not in the interest of Malawians. Even when a bill was tabled in the National Assembly which had this VAT [Value Added Tax] issue for banks, I personally stood up and opposed it. None from the government side did that. Here we are, failing to clear or sort out the confusion,” he said.

Namalomba said they walked out of the National Assembly in protest of the Labour Bill.

He said the Bill’s negative effects came to light after President Lazarus Chakwera assented to it, but the government side, which he said abuses its majority, never wanted to listen to them.

He said the DPP’s silence is not for fear of the arrests, but is a result of the party’s infighting where some members are fighting for the top leadership position when the elected party president, Mutharika, is still serving in the position.

Namalomba said: “We’re trying to put our house in order; that is our priority. Our efforts are targeted at rebuilding the party.

“Within the DPP’s leadership hierarchy, we’ve leaders that are canvassing for the top position, yet we have a leader in place and we’re yet to hold a convention. This is not good for us.”

Namalomba said the problem with the Tonse administration is that they do not want to listen to alternative views on important national issues and because they are in majority, they always want to bulldoze

 their way.

He said the problem with State institutions is that when a new administration comes in, they become overzealous and begin doing things the wrong way to have their contracts renewed when they expire.

But Information Minister Gospel Kazako, who is also government spokesperson, said in an interview Wednesday that they are a government and not political analysts when asked to comment on whether the Tonse administration is using its muscle to silence the opposition.

“To us, this is not time for politics, it is time for development. Commenting on that matter will turn us into political analysts. We’ve a lot to do which Malawians expect [of us],” he said.

The Tonse Alliance, which has nine parties on its side, has numerical power in Parliament.

In July, barely weeks after Tonse Alliance was voted into power following the June 23 2020 presidential poll, then DPP spokesperson Nicholas Dausi, claimed that the arrests of its members bordered on political persecution.

But MCP spokesperson the Reverend Maurice Munthali dismissed the claims that government is persecuting political opponents, saying those being arrested were reaping what they had sowed.