Dear Judge Mbadwa,
My lord, I write to you today struck by the intense self-congratulation emanating from many Nyasas. Staring across the border at the Tanganyika spectacle’s predictable sham of arrests, crackdowns and ballot boxes reduced to mere props, we quickly proclaimed ourselves a beacon of democracy.
It’s true, my lord, that given the choice, I would choose Nyasaland every time. Our citizens’ expectations are blessedly modest: “A bowl of nsima for today and perhaps tomorrow.” This makes us resilient, but modesty is not a virtue and subsistence is not democracy.
This comfort of comparison, being merely better than the worst, is a weak, dangerous kind of national pride.
My lord, what truly prompts this letter is not our stoic hunger, but the rank hypocrisy of our political class.
It is absolutely mad to hear party leaders, who run their own organisations like miniature autocracies, denounce Tanganyika for being undemocratic. To call the kettle black when your own pot has been painted in a bold dark colour is some madness.
Democracy is not a slogan to be waved at foreign failures; it is a daily practice. How can we lecture our neighbours, my lord, when so many of our own party bosses issue directives that must be rubber-stamped, where consultation is a mere ritual and dissent is treated as a breach of discipline?
Sadly, senior members of every party forget their basic role, allowing autocratic tendencies to flourish in their leaders, forcing everyone into idiotically subservient and unquestioning obedience.
In the Cockerel’s proud camp, his impresario, Lazaro, imposed the name of the Leader of the Opposition and hand-picked managers for the Legislative Council. By correct procedure, those legislators should choose their own leaders. Had the party’s national executive committee debated and agreed openly, that would be one thing; but there was no such debate.
Mapuya is no better. He nominated the Speaker and Deputy Speakers, commanding his team to secure their votes. Those who thought they had better candidates were simply ordered to swallow humble pie. There was no politburo discussion, no grassroots deliberation—only decisions handed down from on high.
These actions, my lord, confirm that our party leaderships understand only the language of command, not consensus.
And can we truly claim democratic leadership when parties keep paramilitary outfits to intimidate or attack protesters?
The Cockerel inherited a culture of street muscle from the People’s Demagogic Party (PDP) and kept it alive. Now, the PDP’s own muscle men have returned to the streets. When political disputes are settled with batons and boots rather than debate, the entire claim to democratic legitimacy collapses.
My lord, what I fear is not just hypocrisy, but imitation. Given the Tanganyika example and given leaders here who are already accountable only to themselves, it would take very little for a similar, disastrous slide into repression to happen in Nyasaland.
Comfortable in their unchecked internal power, our leaders will, eventually, replicate autocracy at home rather than embrace reform.
So, before we loudly condemn the outside world, my lord, let us first honestly examine the mirror. Democracy begins with the small, necessary habits: transparent selection, genuine debate, respect for internal opposition and the absolute refusal to use violence as a political tool.
Until our parties embrace those habits, their moral outrage rings hollow and our democratic foundation remains perilously fragile.
Yours in civic frustration,
John Citizen
