The fall is Icarus

Carl Jung, the pioneer psychiatrist who proved the deepest workings of the human psyche, said: “We must not pretend to understand the world only by intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feelings.”

Possibly he was right!

The practice in historic chain of events for people who wish to make better decisions of any kind is that feelings are never absent from the process.

And Malawi Congress Party (MCP) supporters and leadership including the publicist and president, the learned Jessie Kabwila and Lazarus Chakwera respectively, and some disgruntled but now wingless People’s Party (PP)-turned-MCP ‘followers’ are no exception to this law of human mind.

It is a cliché to say there could only be one winner for every position for which the aspirants were contesting in the May 20 Tripartite Elections. However, it is natural for each of the aspirants who won and their supporters to rejoice and who lost to grieve, fume and even complain provided there are not only necessary but also sufficient causes.

So, according to the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) results announced on 30 May on the just-ended presidential elections, the jubilations from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members and politburo cannot be faulted. Their candidate Peter Mutharika won.

Neither can one condemn the groaning and whimpering by MCP, PP and United Democratic Front (UDF) enthusiasts. Their candidates Chakwera, Joyce Banda and Atupele Muluzi in that order lost.

But earliest scholars such as Aristotle, Socrates and Confucius in their theory of the ‘golden mean’ recommend that there be a desirable middle between the feeling and intellect, as it should be with any human traits and operations, because if one is taken to excess would result in destruction.

Perhaps also the three are right!

The mythological Cretan tale of Daedalus and Icarus is the best allegory of how disproportional medley of acts would lead humankind into a shattering fall.

‘Daedalus, a famous artist of his time, built feathered wings for himself and his son so that they might escape the clutches of King Minos. Daedalus warned his beloved son whom he loved so much to fly the middle course, between the sea spray and the sun’s heat. Icarus did not heed his father; he flew up and up until the sun melted the wax off his wings. For not taking his father’s advice of flying the middle course, Icarus fell into the sea and drowned.’

Edge Kanyongolo, quoting what he described as one of his all-time favourite poems Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes, in the article Managing electoral loss of 25 May 2014 Nation on Sunday said the feeling and reaction of any political party hopefuls when MEC “hands them the bitter cup of defeat” will depend on how political leaders manage the results, especially the ‘dream deferred’: loss.

Maybe he too is right!

The three early thinkers and Kanyongolo agree on the need for personal qualities to hold on to dreams in adversity. But it would seem presently MCP is deficient in such qualities.

There appears to be a disproportional mixture between feeling and intellect among the party’s adherents and its persons-in-charge.

That MCP still insists it won the elections and the current DPP government rigged the polls is a case in point. The party has accused Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS), the European Union (EU), Malawi Electoral Support Network (Mesn) and the courts of being mercenaries.

Whatever role ZBS, EU and Mesn played in the either perceived or actual DPP rigging of the votes in May 20 elections is not the subject of this write-up.

However, despite the May 20 elections rocked by controversies bordering on a rigging myth that has for a long time been imbedded in not only the national psyche of Malawi but Africa as a whole, the obvious reality is that DPP’s Mutharika was declared winner, hence given mandate to govern Malawi for five years.

Ethicists suggest coping as a healthy defence mechanism in the event of misfortune such as loss of election. It allows an individual to work through challenges to their worldview and to adjust their life in ways that maintain their integrity.

Logical analysis, objectivity, tolerance of ambiguity, empathy and suppression of harmful emotional responses are all examples of healthy ways of coping.

The ethicists, however, firmly warn against resistance, when confronted by bad luck, which involves the use of immature defence mechanisms that are rigid, impulsive, maladaptive and non-analytical.

Immature defence mechanisms include isolation, rationalisation, indecision and denial.

And Andrè Trocme, a leader in the French Resistance in World War II, defined denial as “a willingness to be self-deceived”.

Continual denial of the May 20 polls’ outcome by MCP and its strange bedfellows and/or other stakeholders cannot change the status quo. Not even a mountain-high of Kabwila’s ‘tough talk’ and ‘street language’ would overturn the situation.

But this is the time where wisdom is fundamental in MCP leadership; failing which, the party well known for its four cornerstones – loyalty, discipline, obedience and unity – will not learn from its past and eventually alienate itself from genuine and potential members.

One would like to think that a right of way for Chakwera and MCP, Mutharika and DPP and many people in the corridors of power, the seats of learning, the chambers of commerce, the civil society, the media, the cathedrals and churches, mosques and synagogues of the land is to reflect on the years that we have been independent and find out how and where we got it wrong in terms of economic development

In plural political systems such as the one Malawi embraced in 1993, good governance does not only depend on those in government but also on an opposition that clearly articulates issues and has resonance with the citizens.

The country has borne witness of plenty of characters, individuals and parties that have trod the path currently taken by MCP. Unfortunately, the ending has not been so pleasing.

Again, examples abound in individuals and party spokespersons whose Kabwila-like offensiveness ended up ruining their political careers and their parties alike.

MCP, a party plastered with practiced politicians and intellectuals, therefore, needs to balance what it ought to do for the country and the people against what it shall gain for itself after being in perpetual denial and confronting government.

That way the party will avoid flying lofty altitudes and plunging into the sea like Icarus: an allegorical fall of humankind with excesses.