Young blood, new ideas!

Honourable Folks, when Kamuzu Banda was retiring from politics soon after the 1994 elections, he saw the future of MCP in the new multiparty political dispensation as lying in the “young blood”.

This year, after 20 years since the old man’s call, the young blood has made the presidential race as conspicuous as it is exciting.

UDF has Atupele Muluzi, 35, as a presidential candidate. The party in government, PP, has taken baby-face Sosten Gwengwe, 36, as running-mate to the incumbent, Joyce Banda. DPP has Saulos Chilima, 41, as running-mate to Peter Mutharika.

Ironically, it’s MCP—the party Kamuzu called upon to inject “young blood” in its veins—that doesn’t have a baby-face at the helm. Instead, it has fielded “new blood” Lazarus Chakwera, a pastor who has for quite a long time been at the helm of the Assemblies of God Church.

Just like the new blood, Chakwera has whipped up excitement. He has given us a break from the party’s past with strongman John Tembo as its face and at stake is his reputation as a shepherd of the Lord’s flock. Spewing vitriol or indulging in corruption and other vices would be quite unlike Chakwera as we know him.

But is there anything else of value we can expect from the new and young blood? It’s obvious that only Atupele and Chakwera, have the chance to become leaders and these two can bring the desirable changes if they know them and want to.

The other two aren’t sitting on the saddle but the carrier. If they have brilliant ideas, they can only come out if they are in tandem with the agenda of their bosses—Joyce Banda (PP) and Peter Mutharika (DPP). Otherwise, history teaches us that the biggest hurdle of the running-mate who graduates into the prestigious post of Vice-President is to remain in good books with the boss.

From the reign of Muluzi until now, every Vice-President has ended up a miserable outsider, ditched and humiliated by the President and his or her cronies. It’s okay to work as buddies during campaign times, but extremely hard to accept that death, incapacitation or impeachment of the President is a blessing for the Vice-President.

So what should we read in the new or young blood; does it mean a change for the better in Malawian politics?

What comes out clearly is that the fielding of young blood in this year’s presidential election is strategic. There’s strong belief that the youth enjoy numerical supremacy on the voters’ roll and that the majority of them won’t vote for old, recycled politicians.

Seen from this perspective, the young blood in the 2014 presidential race is more of bait for young voters than anything else. The major parties may want to use the young blood as means to win the election.

From the days of MCP’s Youth League, UDF’s Young Democrats, DPP’s Youth Cadets and PP’s Young Patriots, the youth have been used by politicians as dancers  and perpetrators of violence while being denied quality education, quality health care,  job opportunities and vocational training.

Now is the time for them to demand transparency and accountability from the folks they put in power. Any act of generosity that makes the electorate eat from the palm of the president should be rejected outright for it only encourages politics of patronage and theft from public coffers while extreme poverty lingers on.

Now is the time for Malawians to demand to be empowered so they can fish for themselves as opposed to being fed fish probably stolen from their own pond.

As for the young and new blood in politics, they constitute the first chapter of the story of Malawi in the next 50 years. It can only be a happy beginning if they see themselves as change agents. Otherwise, the folks passing on the mantle to them have the past 50 years of poverty and deprivation to their credit.

Fortunately, the old blood in politics has become an endangered species youth of today don’t want to preserve.