It is mostly the case that every kind of services rendered by an organisation or institution tends to have its own shortfalls as long as evaluations by those who benefit from the services are concerned. Even an organisation or institution that brags to have the potential of delivering for its clients the best is bound to receive some misgiving from the same clients.
In some cases, authorities at the organisations or institutions give a blind eye to the cries of their clients and continue extolling the ‘virtues’ of their services without putting under consideration the fact that the same clients are constantly complaining. On the other hand, the same authorities reach the point of exploiting their clients by ‘reaping where they never sowed’.
Whether it is due to financial hiccups which their relevant organisations or institutions are facing, some authorities reach the point of charging very dubious amounts of money for services rendered even if it is clear that the same services’ value can never reach anywhere near the charge.
Most of these organisations take advantage of the fact that they are the only ones offering such kinds of services and are safe in the knowledge that their clients will have nowhere else to go even if the charges for the services offered are exorbitant. To them, what matters is that they should make more money, even if the services offered involve human life.
For instance, some private hospitals have the audacity of charging exorbitant bills for their patients with the aim of making exorbitant profits. Much as the services offered are always appreciated, it is also imperative to consider the fact that money does not grow on trees.
It might be true that the hospital might have struggled quite a lot to cure an illness, but consideration should also go to the patients themselves. This does not imply that the hospitals should charge less than they spend on caring for a patient. In fact, much as their main aim could be saving human life, they also need to be sustainable, and therefore need to make some profit.
Then we have the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) and the water boards. These two statutory corporations are never short of surprises. Their all-round services leave a lot to be desired. Malawians have complained for times without number about the poor services offered by these utility institutions, but it appears people’s pleas only fade into dying embers which are finally stuck away where they are no longer considered.
It is so common to have power or water-flow disruptions, especially in the major cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe, such that it becomes abnormal if the two services go on without any cut-offs. It appears now, people can no longer grumble because they have done it many times before but it has failed to change things.
Yet, in spite of all these irregularities by these utility services providers, at the end of the month they charge very dubious bills, which cannot be justified. Both ESCOM and the water boards sometimes come up with bills which are far from being consistent even if there hasn’t been any addition in the consumption of the services. Of course, they can argue that the bills are not supposed to be consistent, but sometimes the differences tend to be just too much.
How does one explain a situation where the bill for the previous month was K3000 only for the bill for the following month to become K15000 where there hasn’t been any additional use of the services? In any normal household system, it may not make sense to expect electricity bills to go to the extent of five times more than the previous one.
And this is also the case with water bills.
No one can expect a bachelor who rarely stays at home to consume water to the extent of reaching K10 000 in bills. This is unrealistic. Yet, this is what many Malawians, especially those living in the major towns and cities are facing.
These dubious bills are killing Malawians. We appreciate the services offered by private hospitals, ESCOM and the water boards, but we want the bills they charge to be realistic. It should be proportional to the consumption rate, otherwise covering for your losses by charging exorbitant bills should be tantamount to theft.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Culture and change
Sometimes in life, driven by circumstances, a human being is supposed to abandon his strong principles and adjust to change for the sake of progress. There is no progress unless one has allowed himself to engage into other ‘innovative’ aspects which were not peculiar to them in the first place.
Change always brings something new; but the most significant thing that counts is assessing what kind of change is morally acceptable.
There are instances where change – even if it was not being approved in the first place – gets accepted and becomes an axiom of morality. This is solely because a human being is a social being who needs to adjust according to the dictates of circumstances while not committing an offence against himself or the society within which they live.
However, still more, sometimes if some kind of change is necessary, but the majority does not hold with it, the minority needs to strategise so as to persuade the majority to adopt the new ‘development’.
In fact, without change, history would be meaningless. It is because humans and nature as a whole go through different levels in their lives that there is the need to preserve that which happened long ago. If that was not the case, it would be just as significant to look at what is happening now, for it would not be any different from what happened yesterday.
Governments change, generations change, natural elements go through processes of mutation and nothing remains the same forever. Above all, the world always changes and nothing in it will remain forever, for every change that it undergoes is a catalyst for changes of everything within it.
Yet in Malawi, it appears some people (pardon my bluntness) are still stuck in the past with so much stubbornness and tradition that to them every kind of change appears to be “a Whiteman’s concern”. These attitudes and behaviour that are characteristic of some Malawians are not conducive for development.
During the transition process from one party system of government to pluralism, some people could not just accept that such an aspect in Malawi politics was a very needful thing. They kept on worshipping the former president, the late Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, and went on to argue that they were not ready “to live without Dr. Banda at the helm.” This was just a manifestation of rigidity to change.
They had gotten so much used to Dr. Banda’s cruel system of governance that it had finally become part of their lives. To them, that which they had lived with for so long was better than something that they were not aware of. Yet everything about multi-party politics had been advocated for times without number.
They were ‘safe’ in following the culture of ‘nurturing’ what they had instead of adjusting to that necessary change. In other words, they got so much used to the culture of suffering that to them, it was not necessary to have freedom. Such kinds of mindsets are perilous as long as development is concerned.
In fact, some people propose that culture should undergo review at least every half a decade because there are a number of changes that societies undergo, as nothing remains the same forever.
Some years back, there was public furore over the ‘right’ dressing for women. People were so much concerned about that issue that it was finally agreed that it was a misnomer and should attract a punishment.
The truth was that we were just stuck in the past with so much stubbornness and tradition. Much as culture is significant in the legacy of humankind, it has to pave way so that human beings adjust to change. In fact by adjusting to change, it is just a manifestation of culture itself.
Culture in itself was not supposed to be a threat to development, but the way we handle it in Malawi, one is compelled to argue that among many aspects that retard development, culture is one of them.
Sometime, we take some of the things that would otherwise improve our lives as “those of Westerners” because of a culture of exclusion and self-segregation. It is high time we began to consider adjusting to change. However, scrutiny is always necessary; but stubbornness should never be welcome!
It is mostly true that culture is a powerful human tool for survival, but it is supposed to be a fragile phenomenon. It is supposed to be constantly changing and easily lost because it exists only in our minds. And therefore it is only when we change our mindsets that we may adequately develop.
Change always brings something new; but the most significant thing that counts is assessing what kind of change is morally acceptable.
There are instances where change – even if it was not being approved in the first place – gets accepted and becomes an axiom of morality. This is solely because a human being is a social being who needs to adjust according to the dictates of circumstances while not committing an offence against himself or the society within which they live.
However, still more, sometimes if some kind of change is necessary, but the majority does not hold with it, the minority needs to strategise so as to persuade the majority to adopt the new ‘development’.
In fact, without change, history would be meaningless. It is because humans and nature as a whole go through different levels in their lives that there is the need to preserve that which happened long ago. If that was not the case, it would be just as significant to look at what is happening now, for it would not be any different from what happened yesterday.
Governments change, generations change, natural elements go through processes of mutation and nothing remains the same forever. Above all, the world always changes and nothing in it will remain forever, for every change that it undergoes is a catalyst for changes of everything within it.
Yet in Malawi, it appears some people (pardon my bluntness) are still stuck in the past with so much stubbornness and tradition that to them every kind of change appears to be “a Whiteman’s concern”. These attitudes and behaviour that are characteristic of some Malawians are not conducive for development.
During the transition process from one party system of government to pluralism, some people could not just accept that such an aspect in Malawi politics was a very needful thing. They kept on worshipping the former president, the late Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, and went on to argue that they were not ready “to live without Dr. Banda at the helm.” This was just a manifestation of rigidity to change.
They had gotten so much used to Dr. Banda’s cruel system of governance that it had finally become part of their lives. To them, that which they had lived with for so long was better than something that they were not aware of. Yet everything about multi-party politics had been advocated for times without number.
They were ‘safe’ in following the culture of ‘nurturing’ what they had instead of adjusting to that necessary change. In other words, they got so much used to the culture of suffering that to them, it was not necessary to have freedom. Such kinds of mindsets are perilous as long as development is concerned.
In fact, some people propose that culture should undergo review at least every half a decade because there are a number of changes that societies undergo, as nothing remains the same forever.
Some years back, there was public furore over the ‘right’ dressing for women. People were so much concerned about that issue that it was finally agreed that it was a misnomer and should attract a punishment.
The truth was that we were just stuck in the past with so much stubbornness and tradition. Much as culture is significant in the legacy of humankind, it has to pave way so that human beings adjust to change. In fact by adjusting to change, it is just a manifestation of culture itself.
Culture in itself was not supposed to be a threat to development, but the way we handle it in Malawi, one is compelled to argue that among many aspects that retard development, culture is one of them.
Sometime, we take some of the things that would otherwise improve our lives as “those of Westerners” because of a culture of exclusion and self-segregation. It is high time we began to consider adjusting to change. However, scrutiny is always necessary; but stubbornness should never be welcome!
It is mostly true that culture is a powerful human tool for survival, but it is supposed to be a fragile phenomenon. It is supposed to be constantly changing and easily lost because it exists only in our minds. And therefore it is only when we change our mindsets that we may adequately develop.
How Did You?
At Mikuyu Prison
(For Jack Mapanje and all those who were detained at Mikuyu Prison during the Kamuzu Era)
My gulp of air became faint and broke haltingly
As the black furious walls stared at me
With the entire empty space around me.
I tried to squeeze myself against the gloomy corner
So I could sense how you felt when you were there
In a cell with lofty windows at Mikuyu Prison
Where you were packed down without a pending trial.
My eyes felt fragile and heavy
For the thirty minutes I spent in the shadowy room
Where you spent years on end.
I made an effort to stare at the sunbeams escaping in through
a solitary crack in the dark wall.
In me there was total distress.
But how did you survive in that cell exclusive of cracks,
Where you were hustled without ceremony?
It was a throbbing journey towards a throbbing discovery.
As I set off, my legs were reluctant
To take me to the grubby Mikuyu Prison
Where I only wanted to have a feel of what you felt.
As I gazed at the towering walls with barbed wires;
At the scrawny cells with diminutive windows,
I vividly pictured how you must have felt in that place.
It must have been real hell.
I sat in the mocking dark cell alone
Without locked doors; without warders torturing me;
Without fresh human excreta.
Yet I could feel anguish in my soul
I could sniff hatred congealing in my spirit
I could feel frosty brisk tears pricking my eyes
I could smell a stench of fresh human excreta in the purified air
I could experience my entrails boil.
If I felt such with all my freedom,
How did you feel with the sharp sensors?
How did you survive on those retching meals,
When nsima was in liquid form
And beans had been poured in an assembly of weevils?
You must have longed for the milk of human kindness.
But it was only life, life in a prison cell
And life everywhere that taught you life
And without ropes you skipped
Because ropes were of no necessity to you
For the skipping was only with hope.
(For Jack Mapanje and all those who were detained at Mikuyu Prison during the Kamuzu Era)
My gulp of air became faint and broke haltingly
As the black furious walls stared at me
With the entire empty space around me.
I tried to squeeze myself against the gloomy corner
So I could sense how you felt when you were there
In a cell with lofty windows at Mikuyu Prison
Where you were packed down without a pending trial.
My eyes felt fragile and heavy
For the thirty minutes I spent in the shadowy room
Where you spent years on end.
I made an effort to stare at the sunbeams escaping in through
a solitary crack in the dark wall.
In me there was total distress.
But how did you survive in that cell exclusive of cracks,
Where you were hustled without ceremony?
It was a throbbing journey towards a throbbing discovery.
As I set off, my legs were reluctant
To take me to the grubby Mikuyu Prison
Where I only wanted to have a feel of what you felt.
As I gazed at the towering walls with barbed wires;
At the scrawny cells with diminutive windows,
I vividly pictured how you must have felt in that place.
It must have been real hell.
I sat in the mocking dark cell alone
Without locked doors; without warders torturing me;
Without fresh human excreta.
Yet I could feel anguish in my soul
I could sniff hatred congealing in my spirit
I could feel frosty brisk tears pricking my eyes
I could smell a stench of fresh human excreta in the purified air
I could experience my entrails boil.
If I felt such with all my freedom,
How did you feel with the sharp sensors?
How did you survive on those retching meals,
When nsima was in liquid form
And beans had been poured in an assembly of weevils?
You must have longed for the milk of human kindness.
But it was only life, life in a prison cell
And life everywhere that taught you life
And without ropes you skipped
Because ropes were of no necessity to you
For the skipping was only with hope.
A Cry for Kamuzu Bridge
When construction of Kamuzu Bridge over the Shire River in Chikhwawa came to a satisfying end, it is obvious that the engineers revealed the period when the bridge would still be strong enough to continue being used. But sometimes, it is possible for a structure to be declared unsafe for use even before the promulgated span of use is over. This may be in virtue of other factors like floods, earthquakes and sometimes, vandalism. On the other hand, it may not necessarily require the inspection of an architect to know that a structure is past its useful span.
It was reported some time back that the time which Kamuzu Bridge was supposed to be used is now over. Even the current condition of the bridge speaks loudly that danger is looming. It speaks volumes about the fact that the bridge’s useful time is over.
Despite all this, the peculiar thing is that nothing tangible is being done to avoid a forewarned disaster. Or if something is being done, then the pace is too slow, because there is nothing on the ground anywhere where the new bridge would be. Of course, some weeks ago, reconstruction work was going on the bridge, but it appears nothing has changed really.
Those who have used the bridge recently will agree with me that it is clear that it has been overused and anything can happen from now. There are parts of the bridge where sections which were supposed to be joined are clearly disjointed and one can clearly peep into the water below while on top of the bridge, not over the side rails.
Thought the supporting metal planks which were removed have been replaced, still the condition of the bridge does not speak anything near safety. Lives of those who travel from each side of the bridge are being endangered every minute.
I should think that government has got its ways of inspecting and monitoring different structures so that proper measures of avoiding disasters are put in place. Some of these issues are just very simple: for example, constructions have life spans, and after the life spans have expired, there is no other remedy than to renovate them or demolish them and construct others.
Kamuzu Bridge is one of the most frequently used bridges in Malawi because it links the major commercial city of Blantyre and the Lower Shire where we have the Nchalo sugar estate and the cotton growing schemes. Trucks loaded with tones and tones of sugar from Nchalo and cotton from different parts of the Lower Shire use the bridge almost on a daily basis. And the most dangerous thing is that the bridge continues being used even after its devastated condition.
Of course, even if someone claims that the span is not yet over, still the cracks on the bridge are enough warning that we are putting our dear lives at a perilous risk by continuously using it.
Government should have put the Kamuzu Bridge construction under serious consideration.
It would have done Malawians a great deal of justice by starting the construction of another bridge as soon as possible, even now; otherwise the current condition of the bridge is scaring. And considering that constructing a bridge across the Shire River, especially where the river is wide like in Chikhwawa, is not any easy task, government would have done better by starting the construction now.
Now, with the current state of the Bridge, one wonders whether the authorities ever go around this country monitoring and inspecting different constructions, because if they did, why then haven’t they put in place any strategy that would entail the construction of another bridge across Shire River in Chikhwawa?
My plea to government is to check the conditions of different constructions, especially bridges in Malawi because we will have a rude awakening one day to be told that most structures have been declared unfit to be used. With Kamuzu Bridge, though I am not an architectural engineer, I can see that there is a clear indication that the bridge has reached the end of its usefulness.
It was reported some time back that the time which Kamuzu Bridge was supposed to be used is now over. Even the current condition of the bridge speaks loudly that danger is looming. It speaks volumes about the fact that the bridge’s useful time is over.
Despite all this, the peculiar thing is that nothing tangible is being done to avoid a forewarned disaster. Or if something is being done, then the pace is too slow, because there is nothing on the ground anywhere where the new bridge would be. Of course, some weeks ago, reconstruction work was going on the bridge, but it appears nothing has changed really.
Those who have used the bridge recently will agree with me that it is clear that it has been overused and anything can happen from now. There are parts of the bridge where sections which were supposed to be joined are clearly disjointed and one can clearly peep into the water below while on top of the bridge, not over the side rails.
Thought the supporting metal planks which were removed have been replaced, still the condition of the bridge does not speak anything near safety. Lives of those who travel from each side of the bridge are being endangered every minute.
I should think that government has got its ways of inspecting and monitoring different structures so that proper measures of avoiding disasters are put in place. Some of these issues are just very simple: for example, constructions have life spans, and after the life spans have expired, there is no other remedy than to renovate them or demolish them and construct others.
Kamuzu Bridge is one of the most frequently used bridges in Malawi because it links the major commercial city of Blantyre and the Lower Shire where we have the Nchalo sugar estate and the cotton growing schemes. Trucks loaded with tones and tones of sugar from Nchalo and cotton from different parts of the Lower Shire use the bridge almost on a daily basis. And the most dangerous thing is that the bridge continues being used even after its devastated condition.
Of course, even if someone claims that the span is not yet over, still the cracks on the bridge are enough warning that we are putting our dear lives at a perilous risk by continuously using it.
Government should have put the Kamuzu Bridge construction under serious consideration.
It would have done Malawians a great deal of justice by starting the construction of another bridge as soon as possible, even now; otherwise the current condition of the bridge is scaring. And considering that constructing a bridge across the Shire River, especially where the river is wide like in Chikhwawa, is not any easy task, government would have done better by starting the construction now.
Now, with the current state of the Bridge, one wonders whether the authorities ever go around this country monitoring and inspecting different constructions, because if they did, why then haven’t they put in place any strategy that would entail the construction of another bridge across Shire River in Chikhwawa?
My plea to government is to check the conditions of different constructions, especially bridges in Malawi because we will have a rude awakening one day to be told that most structures have been declared unfit to be used. With Kamuzu Bridge, though I am not an architectural engineer, I can see that there is a clear indication that the bridge has reached the end of its usefulness.
On Player Rewards and Performance
Malawi is one country in Africa where rewards for all kinds of sports men and women are ridiculously trivial. Such rewards include their monthly pays and such other payments as management may deem necessary from time to time.
Sports people are supposed to receive monthly upkeeps which are fixed and included in the document which stipulates all the contract conditions. They also receive rewards after a won game which is like an allowance.
Most sportsmen in Malawi especially footballers have complained for many times that their rewards are so trivial that they cannot afford to carter for their daily needs.
Some time back, president Bingu wa Mutharika argued that the poor standards of football in Malawi is not necessarily that there are no talented footballers in the country but is largely due to the fact that footballers concentrate on something else when they are not involved in a task involving football.
What the president was trying to put forward was that it is impossible for a footballer to deliver to the best of his ability if he spent his whole previous day working on his maize field.
But the question that instantaneously invades the mind of a football-conscious individual is: who is really responsible for the habit of footballers engaging themselves in extra activities which in the end sap their enthusiasm on the sports field? Is it the footballers themselves or their respective teams’ managements or both?
Before I put across my opinion, it should be undoubtedly acknowledged that footballers in Malawi have not been made to take sports as their noble careers unlike in other countries. Unlike someone who is working as a teacher or as a driver, a football player needs to dedicate his whole self to sports.
Any psychological and physical distractions obviously pose tremendous challenges to the capabilities of players. A football player is supposed to have enough time for nurturing his career.
But in Malawi, you will find that a national team player goes to do other extra activities like farming after training, to fend for his family. Why? Because he gets peanuts for his rewards.
The fact that footballers engage in other activities to earn some extra bucks present two problems. Apart from the problem that when he gets onto the pitch, he is somehow already exhausted, it also denies him a chance of watching some football games on some football channels where he may learn some skills.
The leisure time for footballers is spent even on hard tasks. This is because they do not get enough money on football which can keep them going through the whole month. It appears clubs are only interested in the services of the players but when it comes to rewarding them, the clubs’ managements become reluctant.
For many times it had been reported in the media that such and such players have boycotted training sessions because they have not yet been given their rewards for the past three months or so; or a team has suspended a player because of asking for his monies.
If clubs sign players, they are supposed to fulfil the stipulations that are there in the contract document. There is no stipulation which may say a player may receive his monthly salary after three months. Or even if there is no provision about player rewards, rules of natural justice would beat any club’s management that delays payments for its players.
The trivial rewards that players get are what prompt them to become farmers, businessmen and even conductors in some cases. Interestingly, many stakeholders that extol the virtues of revamping football standards in Malawi never tackle the issue of player rewards.
They are only concerned with other areas like the identification of hidden talent. What these stakeholders pass over is the fact that even the hidden talent will not deliver to the best of their capabilities if they are rewarded trivially, a thing that will definitely sap their will for a classic display.
It is no denying fact that in Malawi, footballers are not full-time employees. They are made to make themselves so because of their salaries which have to be complimented with money realized from endeavours.
Of course it is not wrong for footballers to engage in some extra money earning activities but the activities should not be physical and even they are physical, they should not be too involving.
During an off-season period, Malawian players become full-time businessmen and farmers. The trivial monthly salaries coupled with the absence of allowances after a game, compel them to do such things.
In normal circumstances the off-season period is supposed to be used by a footballer to improve his performance. That is why in America or Europe players appeal to their respective clubs to loan them to other clubs which are on-season. The recess can largely affect the performance of a player if it is not put to some productive cause.
There are many talented footballers who do not want to feature anywhere in football in Malawi because of the poor rewards. Of course one may argue that it is not good for a footballer to have a preconceived money-oriented mindset, but the blinding truth is that no one would want to do a job without being rewarded satisfactorily.
Unless footballers are rewarded handsomely, they will continue engaging in other extra activities to earn money and this will continue retarding the standards of football in Malawi.
They will even flock to Mozambican clubs where football standards are not better than Malawi’s Clubs. Clubs should make sure they reward their respective players in time instead of suspending them for humbly asking for what belongs to them.
Sports people are supposed to receive monthly upkeeps which are fixed and included in the document which stipulates all the contract conditions. They also receive rewards after a won game which is like an allowance.
Most sportsmen in Malawi especially footballers have complained for many times that their rewards are so trivial that they cannot afford to carter for their daily needs.
Some time back, president Bingu wa Mutharika argued that the poor standards of football in Malawi is not necessarily that there are no talented footballers in the country but is largely due to the fact that footballers concentrate on something else when they are not involved in a task involving football.
What the president was trying to put forward was that it is impossible for a footballer to deliver to the best of his ability if he spent his whole previous day working on his maize field.
But the question that instantaneously invades the mind of a football-conscious individual is: who is really responsible for the habit of footballers engaging themselves in extra activities which in the end sap their enthusiasm on the sports field? Is it the footballers themselves or their respective teams’ managements or both?
Before I put across my opinion, it should be undoubtedly acknowledged that footballers in Malawi have not been made to take sports as their noble careers unlike in other countries. Unlike someone who is working as a teacher or as a driver, a football player needs to dedicate his whole self to sports.
Any psychological and physical distractions obviously pose tremendous challenges to the capabilities of players. A football player is supposed to have enough time for nurturing his career.
But in Malawi, you will find that a national team player goes to do other extra activities like farming after training, to fend for his family. Why? Because he gets peanuts for his rewards.
The fact that footballers engage in other activities to earn some extra bucks present two problems. Apart from the problem that when he gets onto the pitch, he is somehow already exhausted, it also denies him a chance of watching some football games on some football channels where he may learn some skills.
The leisure time for footballers is spent even on hard tasks. This is because they do not get enough money on football which can keep them going through the whole month. It appears clubs are only interested in the services of the players but when it comes to rewarding them, the clubs’ managements become reluctant.
For many times it had been reported in the media that such and such players have boycotted training sessions because they have not yet been given their rewards for the past three months or so; or a team has suspended a player because of asking for his monies.
If clubs sign players, they are supposed to fulfil the stipulations that are there in the contract document. There is no stipulation which may say a player may receive his monthly salary after three months. Or even if there is no provision about player rewards, rules of natural justice would beat any club’s management that delays payments for its players.
The trivial rewards that players get are what prompt them to become farmers, businessmen and even conductors in some cases. Interestingly, many stakeholders that extol the virtues of revamping football standards in Malawi never tackle the issue of player rewards.
They are only concerned with other areas like the identification of hidden talent. What these stakeholders pass over is the fact that even the hidden talent will not deliver to the best of their capabilities if they are rewarded trivially, a thing that will definitely sap their will for a classic display.
It is no denying fact that in Malawi, footballers are not full-time employees. They are made to make themselves so because of their salaries which have to be complimented with money realized from endeavours.
Of course it is not wrong for footballers to engage in some extra money earning activities but the activities should not be physical and even they are physical, they should not be too involving.
During an off-season period, Malawian players become full-time businessmen and farmers. The trivial monthly salaries coupled with the absence of allowances after a game, compel them to do such things.
In normal circumstances the off-season period is supposed to be used by a footballer to improve his performance. That is why in America or Europe players appeal to their respective clubs to loan them to other clubs which are on-season. The recess can largely affect the performance of a player if it is not put to some productive cause.
There are many talented footballers who do not want to feature anywhere in football in Malawi because of the poor rewards. Of course one may argue that it is not good for a footballer to have a preconceived money-oriented mindset, but the blinding truth is that no one would want to do a job without being rewarded satisfactorily.
Unless footballers are rewarded handsomely, they will continue engaging in other extra activities to earn money and this will continue retarding the standards of football in Malawi.
They will even flock to Mozambican clubs where football standards are not better than Malawi’s Clubs. Clubs should make sure they reward their respective players in time instead of suspending them for humbly asking for what belongs to them.
Poor Pitches, Violent Fans
On a number of occasions, a number of football matches have been reportedly staved off because of poor conditions of pitches, which is mostly because of heavy rains, or sometimes just normal rains.
Rain is natural and it cannot be postponed, neither can it be stopped. It will fall whenever it desires without any human interference. It will fall even where it is not needed.
Most football pitches become dressed in impressive green turf during the rainy season. The turf makes a very conducive ground where football players play confidently without fear of scraping their limbs. This is where rain becomes a very needful commodity as long as the quality of a football pitch is concerned.
While water proves to be very significant as long as the quality of a natural pitch is concerned, it may also pose a great challenge if the drainage system of the pitch is poor.
No football player – not even the most skillful one – will play to the best of his capability on a waterlogged pitch. It is hard to appreciate the beauty of football on a pitch where the ball only rolls reluctantly after being kicked with so much vigour. This is what rain brings on a pitch with a poor drainage system.
Heavy rains may compel a referee to postpone a football match as long as the rains fall persistently, but when the rains stop and the sun comes out, but there still is a lot of water on the pitch, one wonders how the ‘custodians’ of the pitch manage its drainage system.
It is very disappointing to football fans for a game to be held off because of the poor quality of a pitch, which is purely because of negligence on the part of the ‘owners’ of that pitch. Rain is unpredictable and, therefore, a football pitch is supposed to be in a condition where it will still be good enough even after the rain.
Sometimes teams have the audacity of reaching the agreement of just sharing points if the football pitch is not conducive enough for a game to be played on it.
But, in real sense, earning points for a game that has not been played in not inspiring at all and it dwindles the standards of football, even if it is a single point. In fact, a team that deems itself strong enough to defeat its rival will be demoralized if they get a single point for a not-played game when they would get three points for a played and won game.
Apart from the poor quality of pitches, violent fans also spoil football. Violence is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the exercise of physical force so as to inflict injury on, or cause damage to persons or property.
It further defines violence as treatment or usage tending to cause bodily injury of forcibly interfering with personal freedom. The second definition implies that even an insult hurled at someone is enough violence.
Of course, it is true that violence in football was mostly felt in the near past when fans would go on rampage vandalizing property, some of which the owners had nothing to do with football.
Now, it is generally accepted that there is no more violence in football in Malawi. Insults directed at referees or even players from fans are very common, yet we claim there is no violence in football in Malawi nowadays. Perhaps it is how we define violence which distorts our conception of its application.
Even without implying the second definition of violence given by the Oxford English Dictionary, I claim without fear of contradiction that physical violence is still there in football in Malawi, only that now it is stuck with small teams which but might find their way into the Super League.
For many times, matches have been spoilt by some unscrupulous fans who never want to accept defeat. These fans usually resort to violence when they see that they 90 minutes session is about to be exhausted while their team is still behind. Their aim is to mar everything so that the game might be replayed.
Football is supposed to be a beautiful game where the best have to emerge winners whatever the case. Pitches or violence should not be the deciders of awarding victory to teams. Owners of pitches should make sure their pitches are always in good conditions even after rains. It is just a matter if improving the drainage system. Fans have to accept defeat because it is all part of the game. After all, there is supposed to be one ultimate winner.
Rain is natural and it cannot be postponed, neither can it be stopped. It will fall whenever it desires without any human interference. It will fall even where it is not needed.
Most football pitches become dressed in impressive green turf during the rainy season. The turf makes a very conducive ground where football players play confidently without fear of scraping their limbs. This is where rain becomes a very needful commodity as long as the quality of a football pitch is concerned.
While water proves to be very significant as long as the quality of a natural pitch is concerned, it may also pose a great challenge if the drainage system of the pitch is poor.
No football player – not even the most skillful one – will play to the best of his capability on a waterlogged pitch. It is hard to appreciate the beauty of football on a pitch where the ball only rolls reluctantly after being kicked with so much vigour. This is what rain brings on a pitch with a poor drainage system.
Heavy rains may compel a referee to postpone a football match as long as the rains fall persistently, but when the rains stop and the sun comes out, but there still is a lot of water on the pitch, one wonders how the ‘custodians’ of the pitch manage its drainage system.
It is very disappointing to football fans for a game to be held off because of the poor quality of a pitch, which is purely because of negligence on the part of the ‘owners’ of that pitch. Rain is unpredictable and, therefore, a football pitch is supposed to be in a condition where it will still be good enough even after the rain.
Sometimes teams have the audacity of reaching the agreement of just sharing points if the football pitch is not conducive enough for a game to be played on it.
But, in real sense, earning points for a game that has not been played in not inspiring at all and it dwindles the standards of football, even if it is a single point. In fact, a team that deems itself strong enough to defeat its rival will be demoralized if they get a single point for a not-played game when they would get three points for a played and won game.
Apart from the poor quality of pitches, violent fans also spoil football. Violence is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the exercise of physical force so as to inflict injury on, or cause damage to persons or property.
It further defines violence as treatment or usage tending to cause bodily injury of forcibly interfering with personal freedom. The second definition implies that even an insult hurled at someone is enough violence.
Of course, it is true that violence in football was mostly felt in the near past when fans would go on rampage vandalizing property, some of which the owners had nothing to do with football.
Now, it is generally accepted that there is no more violence in football in Malawi. Insults directed at referees or even players from fans are very common, yet we claim there is no violence in football in Malawi nowadays. Perhaps it is how we define violence which distorts our conception of its application.
Even without implying the second definition of violence given by the Oxford English Dictionary, I claim without fear of contradiction that physical violence is still there in football in Malawi, only that now it is stuck with small teams which but might find their way into the Super League.
For many times, matches have been spoilt by some unscrupulous fans who never want to accept defeat. These fans usually resort to violence when they see that they 90 minutes session is about to be exhausted while their team is still behind. Their aim is to mar everything so that the game might be replayed.
Football is supposed to be a beautiful game where the best have to emerge winners whatever the case. Pitches or violence should not be the deciders of awarding victory to teams. Owners of pitches should make sure their pitches are always in good conditions even after rains. It is just a matter if improving the drainage system. Fans have to accept defeat because it is all part of the game. After all, there is supposed to be one ultimate winner.
Things fall apart
Joel’s conversion was an unanticipated thing to many. Those who had known him since the days of his boyhood could not believe that such a drunkard, a drug abuser and an armed robber would ever stop all those evil things. His name was constantly synonymous with evil.
He had been to rehabilitation centres many times but it was as if the correctional facilities had only shaped him into a worse citizen. He had become a hardcore criminal who did not care about human life.
He blandly told those who attempted to bring him into the right lane that if everyone in the world was doing what everyone else was doing, then the world would be a very dull place to live in.
But now he proclaimed with total vigour that he had bidden farewell to his ugly past. He made it clear that he was now the changed Paul who had carried the cross of Christ ready to follow him.
“Brothers and sisters, in every human being’s life, there is a turning point. What matters most is to embrace it,” Joel was preaching at the market square one calm evening.
He had entered into a deep ministry of preaching the word of God and slowly started believing that his church’s doctrines were archaic and that they did not conform to the changes of time. Then, he abandoned the church and founded his own church which he named Salvation Day Church and he was its pastor.
The church was growing at a rate of knots. Many people left their churches to join this new church because of Joel’s moving testimonies. They were the kind of testimonies that moved even hearts that were hard like flint.
It even expanded to other distant areas and recorded as one of the fastest growing churches in the country.
During one Festive Season, Pastor Joel targeted those who spent their times at beer drinking places. Winning to the love of God as many drunkards as possible would be a great testimony, he assured himself.
His first destination was Spot 16 Club, a beer drinking joint situated at Mauni Trading Centre. At the beer-drinking place, he found so many people who had been his close friends during what he called his time of ignorance.
When his former booze mates saw him, they were terribly shocked. News had reached them that their colleague had received the good news of salvation and that he was a transformed man now.
One of the drunkards looked at Joel and said to him: “What does a man of God seek in the midst of sinners?” And his colleagues shrieked with laughter.
“Maybe God has betrayed him,” another one said.
Pastor Joel laughed noiselessly. Looking at the many people who were in the pub, both men and prostitutes, he walked towards them and stopped in their midst.
“Children of God, I have come here to preach the good message from God. Today you can receive this good news and be baptized,” he said and paused.
He read many verses from the Bible and condemned beer drinking in the uttermost way possible. “What shall a man gain by finding all the pleasure in this world while losing his life? Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything shall be added unto you,” he preached.
He went forward towards the counter and picked three bottles of beer. He feigned drunkenness and asked the people in the pub what they gained by being in the state that he was demonstrating.
Hell broke loose the following Sunday. As Pastor Joel was standing behind the pulpit preaching, the drunkards to whom he had preached the good message of salvation stormed the church with bottles of beer in their hands.
The pastor stopped in mid-air as the drunken people invaded the church with their reek of beer and cigarettes. One of the drunkards was carrying a DVD player and another had a television screen. The two walked deftly towards the platform and connected the equipment to an electric socket. All the people in the church were just watching with both amazement and shock.
“People of God, this is high time you knew the truth which has to set you free. Your pastor is a trickster. He uses your hard-earned money to drink beer and here you are listening to his message,” one of the drunken men said.
Pastor Joel just smiled. He believed that it was the entire devil’s work and he told himself that no one in the church would believe those sons of the devil. Then the DVD began to play and everyone’s focus was at the screen.
The congregants were shocked to see their pastor staggering to and fro while holding bottles of beer in one hand with the Bible in another. That was the only part which was shown and one after another, people began to walk out of the church building.
Pastor Joel tried to make an explanation but all in vain. Untold confusion was finally loosed upon all the 28 branches of the Salvation Day Church. News about what had happened at the headquarters of the church was disseminating like wildfire and people could have trust in Pastor Joel no more. And all the 28 flocks scattered to the four winds.
He had been to rehabilitation centres many times but it was as if the correctional facilities had only shaped him into a worse citizen. He had become a hardcore criminal who did not care about human life.
He blandly told those who attempted to bring him into the right lane that if everyone in the world was doing what everyone else was doing, then the world would be a very dull place to live in.
But now he proclaimed with total vigour that he had bidden farewell to his ugly past. He made it clear that he was now the changed Paul who had carried the cross of Christ ready to follow him.
“Brothers and sisters, in every human being’s life, there is a turning point. What matters most is to embrace it,” Joel was preaching at the market square one calm evening.
He had entered into a deep ministry of preaching the word of God and slowly started believing that his church’s doctrines were archaic and that they did not conform to the changes of time. Then, he abandoned the church and founded his own church which he named Salvation Day Church and he was its pastor.
The church was growing at a rate of knots. Many people left their churches to join this new church because of Joel’s moving testimonies. They were the kind of testimonies that moved even hearts that were hard like flint.
It even expanded to other distant areas and recorded as one of the fastest growing churches in the country.
During one Festive Season, Pastor Joel targeted those who spent their times at beer drinking places. Winning to the love of God as many drunkards as possible would be a great testimony, he assured himself.
His first destination was Spot 16 Club, a beer drinking joint situated at Mauni Trading Centre. At the beer-drinking place, he found so many people who had been his close friends during what he called his time of ignorance.
When his former booze mates saw him, they were terribly shocked. News had reached them that their colleague had received the good news of salvation and that he was a transformed man now.
One of the drunkards looked at Joel and said to him: “What does a man of God seek in the midst of sinners?” And his colleagues shrieked with laughter.
“Maybe God has betrayed him,” another one said.
Pastor Joel laughed noiselessly. Looking at the many people who were in the pub, both men and prostitutes, he walked towards them and stopped in their midst.
“Children of God, I have come here to preach the good message from God. Today you can receive this good news and be baptized,” he said and paused.
He read many verses from the Bible and condemned beer drinking in the uttermost way possible. “What shall a man gain by finding all the pleasure in this world while losing his life? Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything shall be added unto you,” he preached.
He went forward towards the counter and picked three bottles of beer. He feigned drunkenness and asked the people in the pub what they gained by being in the state that he was demonstrating.
Hell broke loose the following Sunday. As Pastor Joel was standing behind the pulpit preaching, the drunkards to whom he had preached the good message of salvation stormed the church with bottles of beer in their hands.
The pastor stopped in mid-air as the drunken people invaded the church with their reek of beer and cigarettes. One of the drunkards was carrying a DVD player and another had a television screen. The two walked deftly towards the platform and connected the equipment to an electric socket. All the people in the church were just watching with both amazement and shock.
“People of God, this is high time you knew the truth which has to set you free. Your pastor is a trickster. He uses your hard-earned money to drink beer and here you are listening to his message,” one of the drunken men said.
Pastor Joel just smiled. He believed that it was the entire devil’s work and he told himself that no one in the church would believe those sons of the devil. Then the DVD began to play and everyone’s focus was at the screen.
The congregants were shocked to see their pastor staggering to and fro while holding bottles of beer in one hand with the Bible in another. That was the only part which was shown and one after another, people began to walk out of the church building.
Pastor Joel tried to make an explanation but all in vain. Untold confusion was finally loosed upon all the 28 branches of the Salvation Day Church. News about what had happened at the headquarters of the church was disseminating like wildfire and people could have trust in Pastor Joel no more. And all the 28 flocks scattered to the four winds.
The dignity of offices
The true honour of any office relies deeply not on visitors entering it with dignity, but on the owner of the office keeping the office’s dignity. Every office has its dignity; and every ‘officer’ is obliged to accord their office the dignity it is supposed to have. How we keep our offices speaks volumes about how we keep our homes, even if we may have lazy cleaners who seldom clean them.
More often than not, most of us have the audacity of attaching extraordinary importance to our offices, even if we do not duly dignify them. Of course, to do so is within human nature, since we are naturally not made to despise our own.
Yet, the way we treat our offices often lacks dignity. We have turned them into beer drinking places where we can booze to the maximum and leave behind a reek of beer to haunt our noble visitors.
One of these days, I visited a certain office for some informal business and I was shocked to the core to find the office in complete disarray, yet it was in the middle of the week. And I kept asking myself different questions on why an office that was supposed to be clean and always conducive to visitors should be such a shambles.
My curiosity grew so much that I had to ask the secretary why her boss’s office was such in a condition when he was a man who commanded a great deal of dignity once out there. The secretary did not mince words but instantly said that many people had already complained about the behaviour of her boss who seldom kept his office clean.
I learnt that the office was a constant beer drinking place where the secretary’s boss and his colleagues spent their time, when they thought they had nothing significant to undertake. But above all, my concern was basically on why the boss decided to keep his office in disarray despite the fact that his own presentation was so much admirable.
Oftentimes, our life is ruled by the honour of our offices – for those who have them – for there is no general honour attached to mankind other than the honour that which emanates from his most immediate surrounding; our hope is that which we create without speech, making others feel we deserve dignity not because of how we decently dress or eloquently speak, but how we treat every corner of our surrounding, including places where we may only spend eight hours per day, as in most general offices.
On the other hand, some ‘officers’ turn their offices into dens of immorality where they lure and entice women, including their secretaries, so that they can have sex with them. They do this under the roof of the rooms which were supposed to be so much dignified, and they remain calm, without any sort of compunction.
Joe Kissman, in his book titled Mankind: Social Beings, states that an office as a place where, mostly, formal business takes place, should be the last place to despise; it is the honour of the occupant because any mark left behind is a feasible dent on a Curriculum Vitae – no matter how small the mark may be – for you never know, your prospective employer might just decide to visit your former office before he employs you.
He goes further to say that our care that proceeds from offices emanates from our bedrooms and, therefore has the potential of ruining our chances to marry ‘careful’ wives. His point tries to summarise that the way our offices look is usually a reflection of our real livelihoods. A careful man will always keep his office clean and cannot hold a party there.
Then there are those officers who seldom spend time in their offices, even with no apparent reason. They accept appointments and promise to attend to the seeker of the appointments, but rarely fulfill their promise. They spend their time at entertainment centres during office hours and barely undertake their responsibilities.
And to a man who has knocked at numerous doors only to find that the bwana is not in, it is right to argue that the corrupting influence of powers trickles to the less-privileged and inflicts them most.
More often than not, most of us have the audacity of attaching extraordinary importance to our offices, even if we do not duly dignify them. Of course, to do so is within human nature, since we are naturally not made to despise our own.
Yet, the way we treat our offices often lacks dignity. We have turned them into beer drinking places where we can booze to the maximum and leave behind a reek of beer to haunt our noble visitors.
One of these days, I visited a certain office for some informal business and I was shocked to the core to find the office in complete disarray, yet it was in the middle of the week. And I kept asking myself different questions on why an office that was supposed to be clean and always conducive to visitors should be such a shambles.
My curiosity grew so much that I had to ask the secretary why her boss’s office was such in a condition when he was a man who commanded a great deal of dignity once out there. The secretary did not mince words but instantly said that many people had already complained about the behaviour of her boss who seldom kept his office clean.
I learnt that the office was a constant beer drinking place where the secretary’s boss and his colleagues spent their time, when they thought they had nothing significant to undertake. But above all, my concern was basically on why the boss decided to keep his office in disarray despite the fact that his own presentation was so much admirable.
Oftentimes, our life is ruled by the honour of our offices – for those who have them – for there is no general honour attached to mankind other than the honour that which emanates from his most immediate surrounding; our hope is that which we create without speech, making others feel we deserve dignity not because of how we decently dress or eloquently speak, but how we treat every corner of our surrounding, including places where we may only spend eight hours per day, as in most general offices.
On the other hand, some ‘officers’ turn their offices into dens of immorality where they lure and entice women, including their secretaries, so that they can have sex with them. They do this under the roof of the rooms which were supposed to be so much dignified, and they remain calm, without any sort of compunction.
Joe Kissman, in his book titled Mankind: Social Beings, states that an office as a place where, mostly, formal business takes place, should be the last place to despise; it is the honour of the occupant because any mark left behind is a feasible dent on a Curriculum Vitae – no matter how small the mark may be – for you never know, your prospective employer might just decide to visit your former office before he employs you.
He goes further to say that our care that proceeds from offices emanates from our bedrooms and, therefore has the potential of ruining our chances to marry ‘careful’ wives. His point tries to summarise that the way our offices look is usually a reflection of our real livelihoods. A careful man will always keep his office clean and cannot hold a party there.
Then there are those officers who seldom spend time in their offices, even with no apparent reason. They accept appointments and promise to attend to the seeker of the appointments, but rarely fulfill their promise. They spend their time at entertainment centres during office hours and barely undertake their responsibilities.
And to a man who has knocked at numerous doors only to find that the bwana is not in, it is right to argue that the corrupting influence of powers trickles to the less-privileged and inflicts them most.
Opposition's Pitiful Progress
For the majority of Malawians who have steadily witnessed the country’s progress of politics since the significant 1994 political transition, it makes sense to disclose without any fear of contradiction that the current opposition’s muscle has been put to the most pathetic disarray ever thought of; and it makes more sense if the leader of opposition himself, Hon. Abele Kayembe, comes in the open to reveal that his side is weak.
The opposition in any political dispensation is duly taken as an alternative government endowed with the inevitable responsibility of providing checks and balances to government agenda, among others. It is a very necessary entity in any government because, by design, it is part of it. But, everywhere in the world, it is only an organised opposition that can effectively and efficiently carry out its noble duty of being an alternative government.
After giving the DPP-led government the toughest ride in the party’s political history so far, the opposition finally succumbed to mediocrity and became the unassuming force in Parliament after the last general elections. And many people voiced their concerns on the implication of the DPP’s landslide victory, more especially on the part of parliamentary representation, fearing that such a situation would not be healthy for the ‘honest’ discussing of significant bills in the august house.
But, practical progress proved otherwise: the opposition, despite being in minority, has so far participated in the discussion of bills, using their most feasible intellect, prompting some commentators to observe that the flow of politics does not necessarily depend on the number of opposition members, but the wise participation of such members. Perhaps that is why, even though the opposition proved to be a hard nut to crack in the previous Parliament, there still was vital progress in overall governance.
When Kayembe was making the vital and matter-of-fact announcement that the opposition is weak, there was no dispute – and still there is no dispute about it – but the lucid point that stands out as a sore thumb is that the weakness of the opposition is from within the opposition.
The majority of government representation in Parliament – a source of DPP’s majority – does not weaken the opposition in any practical way. In fact, it was in such a situation as the opposition is in, that its members should have tried their utmost to unite and tread on the same principles to avoid disabling their side which is already in a pitiful condition.
But now, confusion reigns supreme in the two main opposition parties, namely the MCP and the UDF. Inferring from these two parties’ miniature combination, which does not reach anywhere in number to DPP’s representation, it would be the ultimate symbol of wisdom if they came together united and aiming ahead with one principle: that of being responsible for being an admirable alternative government.
Yet, there is untold disorganization in MCP and UDF, and the ‘wise men’ in the parties have lost all conviction of retaining the lost unity which they used to hinder government’s agenda in the last Parliament.
Leadership wrangles in the two parties continue rocking minds of all of us who are concerned with how vital the opposition is in any government. In UDF, Muluzi paved way for others to take over the leadership position and there has been not unanimously-approved party leader so far. And this culminated in the fight of the two factions in the party at the airport, where they were supposed to delightedly welcome the former president back home.
In MCP, divisions began just after the party lost miserably in the last general elections; and now it no longer comes as a surprise to hear that there is confusion in the party due to leadership disagreements. This makes the opposition weaker than Kayembe might have meant – for he never tackled the fact that the opposition is weak because of disagreements and confusion within the two main opposition parties.
Honestly, we should continue anticipating the same pitiful progress for the opposition – and a worse one – if unity in MCP and the UDF is not immediately realized, because it is only when this happens that the opposition as a whole can be united. Otherwise, its noble duty of being an alternative government is miserably failing.
The opposition in any political dispensation is duly taken as an alternative government endowed with the inevitable responsibility of providing checks and balances to government agenda, among others. It is a very necessary entity in any government because, by design, it is part of it. But, everywhere in the world, it is only an organised opposition that can effectively and efficiently carry out its noble duty of being an alternative government.
After giving the DPP-led government the toughest ride in the party’s political history so far, the opposition finally succumbed to mediocrity and became the unassuming force in Parliament after the last general elections. And many people voiced their concerns on the implication of the DPP’s landslide victory, more especially on the part of parliamentary representation, fearing that such a situation would not be healthy for the ‘honest’ discussing of significant bills in the august house.
But, practical progress proved otherwise: the opposition, despite being in minority, has so far participated in the discussion of bills, using their most feasible intellect, prompting some commentators to observe that the flow of politics does not necessarily depend on the number of opposition members, but the wise participation of such members. Perhaps that is why, even though the opposition proved to be a hard nut to crack in the previous Parliament, there still was vital progress in overall governance.
When Kayembe was making the vital and matter-of-fact announcement that the opposition is weak, there was no dispute – and still there is no dispute about it – but the lucid point that stands out as a sore thumb is that the weakness of the opposition is from within the opposition.
The majority of government representation in Parliament – a source of DPP’s majority – does not weaken the opposition in any practical way. In fact, it was in such a situation as the opposition is in, that its members should have tried their utmost to unite and tread on the same principles to avoid disabling their side which is already in a pitiful condition.
But now, confusion reigns supreme in the two main opposition parties, namely the MCP and the UDF. Inferring from these two parties’ miniature combination, which does not reach anywhere in number to DPP’s representation, it would be the ultimate symbol of wisdom if they came together united and aiming ahead with one principle: that of being responsible for being an admirable alternative government.
Yet, there is untold disorganization in MCP and UDF, and the ‘wise men’ in the parties have lost all conviction of retaining the lost unity which they used to hinder government’s agenda in the last Parliament.
Leadership wrangles in the two parties continue rocking minds of all of us who are concerned with how vital the opposition is in any government. In UDF, Muluzi paved way for others to take over the leadership position and there has been not unanimously-approved party leader so far. And this culminated in the fight of the two factions in the party at the airport, where they were supposed to delightedly welcome the former president back home.
In MCP, divisions began just after the party lost miserably in the last general elections; and now it no longer comes as a surprise to hear that there is confusion in the party due to leadership disagreements. This makes the opposition weaker than Kayembe might have meant – for he never tackled the fact that the opposition is weak because of disagreements and confusion within the two main opposition parties.
Honestly, we should continue anticipating the same pitiful progress for the opposition – and a worse one – if unity in MCP and the UDF is not immediately realized, because it is only when this happens that the opposition as a whole can be united. Otherwise, its noble duty of being an alternative government is miserably failing.
Where is Malawi on Special Needs Education?
When Clement Chiwaya, former Member of Parliament for Mangochi Central Constituency, announced his desire to compete in the UDF primary elections in 2004, many people might have doubted whether he would make it, considering the fact that he is physically impaired. But the optimistic Chiwaya defied all odds by winning in the primary elections and later got elected into the National Assembly as an MP for the constituency.
“A person with a disability is anyone with a restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity that is considered normal,” says the Encyclopedia Britannica.
In Malawi, it appears to some extent, people with disabilities are not readily accepted as individuals who can deliver in different sectors. Yet no one can justify this misconception. Above all, no one can justify removing people with disabilities from regular and normal life situations because their rights are not different from those without them.
Many people with disabilities have shown that they can deliver just like the able-bodied if they are given an opportunity. Chiwaya later became Minister responsible for persons with disabilities and the elderly and he delivered. In fact, there are many other people with disabilities who deliver in different capacities.
There are many people with different kinds of disabilities who do not have access to education, specifically Special Needs Education (SNE). Yet this kind of education is considered as a universal right to education for the disabled.
Several initiatives have been established on how people with disabilities can have the same access to education as the able-bodied ones. One of the initiatives is the 1993 Equalization of Opportunity for Persons with Disabilities. Another statement and framework for action on Special Needs Education was drawn by UNESCO in Salamanca, Spain, in 1994.
“Special Needs Education is universal because educated people are equally empowered without any discrimination, a thing that connects it to the general human rights of everyone,” observes a technician in the special needs section at Chancellor College, a constituent college of the University of Malawi.
“One thing that has to be considered is that in terms of education, a child with a disability has exceptional needs and consideration to balance the playing field. His/her education is differentiated from general regular education by its curriculum because some children with disabilities require systematic instruction, special equipment and other things depending on the intensity and or kind of disability,” he adds.
Special Needs Education can sometimes be identified in terms of where it takes place. Depending on the disability, some children cannot be taught in regular classrooms with their peers who do not have them. But the question is: is government doing enough to make sure Special Needs Education is a universal right to education for every citizen with a disability regardless of the kind of impairment or not?
When we look at the history of Special Needs Education in Malawi, we will find that the country was one of the first in Africa to train teachers in special needs.
“Montfort College of Teacher Training and Special Needs Education Centre was founded by Catholic Brothers (Dutch missionaries) in 1950s. With the special focus on the most vulnerable pupils, the requirement on Special Needs Education became apparent. This was the starting point of a teacher training program within SNE,” reads a research paper published by the centre for education research and training of Chancellor College.
For many years now, Montfort has trained specialist teachers from Malawi and other African countries including Botswana, Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa and many more. Yet, Malawi itself seems to suffer when the delivery of Special Needs Education is concerned.
There appears to be no development as along as SNE is concerned. At the otherwise popular Montfort, the special needs training section does not even have its own structures but interchanges with the regular teachers training college’s structures.
Figures from a 2004 survey carried out by the teachers of the deaf in Malawi suggest that there are likely to be around more than 7,000 deaf children this year who are unable to access education; some because they can not travel to a school for the deaf due to the distances and the costs; many because they can not pay the costs of food, lodging and travel; many because there is no room in the Schools for the Deaf; and many because they can not access education in mainstream classes.
Officials from the deaf community in the country disclosed that currently, estimates show that Malawi has over 50,000 hearing impaired people against not more than eleven sign language interpreters. The country is facing a lot of challenges in diverse areas more especially as they want to access communal or any other fundamental services.
“These sign language interpreters are also generally located in the South of the country, so it is hard to get one in the North. There are no professional services therefore, interpreters tend to do their training and leave. There was no certification for qualified interpreters by 2004 which impacted on the salary this profession attracted. It is very low so interpreters have to have a second job,” reads part of a document on special needs education in Malawi which was published in 2006.
People with disabilities are entitled to the equal rights as anybody else. But because of lack of resources, they are habitually more susceptible to the effects of poverty. They are frequently treated as ‘different’, less important or as not having the same rights and needs as other people.
In many cases, misapprehension and prejudice can be a bigger barrier to people with disabilities than their disability itself. A national policy paper on Equalization of Opportunities for persons with disabilities was ratified by the Malawi Cabinet in November 2005. The aim of the policy was to integrate fully persons with disabilities in all aspects of life, thereby equalise their opportunities in order to enhance their dignity and well being, so that they have the essentials of life, among other aims. Concerning education, the policy tackled the issue of equal access and inclusion of persons with disabilities in education and training programmes.
In the document Policy Investment Framework (PIF) 2001, the Ministry of Education addressed the necessity to reinforce the support system of SNE. With the strong political will from the government, the SNE Unit was upgraded into a Department in 2005.
The upgrading of the unit was one step to implement the Policy Investment Framework and the National policy on the equalization of opportunities of the persons with Disabilities. The department was employing staff to cover different areas of disabilities such as visual impairments, hearing impairments and learning difficulties.
In schools, children with physical impairments bank on their friends to have access to classes that have steps. If their colleagues decide not to assist them, then they do not have access to classes, and eventually miss lessons. Some of our young men and women are denied access to institutions of higher learning because university campuses appear to have been designed for students without disabilities only. Most institutions were constructed devoid of considering those with impairments. Many people with disabilities are frustrated, and they stay away from school. This results in most of them being the poorest of the poor.
“People with disabilities need to be empowered, and the best way to empower them is through education. Once they are educated they will support themselves and their families. They should have equal access to education just like anyone else. Let them do small-scale businesses and their lives will change forever,” says Amon Nyirenda, a third year student at Chancellor College.
Imagine what would happen if the majority of people in the world had disabilities. They would have every need at their disposal including special needs education. Just as an able-bodied child needs a pen and a copybook as writing materials, so will a blind child need Braille material for writing. Just like an able-bodied individual cannot go into a house that does not have doors, so will a physically disabled individual fail to climb stairs.
Chancellor College, a constituent college of the University of Malawi has more than 5 visually impaired students, yet the college does not have an established section where these students can learn. They have to learn together with regular students, a thing that becomes very problematic to them.
The most pathetic thing about Special Needs Education in Malawi is that despite the fact that Malawi was one of the first countries in Africa to train specialist teachers, there is no training centre that is fully established so that it may offer higher qualifications in special needs.
Government can do something so that Special Needs Education is considered ‘really’ as a universal right to education for people with disabilities. Otherwise, no one can justify that people with disabilities do not need to have access to education.
Some form of disabilities will need assistive learning devices and this is the duty of the government to ensure that the devices are readily available. To date, 45 years after independence, it is ridiculous to imagine how a country of 13 million people with more than 50, 000 deaf people can only have about fourteen interpreters for sign language.
“A person with a disability is anyone with a restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity that is considered normal,” says the Encyclopedia Britannica.
In Malawi, it appears to some extent, people with disabilities are not readily accepted as individuals who can deliver in different sectors. Yet no one can justify this misconception. Above all, no one can justify removing people with disabilities from regular and normal life situations because their rights are not different from those without them.
Many people with disabilities have shown that they can deliver just like the able-bodied if they are given an opportunity. Chiwaya later became Minister responsible for persons with disabilities and the elderly and he delivered. In fact, there are many other people with disabilities who deliver in different capacities.
There are many people with different kinds of disabilities who do not have access to education, specifically Special Needs Education (SNE). Yet this kind of education is considered as a universal right to education for the disabled.
Several initiatives have been established on how people with disabilities can have the same access to education as the able-bodied ones. One of the initiatives is the 1993 Equalization of Opportunity for Persons with Disabilities. Another statement and framework for action on Special Needs Education was drawn by UNESCO in Salamanca, Spain, in 1994.
“Special Needs Education is universal because educated people are equally empowered without any discrimination, a thing that connects it to the general human rights of everyone,” observes a technician in the special needs section at Chancellor College, a constituent college of the University of Malawi.
“One thing that has to be considered is that in terms of education, a child with a disability has exceptional needs and consideration to balance the playing field. His/her education is differentiated from general regular education by its curriculum because some children with disabilities require systematic instruction, special equipment and other things depending on the intensity and or kind of disability,” he adds.
Special Needs Education can sometimes be identified in terms of where it takes place. Depending on the disability, some children cannot be taught in regular classrooms with their peers who do not have them. But the question is: is government doing enough to make sure Special Needs Education is a universal right to education for every citizen with a disability regardless of the kind of impairment or not?
When we look at the history of Special Needs Education in Malawi, we will find that the country was one of the first in Africa to train teachers in special needs.
“Montfort College of Teacher Training and Special Needs Education Centre was founded by Catholic Brothers (Dutch missionaries) in 1950s. With the special focus on the most vulnerable pupils, the requirement on Special Needs Education became apparent. This was the starting point of a teacher training program within SNE,” reads a research paper published by the centre for education research and training of Chancellor College.
For many years now, Montfort has trained specialist teachers from Malawi and other African countries including Botswana, Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa and many more. Yet, Malawi itself seems to suffer when the delivery of Special Needs Education is concerned.
There appears to be no development as along as SNE is concerned. At the otherwise popular Montfort, the special needs training section does not even have its own structures but interchanges with the regular teachers training college’s structures.
Figures from a 2004 survey carried out by the teachers of the deaf in Malawi suggest that there are likely to be around more than 7,000 deaf children this year who are unable to access education; some because they can not travel to a school for the deaf due to the distances and the costs; many because they can not pay the costs of food, lodging and travel; many because there is no room in the Schools for the Deaf; and many because they can not access education in mainstream classes.
Officials from the deaf community in the country disclosed that currently, estimates show that Malawi has over 50,000 hearing impaired people against not more than eleven sign language interpreters. The country is facing a lot of challenges in diverse areas more especially as they want to access communal or any other fundamental services.
“These sign language interpreters are also generally located in the South of the country, so it is hard to get one in the North. There are no professional services therefore, interpreters tend to do their training and leave. There was no certification for qualified interpreters by 2004 which impacted on the salary this profession attracted. It is very low so interpreters have to have a second job,” reads part of a document on special needs education in Malawi which was published in 2006.
People with disabilities are entitled to the equal rights as anybody else. But because of lack of resources, they are habitually more susceptible to the effects of poverty. They are frequently treated as ‘different’, less important or as not having the same rights and needs as other people.
In many cases, misapprehension and prejudice can be a bigger barrier to people with disabilities than their disability itself. A national policy paper on Equalization of Opportunities for persons with disabilities was ratified by the Malawi Cabinet in November 2005. The aim of the policy was to integrate fully persons with disabilities in all aspects of life, thereby equalise their opportunities in order to enhance their dignity and well being, so that they have the essentials of life, among other aims. Concerning education, the policy tackled the issue of equal access and inclusion of persons with disabilities in education and training programmes.
In the document Policy Investment Framework (PIF) 2001, the Ministry of Education addressed the necessity to reinforce the support system of SNE. With the strong political will from the government, the SNE Unit was upgraded into a Department in 2005.
The upgrading of the unit was one step to implement the Policy Investment Framework and the National policy on the equalization of opportunities of the persons with Disabilities. The department was employing staff to cover different areas of disabilities such as visual impairments, hearing impairments and learning difficulties.
In schools, children with physical impairments bank on their friends to have access to classes that have steps. If their colleagues decide not to assist them, then they do not have access to classes, and eventually miss lessons. Some of our young men and women are denied access to institutions of higher learning because university campuses appear to have been designed for students without disabilities only. Most institutions were constructed devoid of considering those with impairments. Many people with disabilities are frustrated, and they stay away from school. This results in most of them being the poorest of the poor.
“People with disabilities need to be empowered, and the best way to empower them is through education. Once they are educated they will support themselves and their families. They should have equal access to education just like anyone else. Let them do small-scale businesses and their lives will change forever,” says Amon Nyirenda, a third year student at Chancellor College.
Imagine what would happen if the majority of people in the world had disabilities. They would have every need at their disposal including special needs education. Just as an able-bodied child needs a pen and a copybook as writing materials, so will a blind child need Braille material for writing. Just like an able-bodied individual cannot go into a house that does not have doors, so will a physically disabled individual fail to climb stairs.
Chancellor College, a constituent college of the University of Malawi has more than 5 visually impaired students, yet the college does not have an established section where these students can learn. They have to learn together with regular students, a thing that becomes very problematic to them.
The most pathetic thing about Special Needs Education in Malawi is that despite the fact that Malawi was one of the first countries in Africa to train specialist teachers, there is no training centre that is fully established so that it may offer higher qualifications in special needs.
Government can do something so that Special Needs Education is considered ‘really’ as a universal right to education for people with disabilities. Otherwise, no one can justify that people with disabilities do not need to have access to education.
Some form of disabilities will need assistive learning devices and this is the duty of the government to ensure that the devices are readily available. To date, 45 years after independence, it is ridiculous to imagine how a country of 13 million people with more than 50, 000 deaf people can only have about fourteen interpreters for sign language.
JZU's Hope in the Midst of Uncertainty
He is one of the longest-serving politicians in Malawi and he is the only legislator who has been to the National Assembly for more than half a century, and has never been out of it. It should be a peculiar kind of hope and courage that keeps him going even in the midst of turbulent waters. And now, rumour is rife that he has been given another opportunity to attempt to relocate MCP to the State House.
Hope has no alternative in the midst of terrible crises; it is the only thing that calms the situation, and paints a brighter future, even if it may just be illusory. Men are not prosecuted for hoping – even if it means hoping against hope – and hope does not invite any kind of investigation. Nevertheless, oftentimes, it exhibits wisdom not to hope against hope in circumstances that have perfect alternatives.
When all popularity is almost utterly gone; when old age is catching up with us; and when it is clear that we have achieved enough in whatever capacities we have been, it is prudent to step down gently and let others take over. In the whole history of mankind, no leader has ever been dethroned in a humble way, for the fact that they were contesting, on its own, implies any loss amounts to frustration.
John Zenus Ungapake Tembo has tossed others in different directions; and he, too, has had a fair share of the same. And even though he has been two times unlucky in his most treasured dreams – the race to the State House – he keeps on moving towards his destination with hope; a destination that he cannot discard or stop dreaming about. Yet, it seems there is little or no possibility of him ever owning the keys to the State House.
“Tembo has reached the end of his usefulness and MCP should tread carefully if it wants its popularity to be maintained. It should make sure Tembo steps down. After all, he has achieved quite a lot and he should be proud of that, otherwise, if he clings to ‘power’, he will be frustrated to the utmost one time,” observes Joseph Manda, a political and social commentator based in Zomba.
At 77, he was the oldest among the seven candidates who vied for the Malawi’s top most job. But unfortunately, he never made it. And he has never made it – not even when he was Gwanda Chakuwamba’s number two in 1999. Perhaps, that is why he still hopes for the hot seat, for it is usually in the realm of nature for those who become successful ‘too early’ to stop hoping for more. But time and tide waits for no man, not even Tembo.
“In 1960, two years after Dr. Banda's arrival in the country from Ghana to lead the independence struggle from the British colonial rule, Tembo took up a parliamentary seat in Dedza South constituency, a seat he has occupied to this day. He remains the only politician to have occupied a parliamentary seat for five decades, and it is most likely that he will do so even for more, since he is guaranteed of being a legislator at least until 2014,” added Manda, justifying his claim that JZU has achieved quite a lot and should therefore be satisfied with that.
The history of Malawi holds that Tembo was elected to the legislative assembly of Nyasaland in 1961, three years before we gained our independence. He was the second Minister of Finance after independence, succeeding Henry Phillips, in a post for which the intended candidate had been Dunduzu Chisiza.
He was also the only cabinet member not to resign in the notorious “Cabinet Crisis” of 1964, after which most of the President’s closest lieutenants, their opposition to his policies having thwarted, fled the country. It appears he developed his ‘thick skin’ many decades ago. This should, really, be peculiar of Tembo; he has, with ultimate confidence, treaded with all abandon where others have failed to go. Such is a character that defines him up to date. But is it necessary now?
Some commentators argue that Tembo’s closeness to Dr. Banda was reportedly strengthened by the fact that Banda took his (Tembo’s) niece, Cecilia Tamanda Kadzamira, as his mistress and the official First Lady of Malawi. But this might have been just an ‘added advantage’, for many a people who had been so close to Dr. Banda, were not spared the former president’s wrath where he (Dr. Banda) found it necessary to unleash it.
“Tembo remained invincible in the overwhelming powers and authority of the lion of Malawi. He might have constantly done something special; something that maintained or retained a cordial relationship between him and Dr. Banda,” observes Gerald Patani in his research paper titled Why democracy might have come too early for Malawi: a case study of its progress from 1994 to 2009.
As a trusted advisor, Tembo was a force to be reckoned with in Malawi politics for most of Banda’s 30-year tyrannical rule, his power apparently growing as his mentor grew older and frailer. Unpredictably, Banda anointed Tembo’s rival, Gwanda Chakuamba, to be his running mate in Malawi's first multiparty elections. That, still, did not frustrate Tembo. And it appears – at least as of now – there is nothing that can stop him from clinging to ‘power’ if unbearable pressure is not piled on him.
It was the hope of the veteran politician, and many who share his ambitions, that 2009 would finally be the year he would win the keys to State House, after 15 years in opposition. But he did not; yet he keeps on hoping – hoping against hope, as some would observe. But, this is obviously dangerous hope for the future of his party.
Expressing his opinion over Tembo’s potential to rule Malawi, Joseph Jumbe, wrote in The Nation of September last year that Tembo should resign. “Tembo miserably flopped in the may 19 (2009) elections. This, in my opinion, means the MCP president has outlived his usefulness,” said Jumbe.
Nevertheless, Tembo remains unfazed; his eyes are set ahead and, at least, up to now, he has not yet considered quitting politics, let alone the MCP leadership position. And his alleged recent endorsement as MCP’s candidate for 2014 should obviously give him unnecessary courage. For him, there might be little or nothing to lose; but for his party, there is everything to lose.
He appears to harbor constant hope for the future, and this is the hope that has perhaps kept him in his most treasured career for more than half a century. He seems to pride in the maxim which says a calm sea does not make a skillful sailor. He has walked in the shadow of the valley of total collapse, yet he remains what he is; or what he strives to be. Thus, it makes sense to point out that since he has achieved quite a lot, he should let others take over the leadership of the party.
During the last general elections, as presidential candidate for the MCP, he might have banked all his hope on his long experience in government during the MCP's uninterrupted 30 years where he held numerous leadership positions, and on his stronghold – the Central Region, together with the so-called marriage of convenience – to make it to the State House, but luck did not smile at him. It is amidst such kinds of failure where hope needs to thrive best. Where there is no other alternative than to hope, hope needs to flourish most. But in Tembo’s case, there are numerous alternatives: he can either hand over the party’s top most seat to someone else and help in rebuilding the party, or just step down altogether, and, of course, retire from politics.
Those who have at one point followed his political career with keen interest understand that he is not just any politician, but a tough one. He was Dr Banda’s right-hand man during all the three decades he was at the helm, and, maybe, learnt from Banda how stubbornness matters in politics, for there have been numerous calls from the public that he should resign, but he continues defying the calls.
“This was an opportunity for him to remake his cloudy history. In fact, he should have retired long ago,” commented one participant in an online debate on whether or not Tembo has a future in Malawi’s politics.
After being appointed Finance Minister in 1966, he later became the longest-serving central bank chief after being governor for the Reserve Bank of Malawi for a record 13 years, yet he had no previous experience in money matters. It is possible that he made a lot of economic blunders during the period, but his loyalty to Dr. Banda might have no other way of being reciprocated than that he should maintain his position. He also chaired many private and public institutions, including Malawi's then largest conglomerate, Press Corporation Limited, as well as Blantyre Print and Packaging; the University of Malawi, the New Building Society and several banks; all because he was a politician who knew just how to play his cards, but which it appears he no longer knows how to play, for if he did, he would know that time for him to step down has already arrived.
Those good old days, he was a politician who read the situation now and then and worked out the possible solutions within the possible time. Positions that required economic expertise or managerial skills were given to him – even if he had no expertise or experience in the fields – perhaps because of loyalty. Loyalty paid him dividends. And it continued doing so.
During the 1990s, he became the all-powerful Treasurer General of the MCP. He later became Minister of State in the president’s office during the twilight of the MCP’s power when exiled Malawian politicians started agitating for political change around 1992, together with the Catholic Bishops, including the donour community, who were mostly concerned with the abuse of human rights under Dr. Banda’s rule. This should have been a period that troubled Tembo beyond measure, because it was clear that his powers – which were bestowed on him by Dr. Banda – were undergoing a test.
But it appears afterwards he had hope, still, in Dr. Banda. The 1993 extensive cabinet reshuffle, which Dr. Banda carried out, saw the assuming of interim power by a three-member presidential council which Tembo, being a senior MCP official, was part of. The throne was so close to Tembo, yet so far. In fact, it has always been; perhaps that is why he feels he is destined for it. Maybe that is why he has developed a ‘thick skin’ towards all sorts of criticism and critiquing. But for the sake of history, and of course, for his own sake, it would be wise for him to quit politics and be our next statesman, for he will never be one if he continues going against the wishes of the populace.
“Even if the party endorses him, his wisdom should see beyond that and analyze the situation at the grassroots. People who endorsed him might just be afraid of him, or don’t want anyone other than Tembo to be mightier in the party. Sometimes when many people are vying for one position, it is usually the case that they all desire to lose it by giving it to someone else,” observes Moses Mwase, a fourth year Philosophy student at Chancellor College.
Recently, it appeared power wrangles in the once mighty MCP took another twist such that the party seemed to be on the verge of very dangerous divisions. But still, the last thing to do was to endorse Tembo. There is need, many commentators argue, for Tembo to step aside and allow young blood to take over the leadership position of the party. But history might rightly prove that Tembo might not be ready to step aside now; for it is not in his mind now – unless his spirit of holding tight to his decisions has waned. Perhaps, only genuine cries from many MCP supporters that someone else should be at the helm of the party, will be the ultimate thing to bring Tembo to reason. Yet, as is the case in Malawi politics, the voice of the majority at the grassroots is seldom considered.
The MCP constitution bars Tembo to seek re-election after failing twice and when asked about that recently, he said: “That position is between me and my party, the Malawi Congress Party and the people who make a decision at the convention.” And the endorsement should have automatically given him untold hope. That is a dangerous thing for the party that might see him influence the change of the party’s constitution so that he may stand in 2014 without any hurdle.
But, there are some things which require us to give in like old age. This is the most challenging thing as far as Tembo’s political future is concerned. He may soon be heading towards the exit door; and this will be a very welcome achievement for himself and his admirers. He may not rule Malawi, but the years he has been in politics probably equal a rule itself. Above everything, he is the longest-serving politician in Malawi and he has achieved beyond many can imagine: he held myriad challenging positions and that should obviously bring him pride, otherwise, now it may no longer be wise to hope against hope, for all hope is fast fading into oblivion, in spite of the funny endorsement that was recently bestowed on him.
Hope has no alternative in the midst of terrible crises; it is the only thing that calms the situation, and paints a brighter future, even if it may just be illusory. Men are not prosecuted for hoping – even if it means hoping against hope – and hope does not invite any kind of investigation. Nevertheless, oftentimes, it exhibits wisdom not to hope against hope in circumstances that have perfect alternatives.
When all popularity is almost utterly gone; when old age is catching up with us; and when it is clear that we have achieved enough in whatever capacities we have been, it is prudent to step down gently and let others take over. In the whole history of mankind, no leader has ever been dethroned in a humble way, for the fact that they were contesting, on its own, implies any loss amounts to frustration.
John Zenus Ungapake Tembo has tossed others in different directions; and he, too, has had a fair share of the same. And even though he has been two times unlucky in his most treasured dreams – the race to the State House – he keeps on moving towards his destination with hope; a destination that he cannot discard or stop dreaming about. Yet, it seems there is little or no possibility of him ever owning the keys to the State House.
“Tembo has reached the end of his usefulness and MCP should tread carefully if it wants its popularity to be maintained. It should make sure Tembo steps down. After all, he has achieved quite a lot and he should be proud of that, otherwise, if he clings to ‘power’, he will be frustrated to the utmost one time,” observes Joseph Manda, a political and social commentator based in Zomba.
At 77, he was the oldest among the seven candidates who vied for the Malawi’s top most job. But unfortunately, he never made it. And he has never made it – not even when he was Gwanda Chakuwamba’s number two in 1999. Perhaps, that is why he still hopes for the hot seat, for it is usually in the realm of nature for those who become successful ‘too early’ to stop hoping for more. But time and tide waits for no man, not even Tembo.
“In 1960, two years after Dr. Banda's arrival in the country from Ghana to lead the independence struggle from the British colonial rule, Tembo took up a parliamentary seat in Dedza South constituency, a seat he has occupied to this day. He remains the only politician to have occupied a parliamentary seat for five decades, and it is most likely that he will do so even for more, since he is guaranteed of being a legislator at least until 2014,” added Manda, justifying his claim that JZU has achieved quite a lot and should therefore be satisfied with that.
The history of Malawi holds that Tembo was elected to the legislative assembly of Nyasaland in 1961, three years before we gained our independence. He was the second Minister of Finance after independence, succeeding Henry Phillips, in a post for which the intended candidate had been Dunduzu Chisiza.
He was also the only cabinet member not to resign in the notorious “Cabinet Crisis” of 1964, after which most of the President’s closest lieutenants, their opposition to his policies having thwarted, fled the country. It appears he developed his ‘thick skin’ many decades ago. This should, really, be peculiar of Tembo; he has, with ultimate confidence, treaded with all abandon where others have failed to go. Such is a character that defines him up to date. But is it necessary now?
Some commentators argue that Tembo’s closeness to Dr. Banda was reportedly strengthened by the fact that Banda took his (Tembo’s) niece, Cecilia Tamanda Kadzamira, as his mistress and the official First Lady of Malawi. But this might have been just an ‘added advantage’, for many a people who had been so close to Dr. Banda, were not spared the former president’s wrath where he (Dr. Banda) found it necessary to unleash it.
“Tembo remained invincible in the overwhelming powers and authority of the lion of Malawi. He might have constantly done something special; something that maintained or retained a cordial relationship between him and Dr. Banda,” observes Gerald Patani in his research paper titled Why democracy might have come too early for Malawi: a case study of its progress from 1994 to 2009.
As a trusted advisor, Tembo was a force to be reckoned with in Malawi politics for most of Banda’s 30-year tyrannical rule, his power apparently growing as his mentor grew older and frailer. Unpredictably, Banda anointed Tembo’s rival, Gwanda Chakuamba, to be his running mate in Malawi's first multiparty elections. That, still, did not frustrate Tembo. And it appears – at least as of now – there is nothing that can stop him from clinging to ‘power’ if unbearable pressure is not piled on him.
It was the hope of the veteran politician, and many who share his ambitions, that 2009 would finally be the year he would win the keys to State House, after 15 years in opposition. But he did not; yet he keeps on hoping – hoping against hope, as some would observe. But, this is obviously dangerous hope for the future of his party.
Expressing his opinion over Tembo’s potential to rule Malawi, Joseph Jumbe, wrote in The Nation of September last year that Tembo should resign. “Tembo miserably flopped in the may 19 (2009) elections. This, in my opinion, means the MCP president has outlived his usefulness,” said Jumbe.
Nevertheless, Tembo remains unfazed; his eyes are set ahead and, at least, up to now, he has not yet considered quitting politics, let alone the MCP leadership position. And his alleged recent endorsement as MCP’s candidate for 2014 should obviously give him unnecessary courage. For him, there might be little or nothing to lose; but for his party, there is everything to lose.
He appears to harbor constant hope for the future, and this is the hope that has perhaps kept him in his most treasured career for more than half a century. He seems to pride in the maxim which says a calm sea does not make a skillful sailor. He has walked in the shadow of the valley of total collapse, yet he remains what he is; or what he strives to be. Thus, it makes sense to point out that since he has achieved quite a lot, he should let others take over the leadership of the party.
During the last general elections, as presidential candidate for the MCP, he might have banked all his hope on his long experience in government during the MCP's uninterrupted 30 years where he held numerous leadership positions, and on his stronghold – the Central Region, together with the so-called marriage of convenience – to make it to the State House, but luck did not smile at him. It is amidst such kinds of failure where hope needs to thrive best. Where there is no other alternative than to hope, hope needs to flourish most. But in Tembo’s case, there are numerous alternatives: he can either hand over the party’s top most seat to someone else and help in rebuilding the party, or just step down altogether, and, of course, retire from politics.
Those who have at one point followed his political career with keen interest understand that he is not just any politician, but a tough one. He was Dr Banda’s right-hand man during all the three decades he was at the helm, and, maybe, learnt from Banda how stubbornness matters in politics, for there have been numerous calls from the public that he should resign, but he continues defying the calls.
“This was an opportunity for him to remake his cloudy history. In fact, he should have retired long ago,” commented one participant in an online debate on whether or not Tembo has a future in Malawi’s politics.
After being appointed Finance Minister in 1966, he later became the longest-serving central bank chief after being governor for the Reserve Bank of Malawi for a record 13 years, yet he had no previous experience in money matters. It is possible that he made a lot of economic blunders during the period, but his loyalty to Dr. Banda might have no other way of being reciprocated than that he should maintain his position. He also chaired many private and public institutions, including Malawi's then largest conglomerate, Press Corporation Limited, as well as Blantyre Print and Packaging; the University of Malawi, the New Building Society and several banks; all because he was a politician who knew just how to play his cards, but which it appears he no longer knows how to play, for if he did, he would know that time for him to step down has already arrived.
Those good old days, he was a politician who read the situation now and then and worked out the possible solutions within the possible time. Positions that required economic expertise or managerial skills were given to him – even if he had no expertise or experience in the fields – perhaps because of loyalty. Loyalty paid him dividends. And it continued doing so.
During the 1990s, he became the all-powerful Treasurer General of the MCP. He later became Minister of State in the president’s office during the twilight of the MCP’s power when exiled Malawian politicians started agitating for political change around 1992, together with the Catholic Bishops, including the donour community, who were mostly concerned with the abuse of human rights under Dr. Banda’s rule. This should have been a period that troubled Tembo beyond measure, because it was clear that his powers – which were bestowed on him by Dr. Banda – were undergoing a test.
But it appears afterwards he had hope, still, in Dr. Banda. The 1993 extensive cabinet reshuffle, which Dr. Banda carried out, saw the assuming of interim power by a three-member presidential council which Tembo, being a senior MCP official, was part of. The throne was so close to Tembo, yet so far. In fact, it has always been; perhaps that is why he feels he is destined for it. Maybe that is why he has developed a ‘thick skin’ towards all sorts of criticism and critiquing. But for the sake of history, and of course, for his own sake, it would be wise for him to quit politics and be our next statesman, for he will never be one if he continues going against the wishes of the populace.
“Even if the party endorses him, his wisdom should see beyond that and analyze the situation at the grassroots. People who endorsed him might just be afraid of him, or don’t want anyone other than Tembo to be mightier in the party. Sometimes when many people are vying for one position, it is usually the case that they all desire to lose it by giving it to someone else,” observes Moses Mwase, a fourth year Philosophy student at Chancellor College.
Recently, it appeared power wrangles in the once mighty MCP took another twist such that the party seemed to be on the verge of very dangerous divisions. But still, the last thing to do was to endorse Tembo. There is need, many commentators argue, for Tembo to step aside and allow young blood to take over the leadership position of the party. But history might rightly prove that Tembo might not be ready to step aside now; for it is not in his mind now – unless his spirit of holding tight to his decisions has waned. Perhaps, only genuine cries from many MCP supporters that someone else should be at the helm of the party, will be the ultimate thing to bring Tembo to reason. Yet, as is the case in Malawi politics, the voice of the majority at the grassroots is seldom considered.
The MCP constitution bars Tembo to seek re-election after failing twice and when asked about that recently, he said: “That position is between me and my party, the Malawi Congress Party and the people who make a decision at the convention.” And the endorsement should have automatically given him untold hope. That is a dangerous thing for the party that might see him influence the change of the party’s constitution so that he may stand in 2014 without any hurdle.
But, there are some things which require us to give in like old age. This is the most challenging thing as far as Tembo’s political future is concerned. He may soon be heading towards the exit door; and this will be a very welcome achievement for himself and his admirers. He may not rule Malawi, but the years he has been in politics probably equal a rule itself. Above everything, he is the longest-serving politician in Malawi and he has achieved beyond many can imagine: he held myriad challenging positions and that should obviously bring him pride, otherwise, now it may no longer be wise to hope against hope, for all hope is fast fading into oblivion, in spite of the funny endorsement that was recently bestowed on him.
Peter Mutharika: The Next DPP Candidate?
He has blazed the trail out of the blue, and he continues doing so – or being made to do so. His name is slowly becoming a household one and his successes are almost extolled everywhere. He appears to see beyond the present, but projects his hopes for the future which might even be described as distant. Yet, all this appears to be happening against the background of his ‘colleagues’ who were bashed for positioning themselves for the same position he appears to be looking forward to.
Presidential candidates are seldom selected from an anthology of low-profile politicians, neither are they picked from a collection of those politicians whose political futures are in their twilights. Most of them have an easy anointing from their supporters or whoever might have the power to do so, when they have already blazed the trail. Nevertheless, sometimes presidential candidates are pulled from the scraps of what was never universally accepted as the ideal category of leaders-to-be.
Those candidates who are hauled from dormant states are made to be accepted by the majority as the ideal ones through rigorous campaigns which are only aimed at brainwashing doubters. And hard tasks are usually there when the presidential candidate has been carted from nothing in the wake of lack of a proper alternative. But in the face of numerous alternatives, the candidate can be easily but rigorously sold out to the masses within the shortest possible time.
Bingu wa Mutharika had been there in politics before he became the second democratically elected president of Malawi; but he had never been popular. In fact, during the 1999 presidential elections, he was the least performer, savaging less than one percent of the total number of votes cast. Yet, only five years later, he became the most powerful and popular citizen of Malawi. There was nothing peculiar about Bingu’s success; only that it came out a little alarmingly such that it was generally agreed that some men are really blessed with convincing tongues which can soften even the hardest hearts.
The man who sold out Mutharika was constantly described as a political engineer by himself and his admires. And, to date, some Malawians still believe that his eloquence remains without parallel. Yet, others still believe that everything was possible because he had all the financial muscle to move across the length and breadth of this country, manipulating the minds of voters who quickly changed their stands and voted for Mutharika.
The campaign period – the period when Bingu was to be sold out – was small; apparently, too small for one to change the minds of Malawians, but after the elections, the period was proved to have been enough. It was within it that most Malawians got to like a man they had only known very little about only some few weeks ago. It became the historical campaign period in Malawi politics.
And cries from the civil society and other concerned stakeholders that Muluzi had unnecessarily used government machinery in campaigning for Bingu just became faint cries of agony whose impact got diluted by the overwhelming power of the government that finally got the mantle of this country.
Even though, the same government got so much into the business of ensuring corruption was a notion of the past – a thing it embraces to this day – it never prosecuted Muluzi for ushering it into power using ‘illegal’ ways. Thus, it may be just to intimate that even the current government can use government machinery to campaign for whoever it loves without the fear of facing prosecution in the end, due to the conviction that once they get into power, the new leader would in no way shoot themselves in the foot.
Peter Mutharika might be the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate for the 2014 general elections. Government might resort to using all means at its disposal to sell him to the masses so that he is finally ‘integrated’ into the minds of Malawians so that they can finally like him. In fact, it appears the selling has almost established its roots. A week barely passes without the president’s brother beamed on the country’s sole television station, TVM.
Well, his beaming, for argument’s sake, might not mean that he is being sold out to Malawians so that they get familiar with him; but can we loudly intimate that he is being beamed on TVM now and then because he is the only ‘hectic’ minister who is trying his utmost to make sure his ministry is the most efficient in Malawi? Maybe.
“We have seen it; Peter is given more publicity than the Vice President, who, in ranking, is above him. While in certain instances, the Vice President is only beamed on TVM during replays, Peter is given full live coverage, a thing which is rare for a mere minister. This could be a deliberate move aimed at promoting him while suppressing Honourable Joyce Banda. We cannot keep pretending that the VP is not being slowly removed from the list of popular people. She is a victim of politics of elimination, only that hers is a little systematic, such that she remains there in her position while being outside in practical politics,” observes a political commentator who did not want to be named.
Bingu finds nothing wrong with his brother vying for presidency – of course, indeed, there is nothing wrong, for he is a bonafide citizen of Malawi, and qualifies without any speck of doubt to contest as president. But, perhaps the hurdle might be whether Malawians will embrace the notion of having a former president’s brother as the next president.
Some people can argue – and I do so as well – that if Peter contests, he will do so as a Malawian. This is a valid argument, but the brotherhood aspect remains so and out of everything else, it is the only thing that cannot be erased. Malawians will always have in their minds that a president’s brother is contesting; they will rarely consider the other true aspect – that he is also a native Malawian, who is constitutionally legitimate to contest for any position, just like Bingu pointed out sometime back.
“Any candidate in DPP will have government machinery at their disposal, even if it is Peter. They will be popularized using all possible ways, and chances that they will be one of the favourites cannot be underestimated. But, perhaps, if the president’s brother is to stand, then another approach of ‘popularizing’ him might be needed,” says Joseph Manda, a Zomba-based political commentator.
Manda says he has published research papers on the viability of Malawi ever embracing what he calls “dynasty in political positions, particularly the presidency” and has noted several times that Malawians will just need someone else as a presidential candidate, even for their favourite political party, not the current president’s brother. Yet, there is a huge possibility that Peter might be the next DPP presidential candidate.
When Muluzi anointed Bingu against the wishes of most, if not all, UDF senior members, it became apparent that he thought he would rule Malawi indirectly, a thing which keeps haunting him to this day. He had an alternative: his son Atupele would have been his target, but it appears he had read Malawians and had concluded that they would not be ready for the Muluzi dynasty.
In fact, if Atupele became the next UDF presidential candidate, after his father, there wouldn’t be a wide gap between the affairs of the two. Well, this might be theoretically proved wrong, but the practical part of it would, perhaps vindicate the assumption. But, still, perhaps Muluzi excluded Atupele from his considered potential candidates because he knew Malawians would take it with a lot of reservations.
But, Bingu sees things differently; he is not Muluzi and, of course, they have very little in common. He thinks his brother Peter can run for any position, including that of presidency. Well, the president never said Peter ‘should’ run for any position, but only clarified that he was at liberty to do so as a Malawian, not necessarily as his brother.
But, oftentimes, such kinds of sentiments need to be scrutinized more than once, especially when they follow hot on the heels of related scenarios which but have initially been condemned by the same announcer of the sentiments. In essence, before Bingu made it clear that his brother was free to run for any position, there had been the issue of some DPP top members positioning themselves as the party’s presidential candidates for the 2014 presidential race.
And Bingu had come out in the open to bash the ambitious party gurus for failing to concentrate on more urgent issues to do with the development of this country. The president’s bashing shut the mouths of many, and of course, informed them that he might not consider them as the right presidential candidates for the party come the year of remembrance.
“The bashing might have been aimed at creating room for his brother to be ‘popularized’ without any hurdle. He might have thought that if a number of top DPP members continued positioning themselves for 2014, then his brother might have very little room for being made popular among the majority of voters. Of course, we need to be mindful of the fact that the ruling party would eventually hold a convention where the party’s 2014 torchbearer would be elected,” a political scientist who chose not to be named replied in a questionnaire.
But, if history is anything to go by, it may be said without fear of contradiction that if Muluzi endorsed Bingu at the expense of numerous ‘potential’ members who had tirelessly supported him throughout his tenure of office – who had gone to the extent of supporting the former president’s infamous third term bill – then there is nothing that can stop Bingu from disappointing numerous members of the ruling DPP who might have all along thought they would be the next DPP presidential candidate.
After all, in politics, sometimes the best way of progressing is by ignoring the cries of some who might deem your policies to be unwise. And, Bingu may finally employ this notion and endorse his brother for the ruling party’s presidential candidate for 2014.
Furthermore, if history is to be applied in the current political situation (or is it the future political scenario?) and inferring from her low publicity, we may be drawn to assuming that Joyce Banda cannot be the next presidential candidate for the ruling party for 2014.
In fact, this has been the case since we attained our multiparty democracy: Muluzi was totally unwilling to let Justin Malewezi be the next president of Malawi; and Bingu reached the point of saying that his first second, Cassim Chilumpha, had resigned from his position constructively, something which might have been due to the fact that there was a sour relationship between the two. And, we cannot sit down and pretend that there is a totally cordial relationship between the president and his vice now.
What more with her removal as Goodwill Ambassador for Safe Motherhood. It partly substantiates the assumption that she might just be a victim of the ‘popularizing of another’ theory. So, if Joyce Banda appears to be systematically missing on the list of potential DPP candidates for 2014 – where, in fact, other top members appear to be missing, too – then we may be forgiven for concluding that the only one who is being ‘popularized’ most is the one who is present on the list. And, here is where the name of Peter Mutharika stands out.
And recently, delivering a lecture on Human Rights in the Great Hall at Chancellor College, Peter said something that implied he is sure he is going to run for presidency come 2014 – or was it just aimed at testing the waters, so that he should be aware whether or not he may be the right candidate?
“Peter explicitly said that he has big dreams for Malawi which he wants to be fulfilled ten years from now. Of course, any other well-wishing Malawians, especially one with some political power, can have dreams for this country, but then he went further to point out that Barak Obama would not have become president in the absence of the support which he received from university students. This is where we may conclude that he wants to stand as a presidential candidate. And the likely party for him is DPP,” notes James Munyapa, a third year student at the college.
Perhaps, it is just a hasty conclusion to point out that Peter mutharika’s ‘popularizing’ has an underlying motive. Maybe, there is nothing behind it other than that it is emanating from the point that he is a very hectic minister who always wants to transform the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs from its dormant state to one full of activity.
But, then, can we convincingly say that he is the only hectic minister in the whole administration who is hard working? Are most of the things that he does more important than those that other ministers do, that he alone should be frequently given public media coverage when other ministers remain sidelines somewhere in the mist of publicity? Maybe.
And suppose he indeed becomes the next DPP presidential candidate, will all those DPP top members who struggled relentlessly with Bingu during his first tenure of office when he was faced with stiff opposition from the opposition, take it with smiling faces? Will they gladly support him? Won’t they detach themselves from the party and rally together to form a new party?
And if they form a new party, will DPP’s membership remain the same? Won’t their admirers join them, thereby reducing the number of the ruling party’s supporters? Or perhaps nothing like what has been presented here will ever happen. The writing on the wall might just have been erroneously read; perhaps Peter will never be the next DPP presidential candidate.
Presidential candidates are seldom selected from an anthology of low-profile politicians, neither are they picked from a collection of those politicians whose political futures are in their twilights. Most of them have an easy anointing from their supporters or whoever might have the power to do so, when they have already blazed the trail. Nevertheless, sometimes presidential candidates are pulled from the scraps of what was never universally accepted as the ideal category of leaders-to-be.
Those candidates who are hauled from dormant states are made to be accepted by the majority as the ideal ones through rigorous campaigns which are only aimed at brainwashing doubters. And hard tasks are usually there when the presidential candidate has been carted from nothing in the wake of lack of a proper alternative. But in the face of numerous alternatives, the candidate can be easily but rigorously sold out to the masses within the shortest possible time.
Bingu wa Mutharika had been there in politics before he became the second democratically elected president of Malawi; but he had never been popular. In fact, during the 1999 presidential elections, he was the least performer, savaging less than one percent of the total number of votes cast. Yet, only five years later, he became the most powerful and popular citizen of Malawi. There was nothing peculiar about Bingu’s success; only that it came out a little alarmingly such that it was generally agreed that some men are really blessed with convincing tongues which can soften even the hardest hearts.
The man who sold out Mutharika was constantly described as a political engineer by himself and his admires. And, to date, some Malawians still believe that his eloquence remains without parallel. Yet, others still believe that everything was possible because he had all the financial muscle to move across the length and breadth of this country, manipulating the minds of voters who quickly changed their stands and voted for Mutharika.
The campaign period – the period when Bingu was to be sold out – was small; apparently, too small for one to change the minds of Malawians, but after the elections, the period was proved to have been enough. It was within it that most Malawians got to like a man they had only known very little about only some few weeks ago. It became the historical campaign period in Malawi politics.
And cries from the civil society and other concerned stakeholders that Muluzi had unnecessarily used government machinery in campaigning for Bingu just became faint cries of agony whose impact got diluted by the overwhelming power of the government that finally got the mantle of this country.
Even though, the same government got so much into the business of ensuring corruption was a notion of the past – a thing it embraces to this day – it never prosecuted Muluzi for ushering it into power using ‘illegal’ ways. Thus, it may be just to intimate that even the current government can use government machinery to campaign for whoever it loves without the fear of facing prosecution in the end, due to the conviction that once they get into power, the new leader would in no way shoot themselves in the foot.
Peter Mutharika might be the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate for the 2014 general elections. Government might resort to using all means at its disposal to sell him to the masses so that he is finally ‘integrated’ into the minds of Malawians so that they can finally like him. In fact, it appears the selling has almost established its roots. A week barely passes without the president’s brother beamed on the country’s sole television station, TVM.
Well, his beaming, for argument’s sake, might not mean that he is being sold out to Malawians so that they get familiar with him; but can we loudly intimate that he is being beamed on TVM now and then because he is the only ‘hectic’ minister who is trying his utmost to make sure his ministry is the most efficient in Malawi? Maybe.
“We have seen it; Peter is given more publicity than the Vice President, who, in ranking, is above him. While in certain instances, the Vice President is only beamed on TVM during replays, Peter is given full live coverage, a thing which is rare for a mere minister. This could be a deliberate move aimed at promoting him while suppressing Honourable Joyce Banda. We cannot keep pretending that the VP is not being slowly removed from the list of popular people. She is a victim of politics of elimination, only that hers is a little systematic, such that she remains there in her position while being outside in practical politics,” observes a political commentator who did not want to be named.
Bingu finds nothing wrong with his brother vying for presidency – of course, indeed, there is nothing wrong, for he is a bonafide citizen of Malawi, and qualifies without any speck of doubt to contest as president. But, perhaps the hurdle might be whether Malawians will embrace the notion of having a former president’s brother as the next president.
Some people can argue – and I do so as well – that if Peter contests, he will do so as a Malawian. This is a valid argument, but the brotherhood aspect remains so and out of everything else, it is the only thing that cannot be erased. Malawians will always have in their minds that a president’s brother is contesting; they will rarely consider the other true aspect – that he is also a native Malawian, who is constitutionally legitimate to contest for any position, just like Bingu pointed out sometime back.
“Any candidate in DPP will have government machinery at their disposal, even if it is Peter. They will be popularized using all possible ways, and chances that they will be one of the favourites cannot be underestimated. But, perhaps, if the president’s brother is to stand, then another approach of ‘popularizing’ him might be needed,” says Joseph Manda, a Zomba-based political commentator.
Manda says he has published research papers on the viability of Malawi ever embracing what he calls “dynasty in political positions, particularly the presidency” and has noted several times that Malawians will just need someone else as a presidential candidate, even for their favourite political party, not the current president’s brother. Yet, there is a huge possibility that Peter might be the next DPP presidential candidate.
When Muluzi anointed Bingu against the wishes of most, if not all, UDF senior members, it became apparent that he thought he would rule Malawi indirectly, a thing which keeps haunting him to this day. He had an alternative: his son Atupele would have been his target, but it appears he had read Malawians and had concluded that they would not be ready for the Muluzi dynasty.
In fact, if Atupele became the next UDF presidential candidate, after his father, there wouldn’t be a wide gap between the affairs of the two. Well, this might be theoretically proved wrong, but the practical part of it would, perhaps vindicate the assumption. But, still, perhaps Muluzi excluded Atupele from his considered potential candidates because he knew Malawians would take it with a lot of reservations.
But, Bingu sees things differently; he is not Muluzi and, of course, they have very little in common. He thinks his brother Peter can run for any position, including that of presidency. Well, the president never said Peter ‘should’ run for any position, but only clarified that he was at liberty to do so as a Malawian, not necessarily as his brother.
But, oftentimes, such kinds of sentiments need to be scrutinized more than once, especially when they follow hot on the heels of related scenarios which but have initially been condemned by the same announcer of the sentiments. In essence, before Bingu made it clear that his brother was free to run for any position, there had been the issue of some DPP top members positioning themselves as the party’s presidential candidates for the 2014 presidential race.
And Bingu had come out in the open to bash the ambitious party gurus for failing to concentrate on more urgent issues to do with the development of this country. The president’s bashing shut the mouths of many, and of course, informed them that he might not consider them as the right presidential candidates for the party come the year of remembrance.
“The bashing might have been aimed at creating room for his brother to be ‘popularized’ without any hurdle. He might have thought that if a number of top DPP members continued positioning themselves for 2014, then his brother might have very little room for being made popular among the majority of voters. Of course, we need to be mindful of the fact that the ruling party would eventually hold a convention where the party’s 2014 torchbearer would be elected,” a political scientist who chose not to be named replied in a questionnaire.
But, if history is anything to go by, it may be said without fear of contradiction that if Muluzi endorsed Bingu at the expense of numerous ‘potential’ members who had tirelessly supported him throughout his tenure of office – who had gone to the extent of supporting the former president’s infamous third term bill – then there is nothing that can stop Bingu from disappointing numerous members of the ruling DPP who might have all along thought they would be the next DPP presidential candidate.
After all, in politics, sometimes the best way of progressing is by ignoring the cries of some who might deem your policies to be unwise. And, Bingu may finally employ this notion and endorse his brother for the ruling party’s presidential candidate for 2014.
Furthermore, if history is to be applied in the current political situation (or is it the future political scenario?) and inferring from her low publicity, we may be drawn to assuming that Joyce Banda cannot be the next presidential candidate for the ruling party for 2014.
In fact, this has been the case since we attained our multiparty democracy: Muluzi was totally unwilling to let Justin Malewezi be the next president of Malawi; and Bingu reached the point of saying that his first second, Cassim Chilumpha, had resigned from his position constructively, something which might have been due to the fact that there was a sour relationship between the two. And, we cannot sit down and pretend that there is a totally cordial relationship between the president and his vice now.
What more with her removal as Goodwill Ambassador for Safe Motherhood. It partly substantiates the assumption that she might just be a victim of the ‘popularizing of another’ theory. So, if Joyce Banda appears to be systematically missing on the list of potential DPP candidates for 2014 – where, in fact, other top members appear to be missing, too – then we may be forgiven for concluding that the only one who is being ‘popularized’ most is the one who is present on the list. And, here is where the name of Peter Mutharika stands out.
And recently, delivering a lecture on Human Rights in the Great Hall at Chancellor College, Peter said something that implied he is sure he is going to run for presidency come 2014 – or was it just aimed at testing the waters, so that he should be aware whether or not he may be the right candidate?
“Peter explicitly said that he has big dreams for Malawi which he wants to be fulfilled ten years from now. Of course, any other well-wishing Malawians, especially one with some political power, can have dreams for this country, but then he went further to point out that Barak Obama would not have become president in the absence of the support which he received from university students. This is where we may conclude that he wants to stand as a presidential candidate. And the likely party for him is DPP,” notes James Munyapa, a third year student at the college.
Perhaps, it is just a hasty conclusion to point out that Peter mutharika’s ‘popularizing’ has an underlying motive. Maybe, there is nothing behind it other than that it is emanating from the point that he is a very hectic minister who always wants to transform the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs from its dormant state to one full of activity.
But, then, can we convincingly say that he is the only hectic minister in the whole administration who is hard working? Are most of the things that he does more important than those that other ministers do, that he alone should be frequently given public media coverage when other ministers remain sidelines somewhere in the mist of publicity? Maybe.
And suppose he indeed becomes the next DPP presidential candidate, will all those DPP top members who struggled relentlessly with Bingu during his first tenure of office when he was faced with stiff opposition from the opposition, take it with smiling faces? Will they gladly support him? Won’t they detach themselves from the party and rally together to form a new party?
And if they form a new party, will DPP’s membership remain the same? Won’t their admirers join them, thereby reducing the number of the ruling party’s supporters? Or perhaps nothing like what has been presented here will ever happen. The writing on the wall might just have been erroneously read; perhaps Peter will never be the next DPP presidential candidate.
Is Our Freedom Practical?
Freedom is a complex term, understood differently from one setting to another. It may be a result of the liberation that was or has been endowed on a nation or individual, but sometimes freedom tends to be analyzed in its practicability sense. Thus, it has oftentimes been argued that freedom for mankind may just be illusory – a kind of freedom that exists in books only – or it may indeed be practical – that is a kind of freedom that is seen in all its basic interpretations.
The aspect of many nations being under indirect rules of other nations has been taken onto the centre stage by some writers – African writers in particular – who argue it is high time African countries got ‘really’ free. In fact, there is the notion of neocolonialism existing within the minds of many Africans including Malawians. Yet, in Malawi, universal history holds that father and founder of the nation, Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, broke the ‘stupid federation’ and broke Malawi free from the pangs of colonial oppression, thereby rendering Malawi a free nation, free at last.
Essentially, the term neo-colonialism was coined by the first Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah who argued that Africa was just undergoing a new kind of colonialism with Europe still having a hand in the ruling of African countries. This might be decades ago, but the notion is still noted to this day, and is applied in different analyses of African states’ freedoms.
These states, Malawi inclusive, are said to be currently in a phase which is a new form of imperial rule stage managed by the colonial powers to give the colonized the illusion of freedom. And most of the times, we fail to fully and convincingly answer the question of whether or not we are indeed free. Is our freedom really practical, or just theoretical?
It appears the survival of the colonial system, in spite of the formal recognition of political independence in emerging countries which become the victims of an indirect and subtle form of domination by political, economic, social, military or technical means, as neo-colonialism was defined at the 1961 All-African People’s Conference held in Cairo, still exists.
About two months from now, Malawians from all walks of life will be thronging the giant Kamuzu Stadium to cerebrate the country’s 46th independence anniversary, assuming it is going to take place at the traditional venue. This is always a rare occasion marked by new inventions of marking the day which usually have never been there before. That independence came within the context of freedom that became a reality some three years previously or so.
As a matter of fact, at the passing of forty-five years since the British Administration in Malawi handed over power to native Malawians, there was plenty of glamour. It was a rare occasion, garnished with novel exhibitions that left most of us wondering why Malawi remains one of the poorest countries in the world despite having very creative citizens; why we still rely on the West in most of our development projects; and whether the freedom that Kamuzu grabbed from the colonial masters is viably working.
It may be worthy noting that ever since Malawi broke away from the ‘stupid federation’, two types of governments have been experienced, namely the one-party system and the multiparty system. And now, about a half a century down the line, some, if not most people, still believe our freedom is not practical. They go on to argue that in fact there are many countries in the world, with African countries topping the list, whose freedom, up to date, is not practical, even though these countries appear to be independent theoretically.
Some people even reach the point of claiming that Malawi is just under a sophisticated type of colonialism with some underlying colonial masters hidden somewhere miles away.
“We are free in theory; on paper, our freedom is there, but in practice we are far away from that. Well, we rule ourselves, but how can we say we are free when economically we cannot fully provide for ourselves? They (the West) control our economy, and we cannot claim we are free. Even the political freedom that we think we have is not necessarily there,” argues James Kawaye, a fourth year Political Science student at Chancellor College.
Perhaps, his line of thought emanates from the fact that the country relies extensively on donour funds for the majority of its development projects. Since some of the donations come in form of grants where there is an already defined purpose for the donation where the recipient only needs to implement it, we may indeed be forgiven for arguing that there are indirect ruling hands from outside Malawi which rule us.
Maybe indeed there is nothing peculiar about our freedom apart from the fact that we have a native Malawian as the country’s president and that we have our own national flag and constitution; and, our constitution can be taken to be just another vindication that our freedom, at least for now, is not complete, since it is just an adapted version of the British constitution.
As a practical thing, Malawi, it seems, is not a free state. However, to a certain extent, some analysts point out that all the arguments advanced for the justification of the fact that Malawi is not a free state are ill-conceived. They go on to argue that there is no denying that most developing countries rely on donour funds, but this does not conclusively imply that they are not politically free.
Many nationalists and commentators see the independence gained from the withdrawing of colonial powers as only partial liberation. In other words, they argue that independence in its fullness is yet to dawn on Malawi, and most African states. Some call it ‘false freedom’. Full or real freedom, they believe, will come with economic independence, that is the time when Malawi will be able to fund its own development projects using its own money.
But, others still see Malawi to be a completely free state. “There are many rich countries in the world that in certain cases rely on donations even from poorer countries when they have been caught napping in certain crises. Malawi has ever made donations to other countries, but this cannot imply that those countries do not have their freedom in entirety,” argues Leonard Mphande in his yet to be published research paper titled Malawi’s Freedom Seen From an Outsider’s Perspective.
In 1992, the donour community threatened that it would pull out its support to Malawi if the one-party government did not improve on human rights issues and proper governance. The donour community wanted Malawi to start practicing multiparty politics. Some people see that as an underlying rule where foreign countries dictated Malawi’s politics.
But Willy Kambwandira chooses to differ. “I find this argument a little irrelevant as regards independence. Even the United States of America which is taken to be the world’s super-power will embrace advice from other nations. In fact there are international organisations which nations belong to and these nations are supposed to abide by any rule that has been implemented by the organisations,” observes the third year student at Chancellor College.
He goes on to point out that it is wrong to argue that the nations are under the rule of the organisations. Some time back, he observes, the United Nations and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) warned Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe that they would impose sanctions on him once he did not comply to enforcing peace with the leader of the main opposition party, Morgan Tszangirai but this did not mean Zimbabwe was not a free state and it shall never be so.
Perhaps, indeed, that Malawi is still under the control of Western powers with our rulers being either willing puppets or involuntary subordinate of these powers is misguided and a big misrepresentation of facts. It could be true that focusing our attention on misguided reasoning that our country is still under foreign rule has drawn our attention away from internal forces that are crucial to the understanding of our condition and which, unlike external conditions, need to be altered by ourselves.
Some commentators maintain that “the fatalistic opinion that Malawi is stuck in ‘foreign hand ruling’ continues obstructing the growth of popular political movements for social and economic change in our beloved country. In fact, the claim that Malawi is not really free is the one which is theoretical, because it only exists in the minds of some people. The fact of the matter cannot be changed and it remains that upon freedom – on 14 may 1961, Malawi became a free nation, able to plan for its own future.”
When considering the economic conditions of nations in the world it is wise to think of them as belonging to different levels in the global pyramid. At the bottom are the poorest of the poor; while at the top is a tiny minority of some rich countries. And for the balance of the global market, there is need that some countries’ wealth is complimented by donour funds. Perhaps, here is where we may feel that we are not free until the day when we will finally be able to compliment our own economy fully.
But still, if donations mean the absence of freedom, then not more than one percent of the world’s countries would be termed as free states, agues a lecturer at Chancellor College. He further observes that despite the fact that a nation may rely extensively on external assistance, as long as it has its own leader elected by the natives, its own constitution designed by its own natives, it has its freedom and as a practical thing, it is ruling itself.
There could indeed be nothing like theoretical freedom. As a matter of fact, there is no country in the world which is being ruled by another country, and every country is free – freedom it its fullness, and never partial, argues the lecturer.
He goes on to say that even Iraq, which is under constant threats from the United States of America, is a free state. It has its own president elected by native Iraqis.
Perhaps, we also need to consider the fact that there are some brave individuals who fought relentlessly for Malawi to gain its freedom, among whom Dr. Banda is one, and it would be mockery to these departed souls to claim that Malawi is still not free. But, if truth is there, should it not be told because of fear to offend the dead?
But, on the other hand, it has to be noted that freedom does not mean solitude. As a country, we cannot live in absolute solitude without any external influence. Just like any other state in the world, Malawi will continue interacting with other countries, and yet our freedom will never cease to be. But perhaps, we cannot run away from the fact that this freedom is not yet complete.
And on the other hand, much as we may receive funds from other countries, especially from the West, the government of Malawi has the final say. Even if it is a grant, the donour will not dictate other aspects. For example, the donour will not decide where the grant has to be implemented, though it has to be acknowledged that the purpose will not be changed.
Above all, Malawi is a free state just like any other country in the world. There is nothing more to being free other than the fact that we have our own leader. But, the question which might bring us to conclude that our freedom is not entire yet is that of the international community, oftentimes, having a hand in the affairs of this country.
The aspect of many nations being under indirect rules of other nations has been taken onto the centre stage by some writers – African writers in particular – who argue it is high time African countries got ‘really’ free. In fact, there is the notion of neocolonialism existing within the minds of many Africans including Malawians. Yet, in Malawi, universal history holds that father and founder of the nation, Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, broke the ‘stupid federation’ and broke Malawi free from the pangs of colonial oppression, thereby rendering Malawi a free nation, free at last.
Essentially, the term neo-colonialism was coined by the first Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah who argued that Africa was just undergoing a new kind of colonialism with Europe still having a hand in the ruling of African countries. This might be decades ago, but the notion is still noted to this day, and is applied in different analyses of African states’ freedoms.
These states, Malawi inclusive, are said to be currently in a phase which is a new form of imperial rule stage managed by the colonial powers to give the colonized the illusion of freedom. And most of the times, we fail to fully and convincingly answer the question of whether or not we are indeed free. Is our freedom really practical, or just theoretical?
It appears the survival of the colonial system, in spite of the formal recognition of political independence in emerging countries which become the victims of an indirect and subtle form of domination by political, economic, social, military or technical means, as neo-colonialism was defined at the 1961 All-African People’s Conference held in Cairo, still exists.
About two months from now, Malawians from all walks of life will be thronging the giant Kamuzu Stadium to cerebrate the country’s 46th independence anniversary, assuming it is going to take place at the traditional venue. This is always a rare occasion marked by new inventions of marking the day which usually have never been there before. That independence came within the context of freedom that became a reality some three years previously or so.
As a matter of fact, at the passing of forty-five years since the British Administration in Malawi handed over power to native Malawians, there was plenty of glamour. It was a rare occasion, garnished with novel exhibitions that left most of us wondering why Malawi remains one of the poorest countries in the world despite having very creative citizens; why we still rely on the West in most of our development projects; and whether the freedom that Kamuzu grabbed from the colonial masters is viably working.
It may be worthy noting that ever since Malawi broke away from the ‘stupid federation’, two types of governments have been experienced, namely the one-party system and the multiparty system. And now, about a half a century down the line, some, if not most people, still believe our freedom is not practical. They go on to argue that in fact there are many countries in the world, with African countries topping the list, whose freedom, up to date, is not practical, even though these countries appear to be independent theoretically.
Some people even reach the point of claiming that Malawi is just under a sophisticated type of colonialism with some underlying colonial masters hidden somewhere miles away.
“We are free in theory; on paper, our freedom is there, but in practice we are far away from that. Well, we rule ourselves, but how can we say we are free when economically we cannot fully provide for ourselves? They (the West) control our economy, and we cannot claim we are free. Even the political freedom that we think we have is not necessarily there,” argues James Kawaye, a fourth year Political Science student at Chancellor College.
Perhaps, his line of thought emanates from the fact that the country relies extensively on donour funds for the majority of its development projects. Since some of the donations come in form of grants where there is an already defined purpose for the donation where the recipient only needs to implement it, we may indeed be forgiven for arguing that there are indirect ruling hands from outside Malawi which rule us.
Maybe indeed there is nothing peculiar about our freedom apart from the fact that we have a native Malawian as the country’s president and that we have our own national flag and constitution; and, our constitution can be taken to be just another vindication that our freedom, at least for now, is not complete, since it is just an adapted version of the British constitution.
As a practical thing, Malawi, it seems, is not a free state. However, to a certain extent, some analysts point out that all the arguments advanced for the justification of the fact that Malawi is not a free state are ill-conceived. They go on to argue that there is no denying that most developing countries rely on donour funds, but this does not conclusively imply that they are not politically free.
Many nationalists and commentators see the independence gained from the withdrawing of colonial powers as only partial liberation. In other words, they argue that independence in its fullness is yet to dawn on Malawi, and most African states. Some call it ‘false freedom’. Full or real freedom, they believe, will come with economic independence, that is the time when Malawi will be able to fund its own development projects using its own money.
But, others still see Malawi to be a completely free state. “There are many rich countries in the world that in certain cases rely on donations even from poorer countries when they have been caught napping in certain crises. Malawi has ever made donations to other countries, but this cannot imply that those countries do not have their freedom in entirety,” argues Leonard Mphande in his yet to be published research paper titled Malawi’s Freedom Seen From an Outsider’s Perspective.
In 1992, the donour community threatened that it would pull out its support to Malawi if the one-party government did not improve on human rights issues and proper governance. The donour community wanted Malawi to start practicing multiparty politics. Some people see that as an underlying rule where foreign countries dictated Malawi’s politics.
But Willy Kambwandira chooses to differ. “I find this argument a little irrelevant as regards independence. Even the United States of America which is taken to be the world’s super-power will embrace advice from other nations. In fact there are international organisations which nations belong to and these nations are supposed to abide by any rule that has been implemented by the organisations,” observes the third year student at Chancellor College.
He goes on to point out that it is wrong to argue that the nations are under the rule of the organisations. Some time back, he observes, the United Nations and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) warned Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe that they would impose sanctions on him once he did not comply to enforcing peace with the leader of the main opposition party, Morgan Tszangirai but this did not mean Zimbabwe was not a free state and it shall never be so.
Perhaps, indeed, that Malawi is still under the control of Western powers with our rulers being either willing puppets or involuntary subordinate of these powers is misguided and a big misrepresentation of facts. It could be true that focusing our attention on misguided reasoning that our country is still under foreign rule has drawn our attention away from internal forces that are crucial to the understanding of our condition and which, unlike external conditions, need to be altered by ourselves.
Some commentators maintain that “the fatalistic opinion that Malawi is stuck in ‘foreign hand ruling’ continues obstructing the growth of popular political movements for social and economic change in our beloved country. In fact, the claim that Malawi is not really free is the one which is theoretical, because it only exists in the minds of some people. The fact of the matter cannot be changed and it remains that upon freedom – on 14 may 1961, Malawi became a free nation, able to plan for its own future.”
When considering the economic conditions of nations in the world it is wise to think of them as belonging to different levels in the global pyramid. At the bottom are the poorest of the poor; while at the top is a tiny minority of some rich countries. And for the balance of the global market, there is need that some countries’ wealth is complimented by donour funds. Perhaps, here is where we may feel that we are not free until the day when we will finally be able to compliment our own economy fully.
But still, if donations mean the absence of freedom, then not more than one percent of the world’s countries would be termed as free states, agues a lecturer at Chancellor College. He further observes that despite the fact that a nation may rely extensively on external assistance, as long as it has its own leader elected by the natives, its own constitution designed by its own natives, it has its freedom and as a practical thing, it is ruling itself.
There could indeed be nothing like theoretical freedom. As a matter of fact, there is no country in the world which is being ruled by another country, and every country is free – freedom it its fullness, and never partial, argues the lecturer.
He goes on to say that even Iraq, which is under constant threats from the United States of America, is a free state. It has its own president elected by native Iraqis.
Perhaps, we also need to consider the fact that there are some brave individuals who fought relentlessly for Malawi to gain its freedom, among whom Dr. Banda is one, and it would be mockery to these departed souls to claim that Malawi is still not free. But, if truth is there, should it not be told because of fear to offend the dead?
But, on the other hand, it has to be noted that freedom does not mean solitude. As a country, we cannot live in absolute solitude without any external influence. Just like any other state in the world, Malawi will continue interacting with other countries, and yet our freedom will never cease to be. But perhaps, we cannot run away from the fact that this freedom is not yet complete.
And on the other hand, much as we may receive funds from other countries, especially from the West, the government of Malawi has the final say. Even if it is a grant, the donour will not dictate other aspects. For example, the donour will not decide where the grant has to be implemented, though it has to be acknowledged that the purpose will not be changed.
Above all, Malawi is a free state just like any other country in the world. There is nothing more to being free other than the fact that we have our own leader. But, the question which might bring us to conclude that our freedom is not entire yet is that of the international community, oftentimes, having a hand in the affairs of this country.
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