The Biggest Betrayer

The last time I spoke to Atupele Muluzi and Henry Phoya was in July last year. I was working on a feature in which I intended to compare their visions for Malawi – if at all they had any – and whether they saw themselves standing in the 2014 presidential elections. With the young Muluzi, it was already clear that he was willing to stand, while Phoya had not come out to give his views on whether he would stand or not.

My attention was immediately drawn to the 20 July demonstrations because they stole a good chunk of publicity. I postponed my assignment on the two politicians and informed them I would be back, something I never did.

Then just at the beginning of last month, I decided to resuscitate my assignment. I was more interested now than ever before because Muluzi had come up with his ‘agenda for change’ while Phoya seemed to have hibernated into a slumber after joining the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). Again, fate overtook my project and I found myself concentrating on the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika and the events that were likely to follow.

Of course, Mutharika’s death brought me to thinking that Atupele’s visions suddenly became blurred since his main aim was to change ‘anomalies’ that were being committed by the Mutharika administration. I however, was hopeful that there were some more important things that the young Muluzi would want to pursue within his ‘agenda for change’.

But, I was shocked to the core when I learnt that Atupele had accepted to be included in the new cabinet. He is now Minister of Economic Planning and, politically, that doesn’t seem fair enough to his supporters. I have to be honest, being one of the youths who are struggling to find employment these days, I liked Atupele’s vision of creating numerous job opportunities.

And with his joining government, I have seen in him the greatest betrayer of our time. I don’t know what Atupele and President Joyce Banda agreed, but I should think most people especially the youth of this country feel terribly betrayed. We banked our hopes on him such that we would even generously vote for him come 2014, but now we feel like we don’t have a clear direction.

Of course, he is saying that he still remains a member of United Democratic Front (UDF), but it seems rather hard to imagine that he would be able to campaign freely against a government he belongs to. One thing that is clear about politics everywhere in the world is that new candidates often capitalise on the mistakes made by the current power holders to replace them. Will Atupele capitalise on JB’s mistakes now that she is his boss?

Well, he may choose to resign from his ministerial position as elections close nigh, but will his supporters understand him? After all, he recently said that his aim was to see things change in Malawi, and now that fate chose to change things, he was fine with that. He informed us that he wasn’t after presidency; rather, he was after change.

Personally, I haven’t attended any of Atupele’s political rallies, but on a number of occasions, I have been reliably informed about how large the crowds were. I was told his rallies attracted more people than Mutharika’s, and that is where one wonders why the young Muluzi has been easily drawn into submission when two years were just two little for a man with a vision.

Atupele seemed to be the favourite among many aspiring presidential candidates because of his clean record in politics. The last time I checked, the young Muluzi hasn’t had any patch on his political career. It is only his decision to accept a ministerial position that seems to have somehow tainted his political image, but let’s hope even that will be rectified the soonest; otherwise, for the time being, we remain feeling betrayed.

As for Phoya, it is hard to accuse him of having betrayed us because he never came in the open that he was aspiring for presidency come 2014. Of course, he was one of the youths’ favourites, but a decision to compete in the presidential elections solely remained his.