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| Features |
| Is UDF doomed? |
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by
Mzati Nkolokosa, 23 January 2006
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06:39:49
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The sickness of UDF national chair Bakili Muluzi is bad news for the 13-year old party. But there is worse news.
The former president is under pressure from his peers (the African Leaders Forum) to quit active, partisan politics at a time UDF is weak, almost on its death bed.
It all started five years ago when, most brazenly, Muluzi wanted to remain in office through dubious, undemocratic means.
Some officials left UDF and formed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to fight the ugly open term campaign. Four years ago, when the third term collapsed, Muluzi imposed President Bingu wa Mutharika on UDF. Again the party lost some of its founding members who had endured undemocratic tendencies for long in anticipation of change which never came.
It all climaxed on February 4 last year, when Mutharika resigned from UDF to form his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). That was the biggest shock because UDF became an opposition party without losing an election.
That was not all. The end of 2005 shamed UDF. The party failed to win a single seat in the December 6 by-elections.
This was poetic justice, nature taking charge for a party that, a couple of years ago, was imposing itself to rule forever saying “people wanted Muluzi and UDF to continue with development work”. Now UDF is sick just like its national chair. Party spokesman Sam Mpasu says Muluzi has been unable to stand or walk freely for some time.
The party, too, cannot stand to DPP. The national chair may quit and there is no-one readily available to take the party towards 2009 elections. Does this mean the UDF is dying? What is the problem? Can it be solved?
“The problem with our party is that we have failed to adopt democratic values,” said one party official. “We could not have lost the Zomba Thondwe constituency to DPP if we had listened to people.”
Imposition of candidates is a problem UDF has failed to overcome for years. The results of 2004 parliamentary elections, which produced more independent MPs in Mangochi and Machinga than ever before, bear testimony.
“We have learned our lessons,” said Mpasu in a recent interview. The problem with UDF, added Mpasu, is that the party has been “too democratic by accepting anybody who claimed to be UDF”. He meant people who came to the party a couple of years ago and are now with DPP.
That is a political insight. But scientifically, UDF was not “too democratic” but careless and pompous. Once in government, the party was using money, threats and political power to gain support.
All business people had to join UDF to get contracts from government and para-statals. Thugs had to declare loyalty to the party in order to avoid the law.
Even unqualified people got top positions simply by wearing bright, yellow colours. Even the University of Malawi, which is supposed to employ on merit, was affected too. Some people became academic staff through the back door.
The jobless were given K50 for singing ayimanso and other empty party slogans. No-one was safe except Muluzi, some party officials and the young democrats. People from all walks of life were beaten for holding an alternative view or saying the truth.
Young democrats terrorised people in the presence of the powerless Police. Party officials, members and thugs were like people living above Malawi while the rest of us were on the ground. They behaved as if UDF would be in power forever.
This created very artificial party support and from 1994 UDF was visibly a temporary institution. Now UDF seems about to die. People have rejected the party even where it was strong. Zomba Thondwe constituency, considered UDF master bedroom, voted for a DPP candidate to Parliament. The same in Nsanje, Chiradzulu, Zomba, Mzimba, Nkhata Bay and Chitipa—people voted DPP into Parliament.
Some analysts attributed DPP’s success to weaknesses in UDF and Aford. That is true but not enough. DPP needed a reason within itself to win. “If there was an election today, I would vote for DPP,” a Mangochi Turn-Off bicycle taxi operator, Benjamin Theu, said.
This was the opinion of several people on both sides of Shire River. Theu said the Mutharika administration has been distributing maize and other food stuffs to people for months. “Of course, I am not a beneficiary,” he said. “But I can vote for his party.”
Here is a lesson for Mutharika and his DPP. A party’s popularity doesn’t come from rallies and coverage by public broadcasters whose power is overestimated by Malawian politicians.
A government has to deliver and, in some people’s views, the Mutharika administration has done this. But this raises serious questions as well. If DPP were out of government, could the party have achieved this popularity? This shows DPP might be a temporary institution as well, that came with Mutharika and might go with him.
So, is UDF dying? “No,” say UDF diehards. It’s like a snake shading off its skin, they insisted. I want to be hopeful that UDF is not on its death bed. But I am afraid. The truth is stark naked. The party is removing its skin when it needed to take away its soul—the undemocratic tendencies and those behind them.
As one UDF official asked: Who is there to lead UDF after Muluzi? All were under his arm pits. The party was a personal cult of Muluzi. He was UDF. His end is the end of UDF as well. This is a warning to DPP as well. The party may enjoy popularity for a moment but there isn’t so much new happening.
Muluzi’s sickness is symbolic of UDF. His leg has got a problem. Mpasu says Muluzi has been unable to stand on his feet. The party, too, could not stand to DPP in the December 6 by-elections.
UDF’s disaster confirms the verse of one fine writer, Ken Lipenga. The former Chancellor College English lecturer’s short but powerful line is “All roads lead to Sapitwa”. Of course, all roads lead to Sapitwa and it’s true of Malawi’s politics, especially of UDF.
But not all politicians are ascending. Some are climbing down. The UDF is falling wildly like a stone and the party may not climb up again.
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