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| Opinion |
| Editorial |
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by
Editor, 28 January 2006
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04:58:00
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Try dialogue among parties, not impeachment
When UDF and MCP ganged up to impeach President Bingu wa Mutharika, we joined the many voices that opposed the move. This we did not because Mutharika was innocent—use of public funds to pay fees for family members or the continued abuse of parastatal resources by DPP cannot be a mark of innocence. But we felt his wrongs could not be corrected differently and spare the nation the burden of shouldering the huge cost of an impeachment.
For the same reason we oppose the plot to impeach Speaker Louis Chimango.
There may indeed be things he had done badly while executing duties—indeed, some of us in the media also detest his tendency to hang up on us when we seek his views on matters of national importance—but to err is human and Chimango is human. What is needed is to raise those issues with him and think about impeachment as the last resort.
That way the nation will be spared the cost of the inevitable tension that will develop between Chimango and his sympathisers one the one hand, and the parties that supported the impeachment on the other. Experience has shown that it is always innocent Malawians who pay the price when their elected leaders abandon the development agenda and spend their energies on power struggle and other trivial pursuits.
DPP, as a party where the President and most of the Cabinet belongs, should strive to lead by example, especially in fostering tolerance among the many parties that exist in Malawi. Many people, including diplomats, have urged the President to take the lead in diffusing tension between the government and opposition sides. What we have seen instead is ignoring that good advice and trying to build a power base by undermining the opposition.
We read about a task force to buy opposition members. Of course, DPP spokesperson denied this saying the MPs were ditching their parties on their own. Now we hear about DPP forming another task force to use the gained numbers to remove the Speaker. Prior to this, we heard about using the bought MPs to change the Constitution to let the President fire his deputy.
All this sounds familiar. UDF also abused its numerical strength in Parliament. But another fact is that those who abuse power end up in the cold because voters ditch them at the ballot. We hope DPP and other parties will always remember this when making decisions on behalf of the electorate. |
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