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| Columns |
| My Diary |
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by
Steven Nhlane, 17 June 2006
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05:20:05
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RIP Chihana
14/06/06—There is no doubt that Malawi has lost one of its greatest sons in Chakufwa Tom Chihana, whose remains were expected to be interred today in Mzuzu as the Diary went to press.
Most Malawians will probably remember Chihana for his April 6, 1992 daredevil landing at Kamuzu International Airport after he had, a few weeks earlier, in Zambia, described the then mighty Malawi Congress Party as a party of death and darkness. The epoch-making event that attracted world publicity transformed until that time, little known Chihana, into an instant hero.
Why Chihana made news is that in 1992, it was inconceivable for any Malawian to cast negative tones on MCP and Ngwazi Dr. H Kamuzu Banda as Chihana had just done, challenge to come home and face the consequences. Memories were fresh in many people’s minds of how government had been dealing with people wearing the tag ‘dissidents’. Did Chihana not know about how Attati Mpakati and Mkwapatira Mhango had just been eliminated a few years earlier in Harare, Zimbabwe and Lusaka, Zambia, respectively, by the MCP government’s Israeli-trained secret agents? So just who was this man who could challenge Kamuzu like that?
But Chihana went ahead, against the odds, to fulfil his pledge and was set to proclaim MCP as a party of death and darkness on Malawi soil.
Capitalising on the political fermentation created by the Catholic Bishop’s Lentern Letter’s vitriolic attack on government, he did land at KIA in April 1992, walked down the ladders and as he started reading his speech, police snapped and locked him up. He was controversially tried and tucked away from media glaze—imprisoned for nine months.
But rather than dim his political career, the prison stint ironically provided the fuel that fanned unquenchable political flames and heroism around his name.
Chihana came out of prison just in time to participate in the May 1994 elections. But damage had been done. The rest is history.
The other paradox is that the beginning of Chihana’s fall could also be traced to the day he took over from Augustine Mnthambala, the man who stood at the helm of the Alliance for Democracy, while Chihana was in jail.
Riding a wave of heroism sustained and raised to even higher levels while he was in prison, power must have gone to Chihana’s head. Thinking he was the most popular political figure on the land, he refused to join hands with UDF president Bakili Muluzi and go to the polls as one force against Kamuzu.
Some have argued that Chihana’s big mistake was the appointment of first shadow cabinet which was full of people from his home region. But one thing that was clear and which slowly led to the downfall of Aford is that the man became too big for his party. The result was that he could not listen to anyone in the party. He was from then onwards rightly called the Aford czar by some media houses who were not amused with his style of leadership.
Coming out third and with only 36 MPs in the 1994 general elections, and nursing vengeful feelings (of the unimanyenge [you will see] syndrome), the Aford strongman quickly herded his party into a marriage of convenience with MCP’s Gwanda Chakuamba with the objective of frustrating the UDF government. But that alliance only lasted a few months. As if taking defeat in the 1994 elections with grace, Chihana again moved his party out of the alliance with MCP for another marriage with the ruling UDF, where he was appointed Second Vice-President.
And at a time when everybody was thinking that the cock had come to roost, Chihana was hatching something else. Either the marriage with UDF had served (or outlived) its purpose, or Chihana was apparently not satisfied with the position of Second Vice-President. In May 1996, after 19 months in government, Aford dumped government. But not without bruises. Not all Aford ministers left government. This was one of the first open defiance to Chihana’s leadership. Some of those who remained in the UDF-led government were Chihana’s own blue-eyed boy Mapopa Chipeta, Matembo Nzunda, Melvyn Moyo and two deputy ministers. Aford and Chihana’s popularity had definitely started to take a toll.
As the 1999 elections were drawing near, something was again in the offing—an Aford/MCP coalition. Perhaps having learned from the 1994 experience, this time round, Chihana neither stood as a presidential candidate in the 1999 elections nor as an MP. But it was his party which came out worse off—with only 29 seats in the House. The problem was that the Gwanda Chakuamba/Chihana team underrated and ignored the then MCP vice-president John Tembo’s political clout.
Come the 2004 elections, Aford appendaged itself to UDF, supporting Muluzi’s unpopular open and third term bids. The move helped UDF and other new parties, notably Republican Party and People’s Progressive Party to make inroads into the once Aford stronghold. From 29 seats in the 1999 elections, Aford only managed to get a measly six seats in the 2004 polls—one each in Mzimba, Karonga and Chitipa and three in Rumphi. Chihana would even have lost the Rumphi Central seat to the then RP’s Queen Gondwe had the Aford leader not been Second Vice-President in the UDF-led government, a position that gave him resources to campaign with.
During the past two years, Aford has lost four MPs to the ruling party and now one (Chihana) to death. In short, from 36 to 29 to two, Aford now has a single MP in the House. Too bad for the once mighty Aford.
If Chihana outlived his usefulness in Aford and was the problem, it remains to be seen how the new leadership will bring the party back on a sound political and financial footing.
As an individual, let us admit that Chihana was a fighter, a good change agent and that he deserves a big place in the country’s history book (ever to be written) on political freedom. May his soul rest in peace.
––Feedback: stevenhlane@yahoo.co.uk
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