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| National |
| ‘UDF forcing chiefs to become political’ |
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by
George Ntonya, 09 June 2003
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08:49:56
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Kasungu South MP Situsi Nkhoma last Wednesday told an international conference on the country’s democracy that some traditional leaders have become political as they advance policies of the ruling UDF in exchange for economic benefits.
In a paper he presented to the three-day conference in Lilongwe, Nkhoma said that government has in some cases elevated traditional leaders to various positions to get their support even on partisan matters. He cited the involvement of some traditional leaders from Kasungu in government’s third term bid.
“To-date a lot more traditional leaders have been elevated to various positions in order to entice them to support government in its endeavours. It is this kind of inducement that has encouraged chiefs to be politically active,” he said.
In his capacity as chair of the Chiefs Council, Senior Chief Kaomba of Kasungu played a major role in efforts to lobby Parliament to amend the Constitution to allow the country’s president serve for up to three five-year terms instead of the current two-term ceiling.
Other traditional leaders in different parts of the country also openly endorsed their support for the amendment whose fate is still unknown.
A bill for the amendment was withdrawn from Parliament just before it was voted on when the then Attorney General Henry Phoya decided to refer it to the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs. The committee is yet to report back to the House.
Situsi Nkhoma told the conference he fell out with some chiefs in the district for openly opposing the proposed constitutional amendment.
“They (traditional leaders) have imposed their ideas on the people, contrary to the spirit of democracy and decentralisation,” said the MP of traditional leaders who, he said, consider their well being first at the expense of democratic principles and the ongoing decentralisation process, which aims at transferring power to the grass roots.
The MP said that opposition parties have had problems holding meetings in some parts of the country because the partisan traditional leaders block them. This, he said, this has encouraged political intolerance among people in the villages.
Nkhoma also said Kasungu District Commissioner Christopher Makileni acts as an agent of the ruling party and has compromised the integrity of his office.
“The authorities at Capital Hill are supposed to check his activities and guide him accordingly,” he said.
But Makileni denied the allegations and described the MP as “insane”.
The MP recommended that traditional leaders be well remunerated by district
assemblies, and not the central government, to avoid the political manipulation.
Justice Anastazia Msosa said in her contribution that something ought to be done to address the situation if the 2004 general elections were to be seen to be free and fair for all concerned parties.
“Let us be careful [so] that we do not use chiefs to intimidate people,” she said.
Director of planning in the Ministry of Local Government Lucky Sikwese told the conference the Local Government Act was clear on the roles of traditional leaders.
He said traditional leaders are supposed to play a role in development projects in their areas in collaboration with the government of the day but noted that there was confusion in distinguishing government from a political party.
The conference, which is sponsored by the German government, is reviewing the country’s democracy 10 years after Malawians changed from a single party dictatorship to a multiparty system of government. It closed yesterday with insights from secretaries general of the country’s the major political parties.
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