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| Features |
| End of Chihana’s political career |
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by
Jacob Jim, 08 February 2005
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14:52:46
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Chakufwa Tom Chihana is one politician who shows all the marks of many post-independence African leaders — brave freedom fighters but dictatorial and atrocious leaders after securing the freedom.
Like many of his compatriots on the continent, Chihana showed remarkable bravery when he confronted Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda in the early 1990s. He looked the dictator in the face and told him point-blank that Malawi needed to change.
As he arrived at Kamuzu International Airport in 1992, many people gave him such accolades as the saviour, hero and star the country had been longing and waiting for.
Admittedly, he was almost everything people said about him. Sadly, for the nation and tragically for him, his star refused to shine after dislodging the dictator. And never will it.
But he has no one, but himself to blame.
Indeed, like other African leaders, he took people’s support for granted, thinking that it would always be there even if he spits in their faces. He dragged his Alliance For Democracy (Aford) from one political marriage of convenience to another.
After losing the 1994 multiparty general elections he took the party into an alliance with the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), the party he had labelled as a party of death and darkness during the fight for democracy. He claimed then that the alliance was the best way of uniting the country after the regional fragmentation shown by the fact that people voted along regional lines during the general elections.
In 1995 he ditched MCP and joined the United Democratic Front (UDF) in a government of national unity. After joining theUDF he was famously quoted as telling Muluzi “nganya uyu nikumtemwa (I really love this buddy of mine).”
Love indeed. Only that it was skin-deep.
As a token of thanks for joining UDF the then President gave him the position of the country’s second vice president and other top Aford officials took up key government portfolios.
In keeping with his maverick fashion, he pulled the party out of the alliance with the UDF only nine months later in 1996. He argued that the corruption and nepotism in the government stunk so much for him to stay there. Aford was heavily cracked following this unilateral step by Chihana and Aford never fully recovered from this fallout.
That was never the end of the story. In 1999, he teamed up again with MCP in an electoral alliance for the general elections held that year. Chihana reassured the supporters of the two parties that the alliance would last this time round.
“Chakuamba and I will work together whether one likes it or not. We have for so long worked tirelessly to come up with this alliance and we shall never let our people down,” said Chihana in February, 1999.
However, after losing the elctions in which he stood as a running mate to the then MCP president Gwanda Chakuamba, he started showing his trademark antics that he is a man on the move.
And on the move he was because in 2001 he started showing signs of returning to the UDF. He argued in November 2001 that government of national unity remained the only option of uniting this deeply divided country.
“Everybody will feel that they belong to the government. I think that is the most important weapon that can be used by the President, by any country where there divisions based on either regionalism or tribalism,” Chihana was quoted in the Weekend Nation.
The journey towards another UDF-Aford alliance gained some energised momemntum as Chihana increasingly leaned towards the UDF at the expense of the MCP. He started attending rallies adressed by Muluzi. At one suchrallies at Rumphi boma where he was MP, he urged his constituents to respect Muluzi because he was the state President.
“Let us all change our attitudes as politicians. It is our responsibility to work together to develop this country,” said Chihana at the rally in April, 2002.
Like in the previous alliances, the party was split again. The Movement for Democratic Change (Mgode) was formed as a protest voice against his intentions to work with the UDF. That did not deter the freedom fighter from going ahead with the alliance.
Again, as a token of appreciation for joining UDF Muluzi gave Chihana the second vice presidency. It seems the second vice presidency was curved out specifically for Chihana because it is only him who has occupied this position.
After teaming up with the UDF, Chihana disappointed many of his supporters when he famously said that he was not running in the elections because he was selfish and intolerant. He consequently pledged his allegiance to UDF and the party’s candidate for the 2004 elections, Bingu wa Mutharika.
“I cannot stand as a presidential candidate because I am intolerant and selfish. That is why I decided to support Bingu because unlike me, he is calm and caring just like President Bakili Muluzi,” he told a rally addressed by Bingu in Lilongwe in October, 2003.
Like many African leaders Chihana dispalyed quite evident and untamed contempt and intolerance for his enemies. For example, he told the media in 2003 that he would hunt down anyone who dared oppose him in his position as president of Aford.
“I will hunt them down whether in parliament or outside once the mandate is given to me,” he said in the lead up to the party convention in 2002.
If that was the only public statement exhibiting his dislike and disdain for opposition, one may think it was only an isolated case. Nay.
“As president of aford, I don’t fear anyone and anyone who is not loyal to me is disassociating himself from the party,” he told a rally he addressed in Karonga in August, 2002.
Noone he never fears, indeed. But he has some to fear, especially those who recently suspended him as party president as this could mark the end of his political career. Which could already over.
Historian and economist Desmond Dudwa Phiri thinks it is difficult to predict whether Chihana will recover his stature of old as politics is too dynamic to predict anything.
“However, what I can say is that Chihana is no longer a leader he was before. He was dorminant in the north but that is no longer the case now and his very henchmen have rebelled against him,” says Phiri.
Phiri predicts that the break-away faction in Aford will eventually be the bigger political force than the one still loyal to him. He adds that when this group links up with Mgode, the situation could be too explosive for Chihana to handle.
However, Malawi News Copy Editor, Limbani Moya completely rules out the possibility of Chihana bouncing back into politics on a strong footing. He argues that Chihana has outlived his importance in the country’s politics.
“People gave him too much respect because he faced Dr Banda at a very difficult time. However, he later lost grip on the country’s political scenario. He has been moving his party from one alliance to another without consulting,” argues Moya.
Moya adds that even those who have been following him have now realised that they cannot derive any benefit from doing so as Chihana swallows the cake alone.
Alone indeed he has swallowed the cake. For Aford, all that remains of it is a basket case. The 2004 parliamentary elections amply demostrated what a depleted force Aford is as it managed to capture only six seats against 33 in the1999 elections.
Boniface Dulani, lecturer in political studies at Chancellor College, agrees with Moya that Chihana no longer has the space to manouvre back into politics. He says Chihana has consistently squandered the goodwill of the nation by making unilateral decisions.
“Chihana has been taking advantage of the fact that people were still learning about democracy. Off course we are still learning but people have realised that he practises politics of self-enrichment and have left him alone,” says Dulani.
Alone indeed. As he walks down the exit corridor alone, shuffiling towards the self-dug political grave, he must becarrying his own wreath and writing his own eulogy.
Alone. But he has usually taken pleasure in being alone
“I only came with my soul and I was prepared to die for the sake of my country,” he told a rally he addressed at Katoto Freedom Park in September, 2002.
And alone, with his soul only, he will go. |
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