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Party politics, Mutharika’s zero-tolerance
Honourable Folks, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) may have given President Bingu wa Mutharika a political base but he may also have discovered that it has also made him less endearing.
This is because party politics has been a big letdown for the people of Malawi. Former President Bakili Muluzi messed up the economy and made the rest of us more miserable than we were when Kamuzu Banda was at the helm just because Atcheya made UDF a formidable party at our expense.
Muluzi rewarded undeserving party loyalists with senior positions in government and statutory corporations. Company clerks rose to become VX-driving millionaires when their political affiliations yielded lucrative government contracts, at times getting paid before the job was done. Remember the K187 million Ministry of Education scam? Until now, some of the school projects for which money was paid are reportedly as they were in 1998. Not an extra brick added!
Some of the politicians who are pillars of Mutharika’s party are the same people who were in UDF and government, chanting “aimanso! aimanso!” (another term for him) when Atcheya sought another unconstitutional term of office after leading Malawi for a decade to worse levels of poverty than was the case in 1992 when Kamuzu Banda was at the helm.
That the President had failed to deliver was not an issue to them as long as a government Merc was there to take them to the village where the poor chief would worship them and the women dance to their own hurriedly composed songs in praise of the honourable minister.
These cheats only speak out against Muluzi now that the country has another State President with the prerogative to hire and fire Cabinet members. They will do anything to prove they are loyal members of DPP. They will also praise their employer for anything he does, whether good or bad. They learned well that “you don’t bite the finger that feeds you”.
Already we have seen they are looking the other way when lorries are commandeered from our ailing statutory corporations to ferry DPP women praise-singers to Mutharika’s functions despite the President’s promise to separate party from government. It does not matter to them if Escom, Admarc, MTL, Stagecoach or Blantyre Water Board overspend on their transport budgets. That will be a cost well justified if, by allowing use of public resources for partisan gains, their security of tenure is guaranteed. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
But wait a moment. Isn’t this wanton abuse of statutory corporations the reason why they post losses and become liabilities? Should the same government then turn round and say privatisation is the only way to save parastatals from imminent collapse? I am reliably informed that even Blantyre and Lilongwe water boards may sooner or later be owned by some rich fellow through privatisation.
My question is: why can’t the people in government just stop interfering in the operations of these parastatals which belong to all the people of Malawi? True, in competitive politics, having huge crowds at presidential functions may be desirable but DPP, just like any of the over 30 registered political parties in Malawi, must simply figure out how to raise its own money to meet transport expenses for its supporters who go to give their president a morale booster.
It is just not right for DPP to use public resources even for members who want to attend a presidential state—and not party—function. Rather, public resources should be used to transport opposition leaders to state functions because they are the other side of our multiparty system of government which provides checks to those on the ruling side. If ordinary people must enjoy free transport to such functions, then let that opportunity pass through Parliament and be available to all without regard to party affiliations.
Otherwise, DPP may be the reason why Mutharika may fail to live up to the high ideals he set himself and his government. Just how can he allow his party to abuse lorries from statutory corporations and still preach zero-tolerance for corruption?
Feedback: backbencher2005@yahoo.com
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