Already we have eaten a good part of January. The Malawian political clock is ticking towards May 19th this year. How, many of us wish time accelerated its speed the closer it got to this date of General Elections.
The election charm and compulsion have spared no one. I’m worried though that still we are not making the progress we are required to make. Still the politics is not about political parties. It is not about what these parties stand for and cherish. In all fairness if ever I met some curious guy outside Malawi and they ask me to describe the major distinctive values of our thirty plus parties (pardon me for underestimating the number) the boldest and sincere answer I will give him will be, “the names, cant you see?”. Beyond that there is little I can both say and comprehend about our parties.
This is not a question I alone cannot answer. Imagine you have been accorded the rare privilege of engaging the MCP secretary general into a sincere conversation somewhere in private. Imagine you innocently ask him what is it that MCP is that UDF and DPP are not? I am dead sure he will go on a pilgrimage in search for answers. Answers in this context do not accommodate something like “Oh you know we will bring development, roads, and hospitals. We will respect the constitution etc.” These could be the anticipated answers of course. But they are not answers of the type that expresses a sincere commitment and an authentic vision. They show failure of independently looking at the challenges ahead and coming up with relevant and authentic solutions. Instead you look at the problems ahead through the spectacles of the performance (or lack of it) the current Other players.
Again were one to engage the DPP or UDF senior officials and ask them why I should vote for them, there would be little differences in their answers may be except in the tone of their voices. “Oh we will promote small scale businesses. We will drill holes. We will committed to ensuring high quality education. Oh, I’m telling you my dear friend, if we are voted into power we will promote agriculture” Cute answers may be. But then if you still want to be in talking terms with them you better avoid asking a logically necessary question about what strategies they have in place to realise those colourful dreams. What is it they have laid down specifically in their post-election strategies to ensure education standards are at least raised to anywhere close to the fair level where they once were? Again in uniformity they will all go blank.
This is our Malawi, my Malawi. We need not despair though. Life is about not submitting to the failures of the present. What keeps us going is the hope that somewhere ahead of us things will turn different. Somewhere somehow it will get right. This is why we want May 19th to come and then go so that we continue with our journey for a better Malawi which is attainable only when we dump some of these political leaders one of which though somehow amusing and jovial is part of the forces that slow our progress. It will be interesting in the next posts to have either a general or thorough look at him to appreciate how we don’t need him as long as we are destined for a different, and even much more, a better Malawi. This is irrespective of whether the majority of uninformed people liking and voting him into power again. Have I already indicted someone?
The election charm and compulsion have spared no one. I’m worried though that still we are not making the progress we are required to make. Still the politics is not about political parties. It is not about what these parties stand for and cherish. In all fairness if ever I met some curious guy outside Malawi and they ask me to describe the major distinctive values of our thirty plus parties (pardon me for underestimating the number) the boldest and sincere answer I will give him will be, “the names, cant you see?”. Beyond that there is little I can both say and comprehend about our parties.
This is not a question I alone cannot answer. Imagine you have been accorded the rare privilege of engaging the MCP secretary general into a sincere conversation somewhere in private. Imagine you innocently ask him what is it that MCP is that UDF and DPP are not? I am dead sure he will go on a pilgrimage in search for answers. Answers in this context do not accommodate something like “Oh you know we will bring development, roads, and hospitals. We will respect the constitution etc.” These could be the anticipated answers of course. But they are not answers of the type that expresses a sincere commitment and an authentic vision. They show failure of independently looking at the challenges ahead and coming up with relevant and authentic solutions. Instead you look at the problems ahead through the spectacles of the performance (or lack of it) the current Other players.
Again were one to engage the DPP or UDF senior officials and ask them why I should vote for them, there would be little differences in their answers may be except in the tone of their voices. “Oh we will promote small scale businesses. We will drill holes. We will committed to ensuring high quality education. Oh, I’m telling you my dear friend, if we are voted into power we will promote agriculture” Cute answers may be. But then if you still want to be in talking terms with them you better avoid asking a logically necessary question about what strategies they have in place to realise those colourful dreams. What is it they have laid down specifically in their post-election strategies to ensure education standards are at least raised to anywhere close to the fair level where they once were? Again in uniformity they will all go blank.
This is our Malawi, my Malawi. We need not despair though. Life is about not submitting to the failures of the present. What keeps us going is the hope that somewhere ahead of us things will turn different. Somewhere somehow it will get right. This is why we want May 19th to come and then go so that we continue with our journey for a better Malawi which is attainable only when we dump some of these political leaders one of which though somehow amusing and jovial is part of the forces that slow our progress. It will be interesting in the next posts to have either a general or thorough look at him to appreciate how we don’t need him as long as we are destined for a different, and even much more, a better Malawi. This is irrespective of whether the majority of uninformed people liking and voting him into power again. Have I already indicted someone?
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