19-year- old prayer for peace

Friday marks 19 years since Malawians voted for the first president following the triumph of democracy over dictatorship in 1993. Are Malawians more united in their political diversity? JAMES CHAVULA writes:

On May 17 1994, Jessie Kapeni could not see a better test of multiparty politics than seeing Malawians and her eight children free to belong to a party of their choice. According to the wife of Chief Kapeni of Blantyre, democracy to her was about people from different backgrounds, perspectives living and working together to develop the country.

“As the mood of change is gaining momentum, I always tell my children it will be a shame if they choose to quarrel and fight because of their political differences. When there was no multiparty politics, there was peace,” she told The Nation the day Malawians queued to vote for a president in a maiden test for restored democracy that ended founding president Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda’s 31 years of repressive rule.

Nearly 20 years after the first presidential and parliamentary polls that went into history as a battle of the oppressed and their perceived oppressor, Kapeni’s prayer for sanity still lingers on the minds of peace-loving Malawians, especially those who still oppose Kamuzu and his Malawi Congress Party (MCP)’s repeated warning that multiparty politics is war.

The propaganda catchphrase, conceived before the June 14 referendum in which Malawians voted in favour of the multiparty system, became louder when Malawians finally said farewell to the dictatorial poster face of the self-rule struggle in 1994.

At that time, Kamuzu was a deity and some still remember him as an invincible lion, life president, father and founder of the Malawi nation, saviour and eternal ruler.

Transition

Having heard Kamuzu peacefully relinquish power and congratulate his successor Bakili Muluzi on May 21, Kapeni might have been happy to hear the first president in multiparty Malawi say in his acceptance speech: “What is important to remember is that we are one people…we must forget the past and start working together for the good of the country.”

Back then, even the ailing Kamuzu said as much when he conceded defeat to Muluzi almost a day before the Electoral Commission (EC) announced official results.

According to political analyst Joseph Chunga, the country, with 46 registered political parties against a population of 15 million, has successfully tried to make peaceful co-existence a reality “despite skirmishes here and there”.

The gains made in entrenching a culture of peaceful co-existence tend to be eroded in the run up to presidential and parliamentary polls which occur every five years, according to the Constitution.

“To some extent, we have lived up to the aspirations of the old woman since people are free to join, switch and form political parities—and that is why we have numerous parties, including briefcase ones. You cannot say our politics is characteristically violent, but tension keeps rising as we get closer to polls. This is the dark side of our democracy and it needs to be managed to safeguard the multiparty politics Malawians wanted in the 1993 referendum,” said Chunga.

Pre-poll conflicts and violence is not new in the country where, according to Chunga, even the parties themselves lack tolerance for alternative views within their blood stream.

Tolerance

Although some political leaders seem to appreciate that tolerance and peaceful coexistence is the gist of multiparty dispensation, that some Malawians cannot stomach the sight of symbols of competing political views in their midst could be more than just a signal of how far the country has to go to become a country of democrats 20 years after adopting pluralistic politics. It also hints at the setback civic and voter education agents must surmount to ensure violence-free polls next year.

Equally in need of sensitisation and toning down are leaders who want their views to go unopposed in their parties, the type that avenge with resentment any other viewpoints that seem dissenting to their standpoints.

Chunga said: “Talking about 20 years of democracy, it does not mean we have created democrats. Most of the leaders are not socialised to uphold values of democracy. We need to get rid of old politicians and their old system which has landed the country in this mess where poverty and dependence compel the youth to take a front role when perpetrating violence on behalf of recycled politicians.”

Two months before the first presidential elections nearly two decades ago, Ken Lipenga, now Minister of Finance, wrote that the referendum did not bring any surprises other than splinter groups of MCP.

“People have been the same political messages since before the referendum and its becoming boring,” wrote Lipenga in The Nation of March 14 1994. “The only way intense interest could have been sustained is if the post-referendum phase of the campaign was more exciting that the pre-referendum phase.”

Better future

Coming two years after the release of the iconic Living Our Faith of 1992 and 33 after the inaugural epistle How to Build a Happy Nation of March 20 1961, the portrayals of the past and future of democratic Malawi in the 1994 pastoral letter, We have a Dream, read in all Catholic Churches across the country defined democracy as fumbi ndiwe mwini (self-reliance), saying: Growth can only come by electing only people of high integrity, those motivated to serve rather than by a hunger of power.”

“Our dream is of better things and of a better future; better for every person and for the whole community,” it read in part.

When Malawians voted for multiparty politics, they desired change. While some changes have already taken place, many more challenges lie ahead. Will our dream come true? Wondered the bishops.

When asked the same question at a time the poor are getting poorer, Chunga said we can only make headway if the electorate seizes next year’s polls to elect a leader with a shared vision, somebody bold enough to clean our politics and do away with politicians who have messed up the country’s priorities.

To Chinsinga, it is hard to be prescriptive but 2014 is an opportunity to change. According to him, this entails getting rid of leaders that are only good at pointing fingers at everybody else apart from themselves and putting in power those with patience and perseverance in pursuing public goals, maturity and wisdom for taking sound and timely decision, mental strength to lead by example and mental toughness to face criticism when found wanting.