Chakwera, come down immediately
President Bakili Muluzi used to joke seriously that Malawians excel at forgetting. He was not wrong. Many people, including the leader of the political opposition in Parliament, the Right Honorable, Reverend Dr Lazarus Chakwera, have already forgotten that on July 6 every year, we genuine and patriotic Malawians, celebrate our hard-won independence from the British and other exogenous political-cum-economic exploiters, or economic terrorists, to use our late (ka) Ngwazi President Professor Dr Bingu wa Mutharika’s term.
The people of this country fought many battles, underground as well open, to free themselves and succeeding generations from exploitative and tiwakolore policies, notably Thangata and the Hut tax, which the British government pressed upon our people. The long struggle culminated in the FIRST multiparty elections of 1961, which the (still) Mighty Malawi Congress Party (MCP) won easily, leading to self-government in 1963, independence in 1964, and our republican status in 1966. While self-government was won on February1 1963, both independence and our republic status were accorded onto us on July 6.
Thus, this day, July 6, is very important in the history of Malawi. It is a day that is associated with the successful attainment of nationhood in Malawi. The party that brought that self-government, that independence and that republic status to us ALL Malawians, is the MCP, which Chakwera now leads. The man who led the movement against that British exploitation of us, formerly called Nyasas or Manyasa, is the same man, Mkango Ngwazi Dr H Kamuzu Banda, whom all normal Malawians acknowledge as the father and founder of the Malawi nation and whose image and name MCP still uses to campaign among the already converted of the Central Region.
July 6, Independence Day, is the major reason many Malawians flocked from all corners of this Federal Republic to Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre, the City of Mediocrity. July 6, Independence Day commemoration is the principal reason we drove from our temporary home in Cashgate City, where money-spinning, in government and private places, is still going on unfettered. Of course, we also came to see our old friend, Ngozi Harawara, a DPP diehard, whose frustration with the system is written all over his face today.
We, Sheikh Jean-Philippe LePoisson, SC (RTD), Abiti Joyce Befu, MG 66, Mzee Native Authority Mandela and I, the Mohashoi, came to Blantyre and entered the Kamuzu Stadium, expanded from a tiny Rangely Stadium during the colonial era, expecting to see people and leaders from all political and religious persuasions dancing together, swearing together, cursing together and getting injured together in that stadium. We expected the President of the Malawi Congress Party, which gained us the independence we enjoy today and the freedom we abuse today, to be around, even against his will. We expected Chakwera to sit side by side with the President of this country, Dr Peter Mutharika, and share with each other notes and cosmetic smiles (for the world TV and newspaper cameras).
We expected Chakwera to use the occasion to remind the people of this country, through notes shared with the President, that over 90 percent of the roads in Malawi were constructed during the MCP era; that almost all functioning rural, district and referral hospitals were built by the MCP government; that almost all government secondary schools functioning today were built during the first 30 years of our independence; that the University of Malawi (College of Medicine; Chancellor College, Kamuzu College of Nursing, and the Malawi Polytechnic), as well as the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar), formerly Bunda College, are the brainchild of MCP; that almost all technical colleges, teachers colleges, agricultural research stations and such community colleges as Magomero are here because MCP was here and that the 21 years of multiparty politics have been a waste.
We expected the Chakwera to use his presence in the City of Mediocrity and command his party troops to fan out into the districts on a party rebuilding and recruiting mission and convert the visibly frustrated traditional supporters of the UDF and DPP. It was also an opportune time for Chakwera to energise the few MCP supporters in the Southern Region of Malawi.
Our free advice (and this is a one-time off offer) is that Chakwera should stop the politics of frustration and kuthana. The opposition lost out to the government on the sale of the Malawi Savings Bank, but that should never have been a reason for not attending July 6, our Independence Day celebrations. Maybe Chakwera and his immediate advisors should ask themselves what the country has saved through their boycotting of the State dinners and Independence Day celebrations or what the MCP has gained through such boycotts.
Borrowing from Luke 19:5, we verily say unto you, Rev. Dr. Chakwera: “Come Down Immediately’, for the people down here are in dire need of hope—political hope, and developmental hope.
