Someone should jostle Harry Mkandawire into life. Seriously. While all of us know he is headed, even sleepwalking, towards the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), he, alone, doesn’t know that fact — ostensibly.
You see, the honourable — for he cannot be anything else — Member of Parliament for Mzimba West has just woken up from a deep slumber and discovered his party, his beloved People’s Party (PP), had dipped its fingers into the public purse when it was in power.
Honourable Mkandawire is so apoplectic he resigned from his plum position as vice-president of PP and will henceforth be just an ordinary member of the party. But he is not defecting for the second time to the DPP—yet.
The sad thing about his light bulb moment and subsequent resignation is that he now claims to know something which any 10-year-old primary school pupil knew towards the end of 2013; that is, PP and Cashgate were hand in glove.
PP plunder of public resources was discovered in 2013; but it could have started earlier. Honourable Mkandawire was in that PP. The government, of which he was part, did nothing apart from paying lip-service. And he, Honourable Mkandawire, did nothing, said nothing.
Towards the end of last year, when the steam from the PP gravy train had long been blown away, Mkandawire started making statements to position himself for a glorious return to the DPP when he threatened he would walk if evidence in the Cashgate saga pointed in the direction of PP.
Nothing monumental has occurred between then and now which Mkandawire could justifiably point at as the turning point. We know now what we knew in September 2013 when the shame of the Capital Hill began to unravel.
Sometimes, I wish politicians kept it simple and honourable when ditching their parties. Citing personal reasons without going into the specifics, without washing dirty linen in public, works to save face. In fact, there would be no harm to say “I have resigned due personal greed and personal survival and I have gone back to DPP”. It is the way the political game is played in Malawi.
Besides, his manner of realigning his political strategy would be farcical if it were not absurd. He claims he resigned from his position as vice-president because PP is a party of thieves and plunderers. With the other side of the mouth, he affirms his membership to the same party of thieves and plunderers.
Now, if PP was a party of thieves and plunderers when he was vice-president, it doesn’t make it less so now that he is an ordinary member. If PP’s policies espouse theft and plunder, Mkandawire, the honourable, is unwittingly endorsing them.
In terms of absurdity, it ranks on the same scale as someone declaring he doesn’t eat beef because he is allergic but he drinks its soup. Something like having a cake and eating it, too.
Mkandawire’s resignation defeats the whole concept of representative democracy and party affiliation. Mkandawire was catapulted into power by thousands of people but this decision to resign is his own. Did he consult them? I’m certain he didn’t.
Despite its links to Cashgate, his constituents still found favour in the party and voted for him and the party. If they considered PP revulsive due to its links to Cashgate, they would have rejected him and the party at the polls.
Somehow, in the absence of Section 64, we must find a way to deal with these opportunistic politicians who ride on the back of parties and trustful voters and flee when economic realities hit the pocket.
