Hon. Folks, this week two influential religious bodies, the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) and the Public Affairs Committee (PAC), joined right-thinking Malawians in reminding President Lazarus Chakwera that his train continues to derail on most of its campaign promises at an alarming speed.
Firstly I will say that Chakwera is very fortunate to have won an election at a time Malawians were grieving the decline of presidential leadership that defined his predecessor is six-year rule.
The incumbent President won his inaugural mandate in June 2020 after Malawian voters kicked out former president Peter Mutharika and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regime that had drained the country with systemic corruption, nepotism, executive arrogance and aggravated impunity for six years, among others.
After disguising themselves as spotless leopards keen to undo the DPP administration ills, Chakwera and his Tonse administration won government and kept promising Malawians Heaven on earth. They said this regime would deliver a new dawn of servant leadership, national unity, shared prosperity, rule of law and end corruption which largely contributed to DPP’s fall and the vice has destroyed our economy, governance systems and the society at large since 1964.
Predictably, many voters rallied behind Tonse Alliance and they had no reason to question its Malawi Congress Party (MCP) torchbearer who also enjoyed massive praises for his saintly life throughout the 2019 and 2020 election campaigns.
Now, after 19 months in office, Tonse faces a leadership crisis on multiple fronts, including decision-making at the Presidency level and it was not surprising when ECM and PAC added their weight on many governance concerns as raised by many balanced Malawians whose calls have landed on deaf ears at State House, apparently.
Honourable forks, these are the very religious bodies that have worked so hard to safeguard the country’s democracy since the early 1990s, and they are also well remembered for the pastoral letter that helped to bring the One Party dictatorship to its knees in 1994.
While applauding this administration on selected positive strides such as political tolerance, political accountability and freeing the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and other State prosecution agencies to operate independently, ECM and PAC expressed reservations on the direction the war against corruption has taken amid allegations of impunity in the manner some corruption suspects linked to the powers that be have been handled.
Chakwera’s continued silence on one of his senior Cabinet ministers implicated in a recent corruption scandal raises many questions and suspicions when you consider how the drama unfolded the moment ACB issued his arrest warrant late last year. His loud slowness to act on such serious issues reflects badly on his credibility to govern and lead the fight against corruption without fear or favour.
The selective manner in which Chakwera is fighting corruption clearly frustrates many people no wonder ECM and PAC have finally lost their patience after realising that their silent diplomacy and private engagements with the president have no impact at all. Until this week, the two bodies seemed to have side-tracked from their traditional issuance of public statements that often slammed previous leaders and their regimes over governance failures to correct Malawi’s political and socio-economic challenges.
Honourable folks, all this goes down to what I said earlier on that this country faces a serious decline of presidential leadership and this dates back to 1994 when Malawians axed the one party rule of founding president Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
This leadership deficiency syndrome initially manifested under the rule of Bakili Muluzi who took over from the Ngwazi, but between 2006 and 2010 Bingu almost cured the disorder having proven to Malawians that he knew the basics of leadership in relation to expectations of the citizens.
Of course he instantly spoiled his positive strides due to an inflated ego as well as corruption and nepotism that rocked his last term and spilled over to his younger brother’s regime.
Unfortunately, the circus of declined presidential leadership continued under the reigns of Joyce Banda and APM and I am afraid the situation might be worse now under Chakwera who took pride in attacking his predecessor on Facebook and elsewhere over leadership failures while he was in opposition in his bid to discredit and disgrace him ahead of the last presidential polls.
I, therefore, commend ECM, PAC and selected civil society organisations, activists and opposition politicians for actively keeping Chakwera’s government in check. You are able to see what Chakwera and his alliance partners cannot see after winning government possibly because they are intoxicated by authority.
