Opposition must check any DPP excesses

June 3, 2014

If there is any positive element in the just ended elections that ushered Peter Mutharika and his DPP into power, then it must be the fact that the combined strength of opposition MPs at 140 (independents, MCP, PP and UDF) far outweighs the ruling DPP’s at only 50.

I am well aware that out of this, there are always gullible ones who might want to join the government gravy train, but I am comforted in the fact that parties such as MCP, and to a larger extent UDF, have shown over the years that they are a disciplined lot and resisted the overtures to sell their souls at the expense of their constituents.

The icing on the cake is that voters have taught a lesson those MPs that have failed to resist the sweet allure of government by kicking them out all together during polls.

The point I am belabouring to make here is that it is an electoral blessing in disguise that the voters have given the opposition a majority in Parliament to check any intended DPP excesses.

My colleagues that fancy DPP always remind me not to visit the sins of Bingu wa Mutharika on his brother, Peter. They always point out to me that Peter is not Bingu and I agree unreservedly.

Yet, I must say, the fear in many of us is that the DPP’s DNA has remained the same and Peter is surrounded by the same old faces that enveloped his brother and committed untold atrocities against Malawians.

This is a party that abused the majority that Malawians gave it in 2009 and put in place laws that were merely meant to victimise the same Malawians.

The injunction law that stopped High Court judges from granting the remedy to the aggrieved against government unless it was represe-nted and the media law that gave a minister of information power to ban a publication were some of the draconian pieces of legislation that only made sense to the then DPP government.

Members of the media and civil society who spoke or wrote against DPP excesses were targeted for violence and some had their houses burnt.

A plan was specifically hatched to kill Nation Publications Limited by denying it legitimate advertising business from all government ministries and depart-ments such that yours truly was on the verge of being sent jobless to the street.

As if to wrap it all, the economy, very much dependent on donor aid and good relations with IMF and other multilateral agencies, tanked when the late Bingu decided it was time to flex muscles around and show who the boss was.

Result? Some businesses were on the brink of collapse and Malawians started spending days and nights at service stations looking for the scarce fuel instead of being in offices working and making money.

But I need to be fair with Peter. He is his own man capable of making his own decisions. The speech during his inauguration in Blantyre was not inspiring in delivery and it should not have been as it is not a secret the Mutharikas are not blessed in that area of public speech.

Yet despite this handicap, he struck the right chords: Reconciliation after a gruelling divisive campaign; putting the economy back on track and having a lean 20-member Cabinet to save money for social sectors such as health, education and agriculture.

This gives, those of us who feared the coming back of DPP will mean excesses once again, some faint hopes that perhaps it will not be the case after all.

But just in case some characters in DPP are still dreaming of once again bothering Malawians, voters have sorted it out by denying the party a majority in Parliament.

The opposition owes it to Malawians to stop any DPP excesses just in case there are such plans.