PP must move on, but in the right way

I don’t know what she is running away from, but former president Joyce Banda has been on the run soon after she lost the May 20 2014 presidential elections to arch rival Peter Mutharika.

Of course, she has repeatedly denied being in self-exile and when my colleague Chachacha Munthali recently asked her why she had chosen to remain in self-imposed exile, she had a peculiar defence.

She said: “I made a deliberate decision upon leaving office in May 2014 that I was going to step up onto the global platform and continue with my developmental work that I have done for the past 30 years. This would provide an opportunity for the current President to run matters of the State without my interference. There is precedence that former president Bakili Muluzi stayed in the United Kingdom for a long time and nobody said anything and nobody called that ‘self-exile’. I have been out of the country for nine months and five out of those months, I have been in the United States from where I travelled to many countries to fulfill speaking and other engagements.”

Whatever her excuse, the point is that for more than a year, Mrs. Banda has left the country and her party guessing: Will she or won’t she come?

Her party, which was already in a shambles even before election day—having lost three vice presidents—Sidik Mia (Southern Province), Cassim Chilumpha (Central Province) and Khumbo Kachali (Northern Province)—has become even more confused. Mia’s hand-picked successor, Brown Mpinganjira, also quit the party months after the electoral defeat.

Clearly, this is a party with no strategic direction and its supporters have every right and are justified to question whether the party—with its leader holed up abroad—is still ready for prime time.

People like a party with a leader they can see, not a shadowy figure afraid of coming home for reasons nobody understands.

I, therefore, share the sentiments that if PP still considers itself and want voters to see it as a formidable alternative government, it has to move on and replace Mrs. Banda at the helm of the party.

Someone must be the face of the party and be responsible for strategic leadership. That said, the process of choosing that leader must be transparent, democratic and in line with the PP constitution.

A bunch of characters huddling somewhere in the North and hand-picks Khumbo Kachali as interim leader is certainly not how you crown a leader who should have the respect of the party and national acceptance.

I have nothing against former vice president Kachali. In fact, the few times I have met and talked to him, I was convinced that he is a shrewd politician.

He also has the charisma and national name recognition that would be critical to rally the party.

But I do not think it would be in Kachali’s interest to operate in the shadow of the perception that his political convictions are based on regional lines.

Granted, PP members from the Centre and South maybe sceptical about him—it is the reality of our pathetic tribal and regional politics.

But if he wants to lead a national party, Kachali must court every member of the party from every region and earn their respect and acceptance.

If he cannot do this, if he gets carried away by the Mzomera Ngwiras of this world, he will be tearing PP into little pieces, thereby destroying the party rather than rebuilding it.

I do not believe Kachali wants to do that. So, he must do the right thing: allow the PP constitution to guide leadership choice.

Postscript

I have noted that second-hand car dealers have invaded the central business district (CBD) in Blantyre where they are eating up valuable parking spaces they have turned into showrooms. These car dealers are vendors, so why is the Blantyre City Council (BCC) allowing them to ply their trade while chasing poor women and men selling little packets of groundnuts, vegetables and other small electronic gadgets? Is it that the car dealers are being entertained because their businesses are more high value than the poor slum dwellers the city council loves to confiscate their little goods and leave them more impoverished? If anything, these second-hand vehicles are causing a lot of congestion in the city as motorists drive around town looking for a spot to park their vehicles before darting into a shop or meeting. These ‘for sale’ vehicles are permanently parked in the middle of the busy CBD for the rest of the day. Where is justice here? It is such policy inconsistencies and unfair treatment towards weak sections of society that result in resistance and subsequent violence when the council wants to move small vendors out of the streets. Clearly, BCC has lost its moral authority in allowing second-hand car dealers vend on scarce parking space while barring the poorer ones.