The current clear signs of cracks in the Tonse Alliance are not surprising—at least not to those who have lived long enough and have witnessed how previous political party alliances conducted themselves before and after the elections. Coming from a background of electoral alliances that failed to win elections, many Malawians, and they were right to think so, had hope that the Tonse Alliance, being the first electoral alliance to win elections, would indeed take them to the land of milk and honey.
Not that the electorate didn’t expect that at one point there would be cracks within the alliance, but it is how soon such cracks have emerged that is disturbing.
The Tonse Alliance promised Malawians that it would take them to Canaan, a land that lacked no food and opportunities. A land where everyone would be happy and satisfied, a land where there is no hunger and I imagine no beggars since everyone would have enough. It didn’t matter that the leaders never bothered to explicitly say how Malawians would get to Canaan. It didn’t matter at the time because as a country, there was one major hurdle on the way to Canaan that needed to be removed to pave the way—removing the DPP from the government.
While political leaders were pre-occupied or some may say obsessed with removing DPP and Peter Mutharika from power, many of us forgot to ask the Tonse leaders some tough questions that would have set the tone of the Tonse Alliance led-government. Getting to Canaan is not a problem, but how do we get there and what will happen when we get to Canaan? What are we going to do when we get there? Are we only going there to eat the honey and drink the milk? How are we going to ensure the milk and honey never run out? I believe, these were some of the questions we needed to ask the first time we were sold the Tonse Alliance idea.
The cracks and clear lack of harmonisation of policies from the respective parties in the alliance are a sign that this Tonse Alliance, had nothing well thought to offer Malawians beyond winning elections. If at all they had a clear vision of what would happen once Malawians were in Canaan, they wouldn’t be trying to force some alliance partners to disembark in the middle of the sea, if what Minister of Tourism, Culture and Wildlife, Michael Usi is anything to go by.
The hard economic times that Malawi is experiencing, have revealed that Tonse Alliance was never well equipped to deal with such eventualities.
One other problem of the Tonse Alliance is that it is composed of several small and fragmented parties that have negligible bargaining power when it comes to policy direction within the alliance. It is no wonder then that these smaller parties have somehow, decided that their contribution to the alliance is to either support President Chakwera or Veep Chilima, while some are simply watching as the two main parties tussle.
Mending the cracks in the alliance is possible. Tonse Alliance partners need to sit down and do some soul-searching. Although there is nothing ethically wrong in them parting ways if they so wish. It is, however, morally wrong to play with people’s minds. Malawians trusted Tonse Alliance leaders’ word that they would take them to Canaan. Many Malawians are at the bus stop waiting to be picked up on their way to Canaan. Make their wait worthwhile.
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