Written by Richard Kayenda
History repeats itself, so say people in order to remind, soothe or warn one another in case of some remarkable social, cultural, political or economic occurrences. Most of the times, this cliché is used to refer to political events.
Political leaders, like traditional leaders, change as time changes. The slight difference, though, is that political leadership comes through election. Now, an electoral process is a very frustrating one; sometimes, because results of such a process may shock you as they come. One would expect to carry the day when results are announced, only to faint upon realising that victory has gone to the ‘apparently’ weakest candidate. Those are results of any election!
Recently, one Honourable Fyness Mwagonjwa, a Machinga North East Parliamentarian, found herself aboveboard with her untamed mouth when she addressed a political rally in her constituency. The presumably youngest Member of Parliament was heard inciting blatant political violence when she urged traditional leaders and ordinary villagers never to be in attendance of political rallies organised by other parties than the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP).
In her address, Honourable Mwagonjwa presented herself as a larger than life statue who looked down upon traditional leaders as headless chickens that have to be controlled by political leaders when it comes to political decision making. This was a complete fiasco. Honourable Mwagonjwa missed the point. She failed to maximise her opportunity in addressing her constituents with development – embedded issues. Actually, she went to town with a bag full of nonsense.
This might not be surprising, anyway! Honourable Mwagonjwa is such a personality that has publicly displayed a huge deficit in intellect. Starting from her aptitude in the Queen’s Language to presentation of ideas, the Youngest Honourable seems to lack in a wider gap. But thanks to whosoever nailed the campaign for her victory to Parliament.
Additionally, Honourable Mwagonjwa is a loyalist of DPP, a party that appears to be dead and buried in terms of theodicy, morals and respect for the citizenry. That on its own is a complete visa for such a personality who landed on leadership by probability and has a conspicuous intellectual bankruptcy to be masquerading carelessly in public.
However, Aunt Fyness ought to invariably be mindful of the natural fact that leaders come and leaders go. The fact that she is a Member of Parliament for Machinga North East Constituency today does not automatically mean that she will still be an MP for the constituency in 2025. As a matter of fact, before she ascended to the elected position last year, there were other leaders who occupied the same seat earlier on. But where are they today? Someone occupied the very position before she was even born. But today, it is just history. Therefore, she has an inherent obligation to ensure she does not speak recklessly for the sake of tomorrow.
The traditional leaders she was lashing at are even more strategic than she thinks she is. Politics is a game of numbers. And the numbers increase or decrease based on how a politician conducts herself or himself before the electorates. Linda madzi apite ndipo uziti ndadala!
To publicly incite political violence simply because one is a political leader today, is a sheer lack of moral responsibility and reasonableness to remember that remaining in leadership tomorrow is a mere assumption based on people’s will. That she will remain on that seat as a Member of Parliament in next ten to twenty years is just a dream subject to electorates’ vetting.
Seriously speaking, a reasonable politician is now able to notice that Malawian politics is currently undergoing very unprecedented waves of transformation. It is, thus, more likely that in future, political leaders of Honourable Mwagonjwa’s status will be subjected to a great deal of scrutiny and censorship before given a vote.
Let Honourable Mwagonjwa realise that such remarks of inciting violence based on tribal or political borders have the potential to deprive her of the trust and love that her constituents have had for her.
May she swiftly come back to her reasoning and rid of such highest political immaturity and insensitiveness and learn from history. It is never too late. Malawi now needs young leaders like her but with impeccable integrity and sense of maturity.