Jessie Kabwila, her of the infamous academic freedom saga is one lady I admire. Firebrand, intelligent and as a fellow woman I will add that she is beautiful. Anyone who holds contrary opinion about her beauty has not had a chance to see her in an office wear, I bet.
I will also add that she is eloquent owing it to her field of specialization. Only a few of us can stand on same podium with her and match her in coining words from the queen’s language. Well, if you can’t agree that I can eloquently debate with her, you aren’t being honest! Ha-ha.
But one thing betrays this honorable woman sometimes: how to tame her tongue. Which gets some of us into thinking that what she sometimes says is not necessarily the product of her thinking.
Last time, despite staging an admirable crusade against late Bingu WA Mutharika, she produced a few sentences that made many a well-mannered people shudder. She almost got some sympathy directed towards the fallen Goliath giant with her bad choice of words that she used to describe him.
Masiteni may not have been that inspiring as a leader. But when Jessie added in a few more adjectives to describe JB during her 2 year rule, part of the populace thought Jessie had gone overboard.
Well, that was before she became MCP’s spokesperson and a member of parliament. Most of us thought that her new status would help her tame her tongue and wear a face of a government in waiting. I must have been wrong. Jessie is the same woman. A woman who likes picking fights courtesy of her tongue.
The disappointing thing is that she doesn’t choose who to take her fights to. Recently, she held a press conference that had Akweni Kaliati and APM on the menu. Now, Akweni is another type of a woman. I don’t think they belong to the same planet. If you see what I mean. I will dedicate a day for Akweni. Her own article.
You must recall that recently I declared my renewed admiration for MCP. I indicated in that post that MCP looks to have gone through the election loss hangover and that they seem to be doing what the election results awarded them with: The admirable position of leading the opposition parties. It does not come cheap!
One James Nyondo and his comrade at arm Prof John Chisi can only hope for such a status, believe me. Even an alliance of the Katsonga brothers cannot earn them that position. Not in our life time. Sorry, I digressed.
So, if the MCP is really ready to maintain a new found admirer in the name of yours truly, it has to discipline its firebrand spokesperson. Because nobody will convince me that what Jessie said on that press conference was all representative of MCP. If it is, am afraid, MCP has to re-focus.
MCP could have felt shortchanged that their leader was not acknowledged at that celebration. Just as they could have felt bruised by the bombardment by DPP gurus including APM. The prof. is learning the Malawi politics quickly. I hope he will not call us chickens one day!
But the mouth that presented the grievances was out of order to borrow parliamentary language. Did it really sound like those were indeed the reasons for calling for resignation of Akweni and APM? Get me right. I sympathise with MCP for being at the receiving end of the barrage of ‘village idiot’ insults but did Jessie’s outbursts sound any different? Doesn’t Jessie need to remove the log in her eye first before turning to remove ‘logs’ in Alwen’s eye?
So, next time Jessie takes to any forum she must remember to tame her tongue. MCP and her must not be cry babies when they are at the receiving end while she enjoys throwing salvos at others. Are you there dear Jessie?
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Maravi Post
