Saulos Chilima is getting warnings from many quarters that an Alliance with MCP will curtail his political ambitions. Many warn him that Malawi Congress Party (MCP) is a party with a bloody past and will never relinquish the leadership to him when his time comes.
Latest to provide those warnings is the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) which has warned UTM president Saulos Chilima against partnering with the Malawi Congress Party (MCP).
The warning which has put Chilima in a political dilemma after the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) announced their working alliance with UDF on Tuesday morning, means Chilima has to look somewhere else.
According to sources within UTM, the Bishops led by their chairperson Archbishop Thomas Luke Msusa have said their ‘son’ cannot go into a political marriage with a party {MCP} which wanted to have them killed when they supported democracy in the early 90s.
“You are aware of the bad blood between the church and MCP hence our advice against joining them,’ reads part of the letter which was referring to the statement which the then MCP senior member Mayi Manjankhosi warned to urinate on bishops if they support Democracy.
The UTM informant says despite Saulos Chilima getting excessive pressure from within UTM to go to MCP, his respect for Catholic bishops seems to be above everything.
Chilima’s dilemma was manifested during his interview with ZBS’s Joab Chakhaza on Tuesday evening who could not jab DPP and its leadership throughout the program.
During the 2019 general election many bishops namely Msusa and Bishop Martin Mtumbuka of Karonga diocese openly advised other bishops to support Chilima throughout their Parishes.
Even within the UTM some top officials are bluntly refusing any alliance with MCP whatever the condition. It is reported that UTM Secretary General Patricia Kaliati told Saulos Chilima that MCP will kill him once they get into power as an alliance.
Political Analysts say that MCP and UTM are ideologically and practically not compatible such that an alliance between them would be a forced marriage which will never last.
They say the alliance is being forced on them by the Constitutional Court judges who made a ruling in the election case that suggested to the two parties to pair up for the sake of unseating DPP from power.
