Written by Patseni Mauka
Imagine an occupation where being foul mouthed, a scoundrel and a pure failure results in promotion. Imagine an occupation where being bad mannered guarantees that you are going to be a long serving Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of an organization. Imagine getting a promotion because you are a good liar. Imagine an occupation where stealing millions of money does not land you into prison but get you a new contract from your employers.
Imagine an occupation where you are not accountable to anyone including those who employed you. Just imagine an occupation where you don’t need any sound qualification to get a job. Hard as it is to believe that such an occupation would exist, it exists! It’s called politics. Yes, especially Malawi politics.
While Malawi politics has had a fair share of politicians with high integrity, hard work and enviable manners, there has also been a whole bunch of scoundrels, failures and foul mouthed village idiots who can’t get a job anywhere else. You wonder what would have become of Malawi if such was the calibre of politicians during the fight for independence from colonialism. Just try replacing the names of respected independence fighters like Orton Chirwa, Masauko Chipembere and Kanyama Chiume with Griselder Jeffrey, Charles Mchacha and Nicholas Dausi. Malawi would probably still be a colony by now.
The biggest question is; who is to blame for such characters to flourish in Malawi politics? The first blame goes to political leaders, the ones that lead parties. It’s leadership which has allowed such characters to find comfortable space in politics. Terrible behaviour has been tolerated by different leaders for far too long. Dreadful behaviour has been rewarded. There are several ways in which leaders have encouraged such mediocre characters including applauding them with wide smiles and rewarding them.
Malawi history is full of examples of awful utterances that were applauded and rewarded. During the MCP reign under the late Hastings Kamuzu Banda (1964-1994) women composed a song against the late Gwanda Chakuamba, a powerful figure who fell out of Kamuzu’s favor and was given a 22 year prison sentence for alleged sedition. The song, which was sang at rallies in the presence of Kamuzu went like this;
Chakuamba angwazi anampatsa mpando x2
(Chakuamba was given a position by Kamuzu)
Benz kumpatsa, mbendela patsogolo waliwali (He was given a mercedes benz as an official car with the Malawi flag brightly flying in front)
Chitsiru galu sukonzeka Chakuamba
(stupid dog Chakuamba, you never appreciate)
Kamuzu never saw anything wrong with that song and MCP women happily sang and danced in his presence.
Former President Bakili Muluzi was also a master at encouraging, applauding and rewarding foul mouthed people. During rallies, he used to announce rewards of cars to best loud mouths. If you wanted the latest four wheel drive car, you just needed to curse any member of the opposition at a rally and you would be assured of the promise of a new car right there. Such was Bakili Muluzi’s rush to reward mediocre personalities, that he would sometimes promise a reward he had no way of fulfilling. Many people silently complained after waiting in vain to receive their reward for being foul mouthed.
However, there was one person who desperately looked forward to a promised car that when he didn’t see it coming, he publicly complained for everybody in the country and beyond to hear. That was Josephy Nkasa, a hopeless musician whose call to fame is monitoring the wind of political change, compose songs in praise of potential president or castigating their opponents and wait for his reward.
Bakili Muluzi promised him a car, as a reward for not singing songs against him like ‘other musicians’. When the promise was not fulfilled, Nkasa composed a song reminding him that he promised him a car while everyone was listening, but didn’t fulfil his promise. Without shame Bakili Muluzi denied having ever promised him a car!
Muluzi himself was a master loud mouth. After falling out with fellow United Democratic Front (UDF) founder, Brown Mpinganjira, he famously questioned the wisdom behind Mpinganjira’s marrying of a woman who had five kids from another marriage. He went, ‘naonso a Mpinganjira, ati kukwatira mkazi wa ana faifi, akuti adzimvamo chani? Osatenga zi ma D7 za azimayi ziri apazi bwanji?’ (Look at Mpinganjira, he married a woman who has five kids already, what is he going to sexually get from such a woman? Why can’t he get the D7s (literally caterpillar diggers of women) present here). He was a champion of foul mouthed politicians of his time!
Recently, we have seen how President Peter Mutharika has applauded, encouraged and rewarded foul mouthed characters. A few weeks ago, at Comesa Trade Fair Ground in Blantyre, in the presence of President Peter Mutharika, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) zealot, Charles Mchacha called all opposition UTM women mahule (whores or prostitutes). The President and the first lady laughed! They were entertained by such demeaning remarks from Mchacha. A few days after that, the president appointed him Deputy Minister of Homeland Security as a reward for being foul mouthed. When other people of the same calibre see such rewards for loud mouths, they know their last refuge is in Malawi politics.
Not to be out-shined, last week Secretary General for DPP, Gresselder Jeffrey called Vice President Saulos Chilima stupid. Jeffrey’s only call to fame, before becoming DPP’s Loud Mouth in Chief, was her alleged involvement in the 187 million Kwacha Ministry of education scam. She is not known for any achievements whatsoever. Pause and think. A mere secretary general of a party, cursing a vice president of the country, the only designated person to take over as president in the unlikely event of the current president’s incapacitation.
That is not a small thing. Where is she getting the power from? President Mutharika of course! The fact is that the president has so much power within DPP and the country. It’s up to the president to use the power to keep foul mouthed savages in check or not. However, the President is allowing obscenities to be said in his presence. This is why a party official can call a sitting vice president stupid. As long as leadership encourages and rewards such personalities, they will always thrive.
Another important reason why such personalities thrive is the shunning of politics by brilliant, upright men and women in our society. Good people fear politics but end up being ruled by uneducated scoundrels and savages. We have seen government ministries headed by ministers without any knowledge whatsoever about the ministries’ core objectives. All they do is use the ministries’ resources to promote ruling party agenda and we wonder why we remain one of the poorest countries in the world.
Malawi desperately needs decent people of high integrity to step up and get rid of these foul mouthed savages. There is no special time for this, the right time is now. Of course not only upright people but also people who have a clue on how to run the country. Not just reverends who come in the name of Christ but have no clue what to do to uplift the country from poverty to prosperity. There are many capable, decent people of integrity who must put country before self and save Malawi politics from scoundrels, failures and foul mouthed savages.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are not necessarily the views of the Publisher or the Editor of Maravi Post
