Edwin John Dingle in his book, Across China on Foot (1911) once stated:
“To travel in China is easy. To walk across China, over roads acknowledgedly
worse than are met with in any civilized country in the two hemispheres, and
having accommodation unequalled for crudeness and insanitation, is not easy.”
In his understanding of the matter, he was crude to state the difference
between rhetorical declarations and pragmatic experiences. I have noted the
most cherished golden lesson missing among our politicians is the distinction
between rhetorical promises and realistic declarations that can be achieved.
Many a times, I feel like I have just woken up to another déjà vu experience
when events unfold interestingly on the political drama stage and the old adage
by a renowned editor of Le Figaro, Jean
Baptiste Alphonse Farr, to which he was a frequent contributor, once wrote a
satirical statement: “plus ça change,
plus c'est la même chose" translated to be “the more things change the
more they remain the same”, gives us a sort of ‘merry-go-round carrousel kind
of replays’ of political dramas. I would like to take the strain of resurfacing
these kind of political replays in our Malawian political drama stage.
Surprisingly, we seem to pay no attention at these scenes and do not seem to
notice the ‘reverberations’ on our nascent democratic dispensation. This
article will highlight a few political ‘replays’ of our current regimes in
light to the understanding of the statement by Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr.
First replay is seen in
government’s quick acknowledgement of practising austerity measures in one
scene, and yet throwing an excessively costly banquets on another side scene.
During the People’s Party regime, the president surprised the nation with a historic
public announcement that the state was not in a better financial positioning to
usher the 48th Anniversary Celebrations, subject to dry government
coffers. Barely two weeks later, the nation got a rude awakening to the news
that the former president, Joyce Banda, threw herself 100-day celebrations in
different venues on different days costing an estimate MK120 million of
taxpayers money, of which the state house press office rebutted that the funds
originated from ‘well-wishers’. A similar déjà vu occurred just some few weeks
ago surprisingly with the confidence-raising news of a presidential stay-away
from the AU summit to serve funds for the nations. However, the budget of the
50th Anniversary in Malawi pegged exorbitantly at a staggering MK158
million, defeats the purpose raised in the earlier statement. One will only
hope that the current scenario does not cascade into an all rampant
over-expenditure which does not serve the nation’s pride and prestige as was
demonstrated in the earlier scenarios, where ‘purportedly government dry
coffers’ were reserved to entertain a personal agenda of celebrating 100 days
in office.
Second replay in this fantastic political film is the loudmouthed political party chatterboxes with a distorted enthusiasm to exercise liberty and challenge the political opponent with the most fiercely wrapped brawl. The current scenario in Malawi Congress Party is not novice in the Malawian political cinema, probably what would be novice about it would be the calibre of the practitioner herself. It is neither strange on the political drama stage nor unprecedented in the oldest political party itself. The MCP of old had Mayi Hilda Manjankhosi who lambasted at all political adversaries of the party to the point that they would dread with their tails in between the legs, fearing the unknown. The party that took over the reigns of power in 1994, had their own loudmouthed governor in the name of Paul Kachimbwinda, who wore an iconic mantle of ‘Ninja’ credited to his invincibility in the game of political verbal swordplay. The others who tread the same path include Davis Kapito, Patricia Kaliati, Ken Msonda and the current Jessie Kabwila. It may seemingly sound like I have branded them with the same label and I am committing a categorical fallacy of hasty generalization, but wait a minute. These loudmouthed spokespersons had their distinctive features, but one outstanding feature shared by them all is the emotive outbursts which is uncharacteristic for political development. Emotive outburst is the slander spoken in consideration of one’s standing without a weigh on the balance and without substantive evidence. It is not my desire that I should launch into the nitty-gritty of my argument, but without apology, I have noted the emotive outbursts launched without substantive evidence, or in philosophy, I would put it that I have noted three serious fallacies committed which include argumentum ad hominem (attack on the personality), argumentum ad metum (appeal to fear) and argumentum ad odium (appeal to hatred).
Third replay is the controversial appointments of radio personalities whose previous records are indicative of uncompromising legacy. I would confidently suggest that if you are a radio announcer or a news-reporter and you wish to see your way to the State House Press Office, you need to play your cards in an uncompromisingly fashion and you will immediately obtain that ‘green card’. About 2 years ago, we saw one uncompromising radio personality from Capital FM, Brian Banda, a no-nonsense brainy announcer who braved to interview political heavyweights asking them nerve-racking questions had to be rewarded with a mouth-watering post in the Press Office at the State House. The event seemed to me to be a sequel to the recent appointment of one, Pilirani Phiri, renowned to be an equal of Brian Banda of Zodiak Broadcasting Corporation when it came to asking fearless questions to the powers that be. Pilirani Phiri was given a golden ring for his bravery and a medal for his audacity in the form of another post at the State House Press Office. With the turn of events, I can do nothing but predict or prophesy that the next audacious radio personality shall have his or her castle built in the sky, in the cocoon of a State House Press Office for sure.
Fourth trailer under repeat in this Malawian Political film is the job-creation. Of course, a couple of you guys are thinking: ‘Now what’s the heck with job creation, I thought job creation is good for our economy and decreases youth unemployment rate!’. Sure but this job creation is neither good for the nation’s economy nor does it decrease youth unemployment in the country. This job creation is a way to accrue state resources to the privileged few and a demonstration of lavish waste of public funds. For instance, during the UDF regime we had various posts of Ministers without portfolio, who had barely anything to do but swindle monies in the way they liked without being accountable to anyone. During the DPP era, we were shocked to the news of the inclusion of the First Lady in the Cabinet, who had the right to draw salaries, let alone allowances and other privileges, just like any other minister. During the PP regime we experienced another return of drama in terms of strange Ministerial portfolios such as Minister of Good Governance and currently we are to have a historic post of a lifetime in Southern Africa of a Former Speaker of Parliament, whose basic salary starts from a hefty MK1.5 million. And we seem to be assured of the resources by the parliament. How I only wished I had served in Parliament as a Speaker.
Fifth and last replay is the political dilly-dallying of the wheels of justice on our nation. The political blame game has reached its summit just at the time when all our eyes were set on the wheels of justice to start rolling towards the prosecution and conviction of cashgaters. It is not a fairly tale that the infamous cashgate scandal brought untold pain to the nation, and it is not prophetic to state that the recent change in regime is a resultant effect of the scandal. However, it would be a ‘spit-on-our-faces’ to let the cashgaters slip-away from our sight unscathed. The very truth of the scandal lies on the level of impunity manifested on the perpetrators, the loss of evidence for prosecuting the perpetrators, and much more the failure to recover huge sums of money that went down the drain from the scandal. By the way, what would be idealist is not the ‘axe on the necks’ of the cashgaters, but the ‘sack on their pockets’, meaning the recovery of the lost monies and reinstallation of public and donor confidence that the government will run the affairs of men without loopholes and thievery. This is characteristic to the other long-gone court cases and scandals which only left one victim, the Malawian taxpayers. These scandals include the MK1.4 billion scam on donor money, which to date has almost lost historical trace in our political films, despite reported facts that the treasury saw actual deficit to that tune, the Fieldyork book scandal that left purported offenders laughing their way to the bank, the MK61 billion scam that has been reduced to a musical-political campaign against a particular sect of political players with an aim of shielding one’s scandalous mishaps, and the sad to come to terms, Jetgate scandal, which only makes me believe on one fact echoed by a couple of my peers that to some extent, ‘Malawians are foolish indeed’!
In conclusion, the more things change the more they repeat themselves. Mostly the trigger-happy party followers are caught in the dance without a lesson to draw from the music they dance to, only to join another of a similar dance with the same dancing skill. It is for these facts that it becomes conceivably far to me that I will ever become a politician.
