There has been a long told story of the three little innocent pigs who befriended a stranded wolf in the neighborhood. These three tiny pigs had the presumption of a fair world in which both wolves and pigs could co-exist and imagined a world of reconciliation. They did not fathom the violent and uncertain real world, which their parent pigs narrated to them. Their idealistic world soon crumbled, as they merciful decision turned them pigs to beacon, for the hungry merciless and relentless wolf, who feasted on them one by one. The ending of this story is as tragic as one can imagine.
This
is reminiscent of the current political dynamics in Malawi. The sad story of
the current political world is the just ended tragic demise of the former Vice
President, Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima (SKC), may his soul rest in peace. His
world was different from the world of the brinkmanship politicians. He
envisioned a nation so perfect and so kind in which his goals and ambitions,
including that of everyone else were attainable. He cherished the goal to rise
to the highest office in the land and govern Malawi to economic success like
his career trail entailed. Equipped with a Master's in Economics, whilst
serving as a VP under the DPP regime, he quickly made his move to pursue and
was awarded, a prestigious PhD in Knowledge Management degree from University
of Boston in March, 2014. The current political conditioning in the nation
regards those aspiring for this highest position, to have attained at least a minimum
of a PhD and possess academic prowess to the level of professorship as a
presidential trait.
The masterplan
in political aspiration of most candidates is to either form one's party and
contest for the hot seat unopposed or seek an election within the governing
political party. Your guess is as good as mine, the latter is a task of
gigantic proportion compared to the former. SKC, as he was renowned made his
move to pursue the former, with the latter in mind. Being fully equipped with
indigenous folktale wit, kept his ambition concealed, only throwing his pony
piece spin-doctors running wild making bold statements of his candidature ahead
of the infamous Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) convention of 2018. This
surely was a bold move, considering the insatiable appetite incumbents had
demonstrated over the democratic years from the dawn of 1993 to serve double
terms. This desire did not leave the then incumbent president, Prof. Arthur
Peter Mutharika out of the hook. He seemingly looked like he had changed his
mind, as before he had wanted to step down after serving first term, yet
convinced that the blank cheque was on offer, he opted to move for the second.
SKC
threw the second card, noting his only move to make his goal achievable was to
form his own party and create a competitive force. The United Transformation
Movement (UTM) was lodged within the ranks of DPP loyals and amounted a huge
traction for the ambitious youth, SKC represented. His maiden party, registered
as UTM staged a strong force to reckon with, when the 2019 elections placed
them in third position accruing over a million votes. SKC, as one who never
associated with defeat, made another move to challenge the elections with a
legal lawsuit, to push for nullification of results, upon adequately been
served with evidence of vote rigging and massive electoral irregularities.
