Muluzi has some wisdom

Guest Opinion, the Nation on Sunday

By Marshal Kandodo Madise

That the UDF chairperson, Dr. Bakili Muluzi, is contemplating retirement, to pave way for new blood in the party is sweet news. It could not have come at the right time than this and in fact, it is long overdue.

To begin with, let us quickly recognize the fact that the campaign period and the elections razzmatazz are now past behind us. Malawians will have to wait for another five solid years to put another government into power. And this is the time that calls for national unity and peace in the country for us to make great strides in development. It is not this time that we need the political bickering that was seen during the meetings of the previous parliament. The political hullabaloo at that time not only created tension in the country but also retarded developments projects that the Bingu-led government was trying to advance at that time. And now that Muluzi, who was one of the politicians who tried to derail government business in the house, is contemplating quitting active politics, then it augurs well for the future of the newly elected parliament.

We should also not overstate the fact that opposition parties, including the once mighty UDF, have fared badly in these elections. UDF now has got seventeen MPs in parliament when it used to have more than one hundred MPs. Shame! One of the reasons of this poor performance might have been that people were tired with the man who was at the helm of this party and they saw him as someone who had nothing to offer to Malawians. Worse still, the way Muluzi threw his allegiance to John Tembo as the torchbearer of the UDF/MCP alliance, instead of choosing someone from the UDF to lead the party in the elections, should also have contributed to the downfall of the party.

Now that Malawians have spoken through the ballot, that they do not need politics at the expense of development, and more importantly that Muluzi has realised that he is not popular with the people as he used to be way back in the 90s and now he wants to leave the mantra to someone, then we cannot help but applaud him for reading the thoughts of Malawians.

Muluzi should know that he is a former president and should be respected as such. In fact, we would have loved if he knew this yesterday. He can borrow a leaf from other erstwhile presidents such as Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Joachim Chissano, just to mention but a few, who are doing a commendable work by rendering several good will services to the people around the world.

It is for this reason that Muluzi’s remarks should not be taken lightly. As a matter of fact, I cannot agree more with Muluzi for showing diplomacy by wasting little time in congratulating Bingu on his landslide victory. Muluzi also deserves a pat on the back for gracing the swearing-in ceremony of the president despite the miserable loss that was inflicted on the UDF/MCP alliance. It is high time that old politicians retired from politics so that they could groom other young people to lead the parties in 2014 elections. Muluzi has started and we expect others to follow suit.




This article first appeared in the Nation on Sunday of 7 June 2009 (Guest Opinion).
The author is a Media for Development Student at Chancellor College.