MCP: The subtle art of managing the settling of the dust
One of the most spectacular fallouts of the results of the May 19, 2009 elections in Malawi has been the spectre of knives being publicly out for the head of the opposition Malawi Congress Party [MCP] president, John Zenus Ungapake [JZU] Tembo.
The MCP is Malawi’s party of the independence struggle and has been the main opposition grouping in the legislature since the first multi-party government in 1994. For most of that time, JZU Tembo has been Leader of the Opposition in the House and has commanded considerable loyalty in the vintage party. Today, some are openly asking for his head.
In the just-ended legislative term, the MCP occupied 66 of the total 193 House seats. Following the polls, however, it has garnered its own record low of 26, representing a precipitous slide tempered only by the (even worse) showing of another once-mighty parliamentary bloc, the United Democratic Front, UDF, with 16 seats from a recent high-water mark of 49. In these elections it hasn’t rained for the opposition; it has poured.
Given this denouement one might be tempted to concur with the MCP’s erstwhile mouthpiece Ishmael Chafukira who, in its wake, publicly challenged the legitimacy of Hon JZU Tembo’s continued leadership of the party of Malawi’s founding president, Ngwazi Dr. Kamuzu Banda. However, one would be wrong.
Wrong, too, were the media pundits and civil society spokespeople who condemned the MCP for firing Chafukira from his position as party spokesperson, if not from the party altogether. The aforementioned faulted “a lack of democracy” in the MCP and an “intolerant” streak in Hon. JZU Tembo, for Chafukira’s woes. A herd mentality is typical of Malawi’s punditocracy, as is a critical glibness and ignorance when commenting on the internal processes of opposition parties.
Despite his earnest claims, Hon. Chafukira, a clearly intelligent and talented legislator, has not made a convincing case for bringing his disgruntlement with his party’s leadership to the public forum so soon after the election results; nor has he elucidated convincingly that the MCP’s loss was (singularly) the result of weakness in Hon JZU’s leadership.
And if the new MCP spokesperson Nancy Tembo is to be believed, Hon. Chafukira did not use any available internal mechanisms for grievance-airing and grievance-settling before going public. Chafukira thus directly violated the party’s well-known and long-standing “cornerstones” – or code of conduct – of Unity, Loyalty, Obedience and Discipline. To boot, he did so before waiting for the dust of the election loss to settle.
Opposition fortunes did not so much go down in flames on May 19th for reasons of alleged weaknesses inherent in their ranks as Chafukira and and others would have us believe. Rather, they did so for things the government did which the opposition could not overcome.
Curiously, no pundits in Malawi’s media pantheon were able to describe the obviously devastating effect of the ruling DPP’s hegemony, to the total and illegal exclusion of the opposition and its points of view, of the publicly owned airwaves: two radio channels with the widest rural audience and the (almost) sole local television outlet. The more recent additional TV channel, the Catholic Church’s Luntha-TV, remains a fledgling and does not air political content. The other, independent Joy-TV, was killed at birth by the DPP government.
Nor could the pundits find time to gauge the effects of the DPP’s open use of vast government resources – from coerced civil servants to coerced school children to government vehicles and huge sums of public money – to fuel its campaign countrywide. Our pundits failed to even examine the effects on the campaign of the government’s tactic of intimidating its political opponents chiefly through police action and contrived court cases.
If the government did spectacularly well, winning the presidency and 114 seats before adding independents; while the opposition did spectacularly poorly, it was largely because of the aforementioned factors.
Contrary to popular media thinking, Hon. JZU’s longevity on Malawi’s political playground dating back to the days of independence is in fact an endearing quality; a strong point in his favour. Malawians do not generally consider stale men and women of accumulated experience in public service. These include the Aleke Bandas, the Cassim Chilumphas, the Justin Malewezis, the Joyce Bandas, the Bakili Muluzis, the Gwanda Chakuambas and others like them; a good number of whom, including Hon. JZU himself, have just been re-elected by their constituents.
JZU, moreover, continues to enjoy the support of a demonstrable majority of his party’s rank and file. If nothing else, Hon. Tembo’s self-avowed “puludzu” persistence in fighting for political causes unfavourable to the ruling party, amid much resistance and hopeless odds, is exemplary and endearing. The argument that he is long past his political shelf life is thus less than convincing, to say the least.
In these days that are in the shadow of the May 19th voting, Hon JZU Tembo should be left alone in his well-earned right to make up his own mind, in his own appropriate time, whether to resign or continue as leader of Malawi’s nationalist party following the recent election results. It erodes not only Hon. JZU’s authority inside and outside the party, but also the party’s image, authority and effectiveness, when its leader is seen to be publicly hounded out of office by party apparatchiks so soon after the general elections. If Hon JZU’s long public service merits him certain courtesies, and it does, they must surely include his being treated with dignity and respect – certainly in public, and I would say in private, too.
The next general elections are five years away. Rt. Hon Tembo as a person, and the MCP as an institution, both have the accumulated wisdom and intellect to first let the dust settle before making decisions about leadership in tranquillity and appropriate subtlety to minimise further adverse vicissitudes to the party in light of the recent electoral losses.
Treat this leader with his well deserved dignity. Use internal party grievance-airing and grievance-settling mechanisms before going public; and, above all, observe the four cornerstones which have stood the test of time and served the party so well for so long.
Tagged with: 2009 elections, Chafukila, MCP, Tembo
well written and understood.But despite hon chafukila’s outburst which you might to reason that it wasnt right; one needs to look at other facts.
firstly we must look at the individual in question i.e his past, present and potential future.Do we need people like him anymore? Using democratic processes of going through party structures to air out our grievances, would it work? Do we really believe that MCP is nice and democratic in its structures to actually let this process of change to move smoothly? that is why we have rebellions all around to remove some unwanted and undesirable individuals amongst us.From history we have learnt to understand that some individuals are never willing to give up power easily,a democratic process would not work within the structures because these people are surrounded with yes men who are serious bootlickers prepared to protect their bosses at all costs.So my question is; do you think anybody who has a different opinion of things in MCP would be able to voice out their opinions through the party structures?maybe you should sit down with those people who jumped ship in MCP,they will give you a true picture of what frustrated them within the party.Only then maybe we might understand Ishmael and the process he chose.Revolution sometimes sets people free from the bondage of unscrupolous party tzars who believe that its their God given right to be leaders. FACT IN POINT: MCP needs changes to grow as a party and one of the greatest obstacles they have is Hon JZU and the only future they are guaranteed is for the big man himself to go and you know its takes a lot to remove a dead elephant from a pathway, best way is to chop it in pieces and create space for others to pass.
the analysis of in the article is good. it is true that the public media helped Bingu and DPP much. but the problem is also with our greedy politicians. last parliament they had the numbers to change the situation but they were busy with impeachment and section 65. they did not want to work for the good of the country but for there on immediate good. this has backfired. i dont think the one who was in full control of parliament like Tembo deserve any symphathy. if we are in a mess now it is bacause of him a real puludzu. At the end of the day one has to see that i am outdated. Its better to resign honourably. It is a fact now that one man called John Zenus Ungapake Tembo will never be a State President in Malawi.
He took a party to unholy alliance or coalition for selfish reasons without thinking of what will this do to his shadow mps. the result combine with public media biase has been a disaster. The result itself is enough reason for him to resign, we dont need Chafukira to say this.
As usual, Likambale refuses to see what millions of Malawians have seen for a long time. That JZU cannot be president of a country. If we have to go by Likambale wisdom that perceives Bingu as too old to rule at the moment, how can we tolerate JZU’s presidency, when he will be in his early 80s.
telling hon John Tembo to resign is discrimination against the aged, that is countries like uk. But in Malawi u are pushing someone to poverty. Tembo knows if leave politics then umphawi uvuta. If u observe most people who were mps and loss its a shame, ihope amadyelatu hoping its on going kumangowina zisannkho. The same Tembo takes mcp as personal nobody can rule. He finance the party to be seen as tru owner of it. Ndiye ena akamati resign munthuwataya zonse zake pa campaign icant see him leaving opposition leader to someone. Musiyeni asungiletu for his remaining life time. Mcp will be there but Tembo age will take him no where. Am jurt advising Tembo to be constructive in party and parliament, hope thus what mcp members and malawians wants. God bless all malawians
Timaona ngati mwabera ndi final decision after the Chafukira saga.What are you waiting for???Mukuona ngati amalawi tipanginso u turn??? Atcheya anatilongosolera kale the brutal life of his work mate during their MCP era.Don’t blame Chafukira..Go to Tcheya ndi amene angakulongosoloreni za ungapake.Nkhani yonse ya magazi ndi Atcheya amatiuza misonkhano umu.Awo ndi mavuto anu a MCP mudakakamirabe zomwezo….What else do you need???? nzanu tcheya conceided defeat, ndi uyu akuoneka kuti akuzitaya after sensing that he is chasing wild goose but aku MCP camp you don’t seem to realise this..Anthu anatopa..you put somebody kumeneko with clean CV muone anthu mmene atakupangireni support.Ma delays amenewo are not going sort out anything.
Munthu akamasiya mpando mngakhale pamudzi amayamba wapeza kaye mulowa mmalo.Tsono inu ndikudabwa nanu a DDP mukuti Tembo apume chifukwa wakalamba.Kodi zofunika kupuma ndi nkhalamba zokha za ku Oppossition? Nanga za ku boma sizipuma?Ife tikuti President Nkhalamba ,Oppossition Leader Nkhalamba mpaka 2014 woooo.Koma tiwakumbutse a D D P kuti nthawi ya kampeni, malingana ndi a Malawi,anthu amatukwanizana.Koma ikatha kampeni timayenera kupuma.Kumbukilani Tcheya yemweyo zimene ankatiuza 1999 za Bingu.Sankatiuza kuti Bingu anaba ku COMESA,bwanji inu a DPP simunagwiritse mawu amenewa pomusankha Bingu.Mutu wa nkhani ndi wakuti munthu amalakwa lero mawa mkulapa.Ndi chifukwa kunali anthu ngati a china Saulo osandulika kukhala Paul.Ndiye inu anzathu mmakonda kufukula za kale zoti mwina anthu amatha kungonamizila munthu.Bible likuti usamnamizire mzako.Inuyo mwakodzapo pamphasa muli mwana,ndiye akazi wanu aja adakati ine sindikulolani chifukwa mumakodza pamphasa pamene inu kukodzako munasiya kale muli wang’ono,inu mungamve bwaji?
Ndipo Bible likuti,tinena ngatitu mmapita ku tchalitchi mkukapemphera zowona,TCHIMO LILRONSE LIDZAYERETSEDWA NGATI KAPEZI NGATI WOLAKWA ALAPA.Zimamvetsa chisoni kuti ndiwomwe amatiphunzitsa za kulapa ndiwo amatsogolera zimenezi zokumba zakale.Zimenezi timazimva mmaulaliki ambiri.