Dzuka Malawi: DPP, MCP, UDF, PP all joined politics to enrich themselves

Politics is a very serious undertaking and needs people with credibility whose presence in the political arena can bring good values to the political process. Unfortunately as we celebrated our 52 years of self-inflicted misery, I noticed the opposition was very quiet. They seemed to be distant to own or disown their own work.

Let’s break down into years, 31 were wasted years with MCP, we borrowed heavily, has some printable infrastructure, quota system to limit other set of Malawians, killed or exiled all potential leadership and taught people how to gossip and report each other, a disease that has been exacerbated with our own envy and fear to do well. Tribalism was well hidden in speaking one language Chichewa at the expense of all other cultural identities.

Only three surnames mattered, Banda, Tembo and Kadzamira. Among  them controlling almost the whole economy, party and Government. Thank you MCP for your development that includes the heavy loans we borrowed and financed personal life style, of course the railway, the university which could not even teach political science and journalism and roads and two cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe. Forget Mzuzu it is still a township to me, bola Kasungu.

Then came UDF with its 10 years. Of course Bakili Muluzi made sure a tarmac passed Kapoloma and justified it, then we had human rights institutions, free primary education that killed our education systems, highly corrupt Ministers who felt we should be grateful to them for chasing the real Ngwazi. 63 percent of Malawians voted for Nyali on June 14, 1993. Of course many were in exile. Today mwini matipate Atcheya who was a multimillionaire before presidency is now even more richer. Viva our democracy. I won’t even attempt to qualify third term, open term and the Atupeles project.

The 8 years of Bingu brought some loans from China to have a stadium when we don’t have a football team worth USD90 million loan,  a hotel in Lilongwe not lakeshore and of course a small matter of Ndata and later July 20. God loved him most but at least he had awakened Malawians. Of course some confusing figures whether it’s MWK577 billion or MWK61 billion or MWK269 billion, just like Atcheya’s MWK1.7 billion cant be explained. Poor poor Malawians I would not waste time to pretend we will get one.

Look nobody probed Kamuzus wealth, Atcheya was a business man therefore rich so too Bingu. Now Muluzi got 100 cars, Bingu 120, Joyce Banda somewhere around 140. You see we have had billionaires.

The two years of Joyce Banda are well remembered for cashgate and attempt to cancel an election. That is all.

I have a soft spot for the DPP under Peter. They have no breathing space and for the first time the President has stayed half a year without flying outside Malawi. Bravo Peter, but we are waiting on delivery and stop your boys from politicking and doing jet test flies, it doesn’t look good.

So you see, our self-inflicted misery was what we were celebrating. All young people think life is easy and crooks think politics is a getway to richness. Look how many crooks on cashgate list now pose with Ministers sons and date Ministers wives or daughters. I mean literary our politics is dirty.

Politics is not a “dirty game” that should be left to the scum, crooks, thieves, prostitutes, liars and so on and so forth. Politics is a genuine way of being at the service of others for the integral development of the country. And participation in the political life must be guided by good values of respect for human dignity, human rights, common good, social justice, equity, honesty, humility, solidarity, integral development, special concern for the poor and non-violence in resolving conflicts.

Look at the people who rule us, who govern the affairs of our communities, of our country! Look at the type of people who dominate our politics! From Chiefs all the way up.

The political leadership of our country, in most cases, seems to attract the worst among us in every sense of the word. If you look at the business people who enter our politics, it is often not the most honest, ethical and professional of them like Mr Khondowe of Kalikuti fame.

It is often the most dishonest, the most crooked and selfish of them who enter our politics. It is often those who have made a fortune at our own expense by crooking government and other state agencies in all sorts of business deals, tenders or contracts, privatisations, sale of government fiscal policies and so on and so forth. With the money they have amassed at our expense, they enter politics and make it very difficult for those without money to compete with them.

They become the main financiers or sponsors of all meaningful political activities in the country. Even for you to become a councillor, a member of parliament or president, they have to sponsor you. Politically, nothing happens without them. If they don’t directly lead, they become the sponsors of those who lead. For what? To make more money. It is not for the heck of it. They will tell you that they are already rich and don’t need a government salary, car or house. This is true. But they need more than a government salary, car or house. They need total control of government business.

Don’t be deceived or allow yourselves to be deceived. There is no businessman in Malawi too rich not to want to make any more money. We don’t have billionaires or even multi-millionaires in Malawi. We don’t have the Cyril Ramaphosa or Dangotes  here. What we have is a comprador bourgeoisie, that is small capitalists fronting for big international capital, and sometimes even for foreign crooks. They still want to enrich themselves at your expense. But to do so, they need state power to enable them control government business. And these are the people controlling your politics.

Look at most of those with high education, the academics, the professionals who enter politics! The great majority of them are not our most honest and ethical intellectuals or professionals. Most of them are simply crooks who have used their higher education and professional skills to manipulate things, politics in their favour. And look at what they do when they are in power! They are the most corrupt. They are the ones given tasks to manipulate legislative processes constitutions and other laws.

They use their higher education and professional skills to steal public resources. Look at the majority of the politicians who have been prosecuted for corruption in Malawi! Look at cashgate suspects. It is often not those with low education or with no professional skills. It is often the highly educated some even schools like Columbia University and professionally trained who manipulate government processes to steal and enrich themselves.

Look at the majority of our religious people who join politics! While there are some very good religious people in our politics, it is often not the best of them but the worst in the moral, civic, political and professional sense that enter politics. Look at the behaviour of some of them! You can’t believe that some of these people were once preachers standing on the pulpit.

Look at how crooked they are! Listen to the lies they tell! Look at how violent they are in their politics! Look at how dishonest they are! Some of these ‘men of God’ are today in court for corruption. The same with Civil Society, the worst thieves, crooks and spies now are in politics. I won’t even start on women. While there are some very good women who join politics and who should be encouraged to stay in politics, most of them are the worst of our women in the moral, ethical, integrity and indeed in every sense of the word.

Look at our youths, students and other young people who join our politics! All over the world, it is young people who are actually involving themselves in the struggle to eliminate injustice, oppression and exploitation. They are the ones who most quickly identify with the struggle and necessity to eliminate the conditions that exist. But unfortunately for us, the great majority of our young people who are in politics today are nothing but mercenaries being hired by those with money to do all sorts of wrong things. They are the ones hired to perpetrate violence against innocent people, whose only crime is to belong to a political party of their choice or to challenge those who have hired them. Can most of our young people in politics today be said to be the best of our youths, students in the moral, ethical and honest sense?

Again, let  me emphasise that not every business person, academic or intellectual, professional, religious person, woman, youth or student who is in politics falls short of the expected moral, ethical or civic standards. We do recognise the good ones and we should celebrate them. But our politics is today dominated by the worst of these. If the best of them dominated our politics, the situation of our country and our people would be very different.

Now, we have only one country and we are responsible for its future. Wake up Malawi, start choosing leaders on merit not any other isms. For the wasted 52 years, we can only drink our misery and ask those who call themselves our leaders in Government and Opposition to do soul searching and look outside the window, is my need for VX or TX or personal loans of MWK36 million justified when my voter has no food or MWK1000 walkman. If your conscience says it is okey, may you rot in hell. Happy Birthday Malawi!

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