Columnist hits at MCP: Party ‘not inspiring confidence’ as choice that could save Malawi

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) faced an extraordinary bit of dissent  from a newspaper columnist who torched the oldest party as not being on the cusp of victory in 2019 Tripartite elections   as predicted by some survey but a party that is “unravelling at the seams aided by some shortsighted individuals lacking ambition.”

Suzhho Khunga, writting in Weekend Nation, argued that MCP has been “flip flppiing” on the stand to the government dubiously sourced and distributed K4 billion for constituencies.

The cokumnidt pointed out the MCP president Lazarus Chakwera made it clear that much as they had accepted the money would be spent, he still wanted the events leading to the disclosure of this funding investigated by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).

“One would think this was a clear stand communicated by the president of the party with endorsements from the National Executive Committee (NEC) but that was clearly not the case.

“The MCP MPs must have been shocked, however, when the acting secretary general Eisenhower Mkaka told the media that MCP would not be accepting the K4 billion after all,” reads the column.

Khunga wrote that if Iindeed the K4 billion was contained in the allocation for the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, it was up to those leaders in Parliament to school their colleagues outside that this could not reversed.

At least, the columnist wrote, not without tabling a repeal or amendment Bill to the Appropriation Act which MCP MPs themselves contributed in passing to authorise the Minister of Finance to spend.

And the column used has more questions than answers.

”Why is it that it was only Mkaka who realised that the K4 billion payout was embroiled in dishonesty and thievery, not the MPs who approved its expenditure?

“What is MCP telling its supporters and potential voters about their ability to make decisions and stick to them?”

In all this, the columnist observed that the leadership of Chakwera is “nowhere to be seen or felt.”

According to the columnist, Chakwera is spending more time attending dinners organised by an aspiring vice-president than removing the confusion that rocks the party.

“MCP does not seem like a political party on the cusp of victory as predicted by some survey or other. It is a party that is unravelling at the seams aided by some shortsighted individuals lacking ambition,” wrote Khunga.

The columnist states that MCP seems to “hellbent on squandering the perceived good they have had recently”.

Khunga concluded the column by stating that  MCP does not inspire confidence as a party that is capable of governing come May 2019.

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