Kaliati says MG1 dancing to MG2 tune: ‘Chilima winning agenda-setting war’

United Transformation Movement (UTM) secretary General Patricia Kalitai has said Vice President Saulos Chilima has made the Peter Mutharika administration preoccupied with issues he is raising in his UTM rallies that forms part of his electoral pledge.

Chilima is successfully building a damaging narrative
Kaliati: MG1 dancing to the tune of MG2

Speaking at a political rally at Nyambadwe Primary School Ground in Miranda Township, Blantyre on Saturday, and Kaliati said since Chilima launched UTM, there is an expectation from Malawians that he will provide strategic leadership to steer the country to unprecedented economic growth and development.

“This is why MG1 (The President) is paying attention to what MG2 (Vice President) is saying so that he can keep up the game. If MG2 does a new hairdo, the MG1 is copy the style. Stay in your lane,” she said.

Kaliati, who is also Member of Parliament (MP) for Mulanje West Constituency, fondly known as Akweni, urged Chilima to roll out his strategies of brining access to safe drinking water and ensure more people should own decent homes with 24 hours of electricity supply throughout the year

Chilima guaranteed that he will ensure that including that every person will have access to social and economic services; quality education, health care and adequate and nutritious food.

Kaliati said in an interview that UTM will take into the villages and the grassroots the gospel of the tripod promise of transformation, opportunities and prosperity that undergird Chilima’s vision for the country.

“We will step on every blade of grass in every village in the rural outlays where the majority of our people live with UTM message,” she said.

Meanwhile, a newspaper columnist has observed that every time Chilima goes at a political rally, he raises an issue that ends up dominating public discourse for months.

Writing in his  Cut the Chuff column in Weekend Nation, Ephraim Munthali observed  that  point about creating one million jobs within one year of assuming government control if he wins  in next year’s tripartite elections, created so much controversy—and buzz—that even today, it remains the single most talked about policy proposal that has stuck in people’s minds.

He also noted that Chilima  stalked people’s anger towards Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom).

“In condemning fraud and corruption—the vices in which Escom has become their poster child—Chilima claimed, and the power utility later confirmed, that 3.8 million litres of diesel worth K1.9 billion had disappeared at Escom.

“Today, the Escom diesel scandal is still one of the most talked about issues and continues to be portrayed as one of the many faces of corruption under the watch of President Peter Mutharika and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP),” write the paper’seditor.

Just a week ago, the Vice-President sparked a pigeon peas firestorm that has joined the public discourse arena, attracted parliamentary hearings and has since forced Finance, Economic Planning and Development Minister Goodall Gondwe to call for a press conference to address the matter, the columnist noted.

He writes that, Chilima has made the Mutharika administration preoccupied with explaining things such as where the money for buying the produce has come from and who it is really benefitting because there are reports that it is big DPP businesspeople loyalists who will benefit, not the farmers.

“As the DPP takes a defensive posture in some corner somewhere at Capitol Hill, the UTM war room is probably preparing another assault to keep them pinned to that pigeon peas corner, with no room and title to launch its own attack,” writes Munthali.

He argued that Chilima is successfully building a damaging narrative—creating a caricature of the DPP as a morally bankrupt and corrupt regime that does not care about the little guy—the voter.

“The Vice-President has become the guy who decides what issues must be debated during the campaign and the rest of the politicians follow, but on his terms,” he writes.

The columnist pointed out that Chilima has managed to draw the attention of the news media and the general public to discuss issues they otherwise would never have raised, certainly not with the same urgency of now.

“In other words, he has boosted the weight of those issue considerations when voters choose candidates. Make no mistake: the issues that candidates—and then the news media—discuss have strong potential to become voter priorities, greatly influence voting behaviour and shape what these days has become the first 100 days of an administration.”

The columnist wrote that Chilima is is making people listen to him, which increases voters’ impressions of him as well.

He further said DPP is following Chilima’s UTM like “a puppy” and like the rest of the opposition parties such as Malawi Congress (MCP), which is even trying to copy UTM’s party regalia of red.

“Thus, in terms of the agenda-setting war, Chilima is winning this thing. Whether it can win him an election next year is another matter altogether,” writes Munthali.

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MMMM
MMMM
5 years ago

Am listening, what confuses me is that whats the colour of MCP? coz even blue is there. DPP is all scattered, uncordinanted, clueless thats why another person can wake up to day say Maliseche athu ndi president wathu……

mediaz
mediaz
5 years ago

Munthali,koma ulikonkuno Ku Malawi?Mitundu yonse ya nsalu za zipani ukuyidziwayi zilikale pa nsalu za chipani cha MCP.Akupatsa bans kuti uzinama chonchi?Go back to drowning board.Chakwera oyeeeeeeee!!

Ambele Kwacheni Banda
Ambele Kwacheni Banda
5 years ago

If Bingu had Chilima as VP Malawi ili pena.

Nalingula
Nalingula
5 years ago

Hahaha ndie mwati MCP is trying to Copy Red Colour from UTM? Mutowuza ana anabadwa 2000 ? Ife tinabadwa mma 80s titoziwa kuti ma bareta ,ma uniform a Red ,nsalu za Red ndi ma Colours a MCP kuyambira khale.

Apumbwa
Apumbwa
5 years ago
Reply to  Nalingula

koma UTM ndiye ikuwala mu red!!!!! Moto kuti buuuuuu

BigMan
BigMan
5 years ago
Reply to  Nalingula

Ma caps and barettas mwayamba kuvala liti inu? Koma you need more than rebranding for your party, you need atonement and to beg for forgiveness from Malawians who lost thousands of relatives killed by your MCP regime.

Nyima
Nyima
5 years ago

Dpp will never touch a panic button because of a certain grouping whose agenda is not known up to now.Because you are disgruntled people( Chilima.kaliati,ngalande and Masangwi ) you think the number of pple attending your rallies are also going to vote for you .Ask jb ,Atupele and Bj .They will tell you what it means when it comes to voting .Just keep hovering around and wash your dirty linen in public ,come 2019 you will evaluate yourself if indeed what you are saying will yield anything.Kaliati,winiko and Masangwi ,you will never make it to parliament idyani komaliza and you… Read more »

PYM
PYM
5 years ago

Kodi inu a utm mukadzapezeka kuti mwalephera wawina ndi APM kapena Chakwera inuyo no 3 muzatani? mukuonjeza matama. mwamuna mzako mpachulu umalunga utakwerapo. utm kusokosa too much kudelera too much

DAVIE C MAKAWA
5 years ago

much as i apreciate your corum, i have noticed that you dont know the colours of MCP. MCP has only been the party that has been using the colour Red from day 1, and now because chilima came with the same colour you think MCP is copping? No!!!!!

Apumbwa
Apumbwa
5 years ago
Reply to  DAVIE C MAKAWA

you have so many colors red , blue, green, purple, what is your problem, you cant make up your minds????

Mike Tembwe
Mike Tembwe
5 years ago

Amkolo, between UTM and MCP, who is copying party regalia of Red? Penapake ma journalist enanu you are so daft. MCP has been using the red color kuyambila kalekale. You seem to have run out of ideas when you were deciding how to conclude your article. Just do your thing amkolo, get paid by your masters but don’t tell lies about MCP. MCP is too mature to copy anything from UTM or any other party. And come May 2019, inuyo ndi UTM yanuyo you will form a good opposition party while MCP will be in government.

Apumbwa
Apumbwa
5 years ago
Reply to  Mike Tembwe

koma UTM ndi imene ikuwala ndi red!!!!

BigMan
BigMan
5 years ago
Reply to  Mike Tembwe

Yanu ndi ya Magazi, anthu akupha inu a MCP. Mizimu siidzalola kuti mulamulilenso dziko lino. Killers.

Chameleone Sentimentals
Chameleone Sentimentals
5 years ago

MCP is already red. Moreover it is Red Green & Black. Kokolikooooooo, 2019 Boma

#DzukaniAmalawi
#DzukaniAmalawi
5 years ago

The DPP leadership composition is incapable of generating their own smart and credible ideas. There used to be a true DPP with Bingu but its a shadow of itself due to the low calibre of leadership. Peter has wrong people in very critical positions especially in light of UTM rise to prominence.

MSAMALA
MSAMALA
5 years ago

Ideas which Chilima can’t implement and is fooling people.

Patrick Mbewe
Patrick Mbewe
5 years ago
Reply to  MSAMALA

Wanena kale kuti inu opanda nzeru ndi mfundo khalani chete muonere. Mwana watenga Boma uyu

#DzukaniAmalawi
#DzukaniAmalawi
5 years ago
Reply to  MSAMALA

It may be a case a case of “one-eyed man is a king amongst the blind” but at lease Chilima comes up with implementable concepts. It is up to the general populace to put life to his concepts. DPP has been been “cutting & pasting” foreign policies that have either not worked elsewhere or are not implementable for a country like Malawi. There is proof to that effect.

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