MCP SG Kaliwo’s ‘thesis’ challenges Chakwera: Denies being Nkolokolo

Secretary General of main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP), Gustav Kaliwo, has  written a nine-paged letter to party president Lazarous Chakwera, challenging him to ensure he steadies the ship and rejuvenate MCP into a formidable government-in-waiting.

The letter date September 13, 2016 has been leaked and Nyasa Times has a copy.

Kaliwo, a practising prominent lawyer, had not  confirmed the authenticity of the letter at the time of the posting the story .

In the letter, Kaliwo has supported a section of some party members and supporters calling for a national convection.

He started his letter to Chakwera by writing: “I greet you in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour whom we both profess to believe in.”

The MCP secretary general says he penned the letter after making “careful considerations”, saying he would “in the not too distant future” discuss the issues he is raising with the party president.

“I am aware that there are those that will say that by writing to you in thus fashion I am just playing into the hands of our detractors and joining the bandwagon of those that have openly criticised your leadership style. I will quickly be categorised as a rebel. Anti-Chakwera, kapilikoni or nkholokolo,” Kaliwo says in his letter to Chakwera.

He says “ there comes a times what needs to be said must be said, regardless of the consequences,” and that to him  , the letter is such opportunity to speak out regardless of what his critics would say.

Kaliwo said he has only his conscience and God to answer to.

He faulted the party’s recent decision to fire those with dissenting views and suspend other members, saying that demonstrates lack of intra-party democracy.

MCP secretary general argued that the space and atmosphere where people ca freely express their frustrations and offer solutions is lacking in the party.

“People with contrary views are not given space but rather being viewed as desperados,” he said.

Kaliwo said the expulsion from the party of Salima Central MP Felix Jumbe and suspension of Lilongwe Mapuyu south MP Joseph Njobvuyalema and Salima North West MP Jessie Kabwila who is also party spokesperson was regrettable.

“Can the MCP afford to lose sitting MPs years before the next election?” he queried.

He asked Chakwera if MCP is “happy” to let the MPs be “free agents” that can be courted by their competitors.

“The present decision, if not corrected, would mean; donating’ three MPs to the forced that we as a party should be fighting. This further weakens our position in parliament,” said Kaliwo in his political ‘theses to Chakwera.

“Somehow we are losing some of the best people among us,” he pointed out.

Kaliwo also faulted the suspension of MCP first deputy secretary general James  Chalonda Kaunda and that the decision should be reversed because it is “wrong and untenable at law.”

 

He also criticised elections of party officials in the districts, urging caution , saying “at the moment the elections are viewed more as a purge [to those with dissenting views] than a strategy to strengthen the structures of the party.”

Kaliwo said critics are  comparing the party frontline troops with “the intolerant MCP of the past.”

He reminded Chakwera that former party leader John Tembo faced  challenges from ‘nkholokolo’s’ like former secretary general Chris Daza , Ted Kalebe and late Ishmael Chafukila but the party “showed restraint” and even allowed Daza to remain in the office.

“This is the level of tolerance that is expected of a party that intends to divorce itself from the it’s ugly past,” he advises.

Kaliwo continued: “ Because of the gravity of our dented  past, perceived or otherwise, we have to go an extra mile, even beyond the call of our duty to show the people out there  that indeed we are a changed ad transformed party.

“We cannot be democrats by day and autocrats by night.”

Kaliwo supported the calls for a national convention, saying  it will not be a sign of weakness but rather a show of strength and democratic accountability” so that the entre membership of MCP own decisions that have recently been made.

Chakwera has not responded to the letter.

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