Bringing Sanity on Anarchy

[2007]

People are lamenting that it appears from the recent furor inside and outside Parliament that political heavies, especially the opposition, are underestimating the damage being done to the fabric of democracy and development in the country.

But more often than not problems have failed to be resolved when root causes are ignored. So is the same with the current situation in the country.  The dumping by Dr Mutharika of the UDF, the party that ushered him into power, coupled with the mass exodus of opposition MPs to join the DPP, was the tipping point. That an unexpected twist left real bruised egos. All these yearly orgy impasses in Parliament, the unrelenting scathing accusations and counter-accusations, scaremongering, among others, going on, are a vindication of frustrated expectations, hence talks, if any, have to solve this first or else unsatisfied egos will continue to haunt the nation.

Some have rightly put it that our political floor must not be a forum for settling personal grudges. As much as that holds true, what these commentators seem to forget is that there is no free lunch in politics as well. Dr. Muluzi and the UDF had, and rightly so, the hope of benefiting in one way or another when they were helping the incumbent to ascend to power, which makes the saga somehow not that personal. That is why critics should tone down a little bit and become not too surprised that a highly charged opposition, the UDF in particular, should push its limits or even go crazy in its endeavors.

This, in no way, is to suggest that the egomania satisfying-maneuverings that some overzealous politicians are reflecting must be condoned, but the thing that most pundits seem not to consider is that in almost all the countries where former heads of state are in honorary retirements, the ones they helped to be in power did not unceremoniously dump them. It is such sanguine interpretation that will makes think-tanks to concentrate where the nation slipped, and not where it is laying now.

Others have argued that passions must give way to rationality for this nation to push forward with democracy and development.

Perhaps they have a point.

[But it must be known that not all people think rationally as we might want them to do in crises. Rational thinking depends on some factors, one of which is the environment one is in. If people were to think rationally in crises as we might want them to, then we would not have the cases of rape, domestic violence, and HIV and AIDS on the increase despite all the vigorous campaigns to stop them.]

What should be said then? Although Malawi is in an elusive situation the wild donkey can be mounted and brought to rest. We were all present when descent began into hell; which puts us all at an advantage to treat the illness and not the symptoms.

Now let us quit the thundering proclamations and encourage the two ‘warring’ sides to talk like fallible mortals; both are in the wrong and have both orchestrated the current crisis.

What both sides need to be encouraged to do is to join hands in creating a conducive environment for talks by lowering the voice, reducing violent speech and violent action. The environment to be encouraged should be where each side feels safe not to be short changed or threatened in any way if it plays the wiser. In this environment the ruling side should not fear that it would be brought down to heel through impeachment or Section 65 if it flexes the muscle. Nor should the opposition be witch-hunted, vilified by brunt apolitical propaganda; it should be the environment where the machinery of government is not used to whip the opposition into ‘kneelogy’, or else the weakling will wait for heavy ‘to go to sleep’, which is in Parliament, and launch a sniper attack.

Let all concerned parties, therefore, sober up, look at what is really wrong, how it can be solved, and how to avoid it recurring in future. There and then can we ably talk of moving away from the frontiers of the near anarchy we are in.