SECTION 65 SHENANIGANS

Recent developments on section 65 are intriguing if taken in the context of first complainants-the UDF as it now turned out that the whole UDF has crossed the floor.

On their part, UDF is claiming that this was not their making since their sponsored candidate Dr Wamutharika is the one who made them left with no option but to relocate their benches from the ruling side to the opposing side,basically opposing their own government[according to hansard]

What they are forgetting is that,Dr Wamutharika is not a member of parliament.UDF abandoned their voters by relinquishing their governing duties to oppose the very same promises they made to their electorates and if their performance is taken in context,you will notice that not only have they crossed the floor.They have abandoned their constituents too.

UDF mps represents the interest of the party as opposed to the interest of their constituents. They agreed to cross the floor without seeking mandate from their constituents. As a party, they outlined a programme for government which will build on their successes, but their performance over the last two years contradict their promises. They promised to create opportunities, while blocking opportunities for people like Mrs.. Nangwale. They promised to enhance our security while their regional governor was busy recruiting 4000 youths to dethrone the elected government.

They promised the nation to take tough decisions in the interests of our country's long-term future while plotting to impeach the elected president in the short term future without any basis Where they promised progress and development to their constituents, they have been at the centre of frustrating it. They promised huge investments in public infrastructure but when they went to parliament,they were plotting to shoot down the budget.Now they will be forced to seek one.

One of the weaknesses of s.65 ruling is that there right to petition the speaker is not a monopoly of MCP and UDF.It belongs to everyone. This is what happens when politicians are hell-bent on frustrating the serving leader without strategizing their own vulnerable position.

As I once said, in the sport of judo, you are taught that it is not possible to succeed without an intimate understanding of the strength of your opponent. Every reader knows that as well as anyone. It is obvious from the outset, and from UDF's position, that their informality, seeming approachability, and apparent normality have been part of their successful attempts to frustrate progress.

They made it a point that Dr Wamutharika should not enjoy party support where he needed it most. Every person willing to offer any sort of help met stiff resistance and name calling and disciplinary threats from the party .lt is therefore not surprising that UDF has been caught off guard,because all along,they've tuned their political mindset to destroy and discredit everything by Dr Wamutharika be it in the interest of the nation or not.

The UDF party conveniently ignores to mention that the countries of Tanzania,Botswana, and South Africa have seen a smooth transfer of power to their successors and still enjoy the respect they deserve. Such secrecy and deception undermines the accountability of politicians and democratic debate. The choreography and lies which is typical of the UDF has led to increased public cynicism as the various ruses and manipulations have been revealed to the public.
"You can fool some of the people some of the time" some one once said.

UDF’s lack of democracy, accountability and openness has resulted in a political atmosphere of distrust and resentment in which it is argued that only manipulation can produce an historic accommodation. A more open, democratic debate about the ills of UDF’s internal politics in relation to governance issues concerning our country and ways of overcoming them might lead to a conducive environment which is popularly reinforced rather than balanced precariously on still seething reservoirs of communal hatred.

Since 2004, the, UDF party has betrayed every cause they believed in, contradicted every statement they made, broken every promise they made and breached every agreement that they entered into. There is a lifetime of U-turns, errors and sell-outs in UDF good enough to destroy the party. All reasonable citizens are in fact wondering whether the party now stands for anything any longer, or whether they are defending any point of principle, and confront the system that has led them to that sorry state.

UDF party may have been a member of the international consortium of liberal democrats where their mainstream political ideology evolves around economic reforms vs social reform but their record and performance since 2004 summed up their political philosophy: good ideas, lousy judgments and very very funny strategies.

They were in government when the much criticized free education was badly implemented. It led to an increase in class sizes while reducing the quality of education. Teachers were poorly trained and some went for months without wages. The declining of our education system even reached a boiling point to the extent of being labeled as an international concern by the World Bank When they were in government, the opposition were completely shut off from the public media despite constitutional provisions and their belief in the freedom of expression .

Memories are still fresh on how critics of s.65 face the wrath of UDF’s young democrats. Memories are fresh when EX hon. Kandodo Banda was bundled right within parliament compound. At its worse time, cars were touched and set ablaze sending fumes of vengeful smoke which bellowed the skies of parliament. Have we forgotten the unceremonial impeachment of the judges which brought down the whole judicial system to its knees. UDF party cannot have both ways. The UDF cannot tell the speaker to ignore other petitions and respect theirs on the same grounds.

As I once said, they remind me of the DIY fanatic who has suddenly taken over a great rambling house and immediately starts bashing it about, removing pipe work and knocking down walls without first working out which ones are structural. They reject as useless anything whose purpose they cannot immediately comprehend. Their indifference, if not contempt, for what they know as facts brings enormous dangers. Because many of the things which are so precious to us are protected by understandings and conventions. If these understandings are not understood, then our nation is left vulnerable indeed. People will wake up and find themselves living in what feels to be a different country. Without knowing quite how, some of the things which really matter to us and help shape our sense of what it is to be Malawian will have been lost.

As learned Trevor Chimimba once said" many of the constitutional amendments made after 1994 were unnecessary and section 65 was one of them. Instead of wasting time on whether who has the right to petition the speaker or not, we must spend this precious time in correcting UDF’s mess. Our hospitals, our schools, our police service, our welfare system were in an almost permanent state of crisis. The extraordinary and dedicated people who work in them were demoralized. The people who used them, dissatisfied. The people who run them, perplexed and confused as they desperately pull more and more levers and get no response.

Gone are the days when Children came home after another school day spent being taught by unqualified teachers without teaching aids and brought to their parents a letter from the head Teacher which said " if teachers don’t receive their payment from the government, the school may be forced to close as they cannot teach without food” Since 1994, our schools received numerous publications and regulations from the Ministry of Education. In the first six years, they sent out more than 140 circulars of guidance to teachers.

School terms changed time and time, undergraduate courses which normally last 4 years took an average of 5-7 years to complete due perpetual closures. The Government’s own curriculum Task Force came out with the controversial religious studies which divided our country into Muslims and Christian camps". These are some of the central issues that need exploring and pertinent questions must be asked to find out why? - Why did UDF failed to deliver? And is that failure doomed to repeat itself by Dr Wamutharika?

If anything, we ordinary voters should serve our petitions to the UDF party and their political surrogates . They have all crossed the floor by abandoning their constituents and voters who wants a better life and an environment in which dreams and ambitions can prosper Infact, voters should have a say in this through a min general election so we can give these recycled politicians a thorough beating with an oozing bloody nose.

Vast majority of people in Malawi desperately want to change the current crop of our MPS. They want to rid themselves of corrupt centric UDF because they now know that it is painfully obvious that their style of politics stifles development - it siphons off scarce resources that could improve infrastructure, bolster education systems, and strengthen public health. It stacks the deck so high against entrepreneurs that they cannot get their job-creating ideas off the ground. But elections are not enough. In a true democracy, it is what happens between elections that is the true measure of how political parties treats its people.

Today, we're starting to see that the Malawian people want more than a simple changing of the guard in parliament.They want more than piecemeal reforms to Tembo-made crisis that's crippling their country. The Malawian people are crying out for real change, and whether one voted for holding hands or Black cock in the 2004 elections, the message that many Malawians seemed to be sending is one of dissatisfaction with the pace of reform in these main stream opposition parties and real frustration with their attempts to suffocate development and progress on all fronts.

The good news however is that,they now settling at the present leadership and come elections, they will pass their verdict with a resounding voice - "TO HELL WITH YOUR POLITICS OF NKHWENZULE"