WAS PRESIDENT MUTHARIKA RIGHT TO DECLARE HIS 2019 CANDIDACY?.....

APM man in charge

Last Sunday president Peter Mutharika returned to Njamba Freedom Park where he took time to sell his agenda for Malawi now that he is operating from State House. He had to do this as way of saying “thank you” to his supporters for working tirelessly to bringing the DPP back into power. 
 

For the duration of the rally President Mutharika touched on a number of issues and reminded the people some of the DPP’s campaign promises and how he intends to fulfil them within the next five years.

What even caught the attention of many was his statement that in DPP there is no plan B or C for the 2019 elections and the declaration that he will be contesting for presidency. His statement was in bold “I will be contesting. If some of you thought otherwise, sorry wait for 2024”.

This statement seems to have been received with mixed reactions if what was reported in the media is anything to go by. 

The Daily Times of Tuesday, 2^nd September, 2014 carried a story under the headline “APM’s 2019 candidacy declaration questioned”. 

The paper quoted a Chancellor College based political analyst Josephy Chunga who faulted Mutharika’s declaration of his ambitions for 2019. Chunga says such an interest is bad for democracy as the party’s convention before the elections in 2019 will only “rubber stamp the position already secured”. 

Reading through the story I thought I would come across some moaning voices within the DPP but no, it was some two analysts who were only expressing their views and I wonder if these voices should be treated as representative questions that should query that 2019 proclamation by President Mutharika. It could have made much more sense if we heard the reaction of the party as well. Anyway, that’s the topic for another day.

This is not the first time I have heard people speaking like that. Even before the DPP’s convention last year people thought by declaring his interest to contest for the presidency in 2014 president Mutharika will only be rubber stamped. But no, there was former speaker of parliament Hennery Chimunthu Banda who challenged him in an open contest.

It seems like some individuals like drawing suspicions where there is absolutely nothing bloodcurdling.   By the way, who faults people’s ambitions anyway?

I am of the view that President Mutharika as a politician just like any other politician would do has ambitions. Its only human to wish for the better in life. Firstly he wanted to become the president of Malawi by contesting in the May polls. That was an ambition and it was achieved.

Secondly he hasn’t hidden his wish to work towards transforming this country by lifting it up from where it is now to some greater standards where we all have aspired to reach. That is an ambition that he would want to achieve.

Thirdly, what will stop him from even aspiring to contest in 2019 especially knowing that the constitution doesn’t bar him from doing so? Any other politician who is aiming high would gladly harbour such ambitions. Besides, in his declaration the president did not say he is an automatic choice all he was doing was simply making a declaration of his interest to contest.

By saying there is no plan B or C that means as a party they haven’t started planning for that yet. The party doesn’t stop individuals from contesting at the convention even challenging for the presidency. It’s the party’s convention that will decide on whether to come up with plan B or plan C at an opportune time, but now there is no such plan.

Therefore the question of president Mutharika imposing himself doesn’t even arise anywhere in his statement.

Reading deep into this statement all I could see was a president who was urging his supporters to join hands and work for the betterment of the country other than spending much of their energies in some political machinations and planning for 2019 with only 3 months after an election and with almost five years to go before we cast the ballot again.

This was a reminder to the people that time will come for campaign in 2019 but meanwhile he is the man in charge. Time for politics is gone; this is time to talk development. Not only that, but even if the DPP has individuals that are eying the presidency in 2019, he will be the man to beat and I see nothing wrong with that.

I find this declaration so transparent and helpful for the party as it parries away any form of speculation.

This is where I agree with one of the political commentators Timothy Mtambo who says  people will be better placed to judge President Mutharika in 2019 as to whether they would want to give him and the DPP another mandate or not depending on his performance.

This declaration is also good for democracy because now we know the president’s ambitions therefore as a nation we shall be closely monitoring his performance. 

The president himself will also be cautious in the execution of his duties because he knows people will be assessing him in keenness for 2019. This will spur him into action and help him perform for the betterment of Malawi.

I am of the view that as a nation we shouldn’t be spending much time debating about 2019 but rather let’s focus on what President Peter Mutharika is offering us. 

Democracy does not mean that one shouldn’t make his or her political ambitions known as long as it’s within  the constitution. It calls for transparency and accountability at all times. 

President Mutharika is being accountable and transparent to his people by not hiding anything from them. They should know what his wishes are now. 

It will be the people of Malawi deciding as to whether they would want him to continue or not because by standing on a DPP ticket, a party that is in government it’s not automatic that they will carry the day in 2019.

Evidence is there that even a ruling party can lose in an election. Therefore any undemocratic tendency that will cripple in the party will be dealt with by the ballot which speaks more words that the voice and power of any sitting president.

THE MAKING OF HAMAS AND BOKO HARAMING MALAWI.

Ken man... was planning to Boko Haraming Malawi

It’s official… Whatever stuff these PP top guys are smoking must be a grade A powder because its blowing the stuffing out their heads completely. It has been proven that Joyce Banda and Ken Nsonda have entered some sort of a “Mr Jokes” like contest where they are showing off their below zero depth of reasoning.

The two, have shamefully chosen to bunch themselves at some thwarting corner where they are failing to move on with life. They are all over town trying to save face after that May 20 embarrassment. Let us all seat back and enjoy watching this movie of clowns popcorn ndi chi juice m’manja. Gwidyo, gwidyo gwidyo!

Funny that these two chief political masquerades still believe that the one dog ooops one cow per family show biz had won them the elections and that DPP stole some figures from them. Now in their hallucinations they are seeing MCP and UDF being touting the blue line.. Please be my partner in laughing, muhahahahaha! Forgive my loud voice. 

In case you missed the whole episode, let me try to unpack it for you: It all started with JB telling the whole world that her PP had petrol bombs and machetes hidden somewhere in town (they are still having them anyway) 

These orange militias filled with bitterness and anger had wanted to do a Boko Haram operation on Malawi by slaughtering all of us simply because they had lost the luxury of basking in cashgate glory. Wow! That could have made an award winning action packed movie. That qualifies as the making of our own Nyasawood that even Nollywood or Bollywood couldn’t afford to out stage us on the way. 

Ken Nsonda has meanwhile confirmed that he was supposed to be man In charge of such an operation. In his own words he says “All was agreed and set; I (on behalf of PP) was to take charge of the move”.

 

Yanyamuka

Now Mr Loti Dzonzi, what are your boys still doing at area 30? This man here is supposed to be locked without any shilly-shallying. Trust me, nobody will even call it political witch-hunting. What do you call this ladies and gentlemen? This is a “police statement” on its own.

I don’t want to dwell much on all the empty accusations and finger pointing that this man Ken has made against MCP and UDF because they are nothing but trash. All am doing here is calling upon the authorities to investigate and arrest these two and the whole team.

We can’t even fail to speculate that the torching of the markets and MEC warehouse is a result of the rockets that our own version of Hamas is firing. Hehehehehe!

OF TACTICS AND A TACTLESS TEAM FOR SALE

Flames: Don't you dare talk about their tactics again

Seems like this week the Flames win over Benin has been overshadowed by news making rounds that one football commentator from MBC was scheming with the enemy to sell them tactics on how to beat the Flames. The football fraternity couldn’t do otherwise but box him to the corner calling him all sorts of names as long as he is labelled a “traitor” and “unpatriotic”.

 

As a football fan myself and somebody who once worked on the sports desk at MBC, I thought the best way for me is not to take sides but look at the other side of the debate.

For starters what are the charges being levelled against the said reporter? Is it match fixing? Corruption? Theft? Or what? We need to be clear here because all am hearing are people moaning and groaning that the reporter was not patriotic to have hatched up with the enemy to sell them the "tactics".

Last time I checked we cannot force individuals to be patriotic. It’s just a matter of principal and passion not regulation. That’s why we have seen coaches leading a team from another country in beating a team from their own country even at international level. I guess in our context that’s being unpatriotic, huh? Who eats patriotism at the same time? 

Not that I am speaking in praise of the behavior of soliciting bribes to sell out tactics to the enemy but my interest is on the charges leveled against the commentator.  

Now we are hearing reports that the Football Association of Malawi has banned the journalist from reporting anything to do with the Malawi National Football team. I need to understand which article is FAM using in its statutes to ban the reporter? Is the reporter a FAM employee? Was he sent to Benin by FAM and that he was answerable to them on his conduct? Was he in Benin working for FAM or MBC as his employer?

The issue here is about the reporter allegedly soliciting bribes which is against the code of ethics of journalism so is FAM the right body to punish journalists who don’t abide by their code of ethics? 

To me the crime committed was against the profession not against the game because there is no rule in football that says “though shall not be seen chatting with the enemy” but in journalism soliciting bribes can become an offence if it was meant to influence some decisions in the course of the the journalist's work. Or lets just call this one an abuse of office at least it sounds better.

But then our evidence is based on some text which says "I will help you with information to beat the Flames at home... I promise to do anything possible, lets talk". Yes, this was not supposed to come from a Journalist let alone a Malawian who wishes the flames well, but then we need to look at both sides of the debate so that next time the right punishment should be melted down to wanna be offenders.

If say Benin comes to Malawi, engages me as their consultant to reveal to them one or two secrets about the Flames’ style of play what’s the name of that crime again? So I will be banned by FAM from attending any Flames game?

So in this country Football commentators are affiliated to FAM? that's an award winning joke. I have never heard of anything like that happening elsewhere in the world.

FAM is there to manage football not to regulate the conduct of journalists in the country. If the reporter was wrong let MBC punish him and other relevant bodies because it’s only MBC that can question the conduct of its employees not FAM. The FA can only investigate and report the journalist to his employers and other legal bodies that deal with matters of this nature.

And I hear of Flames tactics, which tactics? I can write about the Flames tactics each time I want and that’s not a crime. Newspapers have written about flames tactics even a day before a crucial game. 

Tactics can never be treated as secrets. We have watched the Flames before and we know their strengths and weaknesses. We can tell which team will start, which players will field on what position even before kick-off, so which tactics are we making noise about?

Let’s accept we have a tactless team that has only the Angola 2010 to show us as an achievement and not even Peter 40 can make the team qualify or fail to qualify simply because he had a chat with officials from Benin.

Talking about FAM, this is another bunch of clueless individuals that have failed to raise the profile of our National Team.

Let those without sin at FAM be the first ones to cast a stone at Peter 40 for having a chat with Benin officials about the Flames’ tactics. 

Let those that have never written anything about the flames tactics in the media be the first to cast a stone at this commentator. To me the issue here is about the alleged soliciting of bribes not the revealing of Flames’ tactics. At the same time it will become a very big issue if FAM finds some elements of match fixing in the whole episode, otherwise we are busy amplifying nothing at all.

IS IT JUSTIFIABLE FOR PRESIDENT MUTHARIKA TO HAVE QUITE A NUMBER OF AIDES/ADVISORS?

By Greyson Chapita.

Mutharika: Doesn't believe in a one man's show

This week the talk in town was about the presidential advisors that President Peter Mutharika has hired to help him in stirring up the agenda for Malawi. Thus far, the significance of having these presidential advisors cannot be over exaggerated. However, it is the quality of criticism that is making rounds on the advisors that is so bewildering and incomprehensible. 

For a start, the critics were all over peddling lies that President Mutharika had hired about 20 advisors. They claimed this was way of stuffing up the space that Mutharika’s 20 member cabinet created. But nay, this has been clarified with facts. 

The Ministry of Information released a statement that listed the hired advisors and the number is coming to seven which to me is so manageable. 

The statement even puts to rest the argument that seemed to have been well crafted alleging that the Advisors will be getting the perks similar to those of cabinet ministers. They went further to brand the move as a total waste that will end up masticating our tax money willy-nilly. 

Contrary to the claims, what we have now is news that the out of the seven the three Chief Advisors are carting home a gross salary of K402, 441 per month while the four Special Advisors are getting K352, 910 apart from some controllable benefits befitting the nature of their job. You even wonder where the individuals were getting their information from.  

Let’s not get obsessed with this business of picking on our leaders at will.

It’s even laughable to note that the critics were including the Presidential Press Secretaries, Press Officers and the Presidential Assistants on the list just to rationalize their case. Some of these things just need common sense. 

To me it seems like some people would rather have a dictator of a president than have a president who consults and makes two-pronged decisions. They fancy a one man show at statehouse, anybody who comes near the president it automatically becomes a total waste. What kind of philosophy is this?

In simple words, the criticism lacked substance but only exposes the mania that some people have in opposing and criticising everything that comes from Statehouse. They don’t even care as to whether they have facts or not. 

They are busy looking for faults in the current administration even when there are none.

It seems like President Mutharika is playing them very smart, coupled with plenty of confidence in his dealings that they are even struggling to raise issues against him and they are now picking on some trivia. All they are doing is to create stories from nowhere just to satisfy their new found trade of criticising. 

Not that the president cannot make mistakes, we are all humans and prone to some goofs here and there, but that doesn’t mean that we should restrict ourselves to a fault finding corner.

There is plenty of encouraging and immense work being done at the moment. Talk about the historical Civil Service reforms currently underway. That’s what we as a nation needs to be talking about.

President Mutharika outlined his developmental agenda during inauguration, at parliament and at the 50^th Independence celebrations. I think it would do us better if we all get together and work to make sure that the face of Malawi is transformed per the wish of our leader because this will be an achievement credited to Malawians not Mutharika as an individual.

Imagine this, of all the reasons that one can give in criticising these appointments, I just read on Nyasatimes that CAMA’s boss John Kapito said we should do away with these advisors because all they do is gossip at State House. Are we serious? 

So far President Mutharika has clearly demonstrated that he is aiming at nothing but fulfilling his campaign promises. He did not preach about austerity as a political rhetoric but it is evident now that he is walking the talk. 

This is noticeable in the lean cabinet that he recently appointed and the seven advisors that he has just hired.

Instead of condemning everything that comes from statehouse the best we can do is wait and see whether these advisors will deliver or not. Once we notice so many goofs from up there that’s when we will know that the seven are nothing but passengers in the statehouse bus.

I remember from the time of Bakili Muluzi, Bingu Wa Mutharika and Joyce Banda, we all moaned and groaned when we felt the advisors were not doing our former presidents a very good job. Meaning, we all can agree that each president needs good advisors around him. 

Knowing Mutharika as an experienced politician and academician, I believe he gave it a careful thought before picking these advisors, no doubt about that. 

Presidential advisors are very useful. As people who are specialised in a particular field they can therefore offer timely advice to the president for timely decisions. 

These are the people that have access to the president without encumbrance even more than cabinet ministers.  They are the people that shape up the president’s agenda and help in directing policy. 

Advisors become the eyes and ears of the president. As experts in their field, they are there to do research on behalf of the president and guide him accordingly so that he should be able to sell such ideas to his cabinet ministers.

However, it should be known that presidential advisors don’t take over the role of cabinet as the main advisory body, but these are the people that work close to the president as political and professional counsellors. 

There are some decisions that the president needs to make, he will need some facts on the ground to inform such a decision and will rely on the experts to give him advice. If the president goofs somewhere, the advisors are there to do some pep talk based on specifics. 

We can’t even start negotiating the fact that President Mutharika needs advisors to help him carry out his duties effectively. This is not a new occurrence, it happens everywhere.  For example President Jacob Zuma of South Africa which is one of the economic power houses in Africa has a team of advisors. President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria has close to 20 advisors at statehouse. All over the world we have heard of presidents picking advisors. 

Talk about President Barrack Obama of the United States. The case is the same.

Why should it be different with Malawi, a country that is still trying to get itself out of poverty? The president needs more heads, diversity in thinking and a vibrant resource team to move things around.

This political journey doesn’t need a Mr Know-It-All. This is a democratic system of government where the needs of people should always be prioritised. 

The office of the president is not an ordinary office. This is an office that is so overwhelmed with state matters; therefore it needs systematic structuring and a practical framework that will drive policy at all levels.

At the rate we are moving, one day we shall find ourselves demanding that we do away with cabinet ministers because we have Principal Secretaries as technocrats in the ministries. From there we shall demand for the removal of our Members of Parliament by claiming that their work can easily be done by ward councillors. 

We shall even start asking for the abolition of the office of the president and propose that traditional leaders take over. 

What I have noted is that the critics are only arguing on the point of over spending not on the roles and responsibilities of these presidential advisors.

Running government is a serious business and spurring development needs great investment in all sectors. You invest in human resource, capital, machinery and many more. President Mutharika believes in that.

He has demonstrated that he needs more hands to help build the best of Malawi.

The best we can do is offer advice to the Presidential advisors that they shouldn’t turn themselves into hand clappers and cheer leaders.