THE TWISTER
BY BRIAN LIGOMEKA
Sometimes, I tend to concur with what Sir Winston Churchill, a former British statesman once said: “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
This famous quote highlights that there is actually no such thing as a perfect form of government. Other systems such as socialism, autocracies, monarchies and theocracies are unpopular in many countries because they produce less desirable results than democracy in terms of the promotion of good governance, transparency and accountability.
However, by looking at the way some leaders conduct themselves in democracies I agree with Churchill’s assertion that democracy is also bad, only that it is the least flawed of the bunch. The recent protests and the death of 19 people during anti-government protests certainly show that Malawi democracy is failing the citizenry. It seems we actually vote for our own self-destruction by electing professional liars, stubborn and self-seeking politicians to rule and represent us.
We elect politicians who when they are intoxicated with power waste their energies and time enacting stupid laws just to please their political masters instead of pleasing the people who put them into office. Our problem is that instead of voting for patriotic politicians who have long-term vision for our nation, we vote for those that offer the best handouts and those who promise a long list of lies.
Because of democracy’s emphasis on the majority’s principle, some political hotheads forget that good governance calls for compromise, accommodation, and recognition of differences, which will always be there so long as diversities of mankind exist.
Let me now hail President Bingu wa Mutharika for trimming his cabinet as demanded by the masses who took it to the streets on July 20. The ‘lean’ cabinet shows that the loud voice of the July 20 protestors has been heard.
As I indicated on this column some months ago, it seems Mutharika is a political twister. The justification for describing him so lies in the way he reinforces his grip on power through a strategy of coercion. I am talking about the way he hires and retires members of his cabinet oftentimes, by defying people’s expectations.
The rumour mill has it that when he ascended to the throne in 2004, he discarded a cabinet which his predecessor, Atcheya proposed. He hired a cabinet of his own. Even after being re-elected in 2009, he surprised everyone else by leaving out of cabinet politicians who campaigned for him, by hiring new political comers.
During this week’s cabinet reshuffle, he has dropped some key ministers which were his staunch loyalists. We all know how one Ken Kandodo defended the zero-deficit budget with all his valour while Grain Malunga absorbed all the criticisms on fuel shortages. Anna Kachikho defended the government when local polls were being postponed while Etta Banda was justifying why it was necessary to expel the British High Commissioner to Malawi. What’s the prize for their gallant work during various crises? Exclusion from cabinet!
We have our own opinions on the new cabinet. Some are asking themselves: “Why is Kandodo out of the cabinet? Why has Bingu dropped Malunga, Mayi Kachikho, Etta Banda and Eunice Kazembe? Why?
Regardless of whatever answer you speculate, these politicians are out of cabinet. Simply put, the president has a prerogative to hire and fire.
Bingu’s strategy reminds me of Filipo Maria, the last of the Visconti dukes of Milan in the fifteenth-century Italy. History has it that he deliberately did the opposite of what everyone expected of him.
Filipo during his reign could call a servant and shower him with praises, and the servant would immediately start building castles in the air believing that his promotion was imminent, but lo, few days after showering him with praises, Filipo would then start treating him with extreme scorn.
Fearing the worst, the servant would start fearing to meet Filipo, but to the surprise of everyone the duke would start treating him well again. After weeks of treating him well as a valuable servant, he would just out of the blue rebuke him and kick him out of the castle.
The lesson was that best way to handle Filipo was to avoid assuming that you know what he wants or trying to deduce what will please him. What one had to do to survive was just to dance to his tunes of unpredictability.
A third century BC Chinese philosopher Han Fei Tzu once intimated on unpredictability: “The enlightened ruler is so mysterious that he seems to dwell no where, so inexplicable that no one can seek him. He reposes in non-action above and his ministers tremble down.” The point is unpredictability is one of the successful strategies in politics, if not used excessively and abusively.
One strategist once observed: “Humans are creatures of habit with an insatiable need to see familiarity in other people’s actions. Your predictability gives them a sense of control. Turn the tables: Be deliberately unpredictable. Behaviour that seems to have no consistency or purpose will keep them off balance and they will wear themselves out trying to explain your moves.”
I think Mutharika’s cabinet reshuffles can best be described as the being based on the use of coercive power.
“Of all bases of power available to man, the power to hurt others is often most often used, most often condemned and most difficult to control…the state relies on its military to intimidate nations, or even its own citizens. Business rely upon the control of economic resources….while the church threatens individuals with loss of grace,” that’s D. Kipnis speaking in his book Powerholders on coercive power.
So just as the church threatens its followers with loss of grace, the president uses his “prerogative to hire and fire” to decide who is supposed to be in the cabinet.
It is therefore a waste of time trying to figure out why some key figures have been dropped from cabinet because there will be so many political hypothesis generated, but the Constitution simply says that the hiring and firing of cabinet ministers is the president prerogative, and hence nobody should assume that he or she is a life-minister.
Ex-ministers who are angry and unhappy over their dismissals from cabinet, should just take solace in the words of wisdom from Baltsar Gracian (1601-1658): “Do not commit yourself to anybody or anything, for that is to be a slave, a slave to every man. Independence is more precious than the gift in exchange for which independence is lost. You should prefer many people to depend upon you, rather than that you should depend upon single person. Above all, keep yourself free of commitments and obligations – they are the device of another to get you into his power.”
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