Malawi UDF in strategic myopia

TWISTER

Like all the opposition parties, it is obvious that the United Democratic Front (UDF) is working day and night strategising on how to bounce back into government. The party’s political strategies obviously involve the polishing up of its Constitution, manifesto and the much difficult task of organising a convention where its torchbearers will be elected.
UDF in my view is justified to spend time in strategising for 2014 elections considering that it is one of the major parties which went into the 2009 general elections without a presidential candidate after one Bakili Muluzi was rejected by the Electoral Commission less than two months before the general elections.
Courtesy of Muluzi’s machinations, the party was thus forced into an electoral alliance that was driven by different ideals and had very little time to be explained to the supporters of the two parties. It was not strange that after Muluzi took party supporters for granted by forming an alliance with the MCP, the UDF performed miserably in the elections.
This was despite the fact that the party had a record of achievements in democratic governance; observance of human rights, the ushering in of free primary education; liberalisation of the airwaves through the introduction of several radios, cellular networks, TV stations; the Masaf programmes, the several hospitals that were constructed, the several roads and infrastructure development programmes; among others.
As the party is busy strategising how to win the 2014 presidential elections, the same Muluzi through his son has thrown in some spanners in the works resulting in creations of divisions within the party.
Muluzi amazes me a lot. This is the guy who fought tooth and nail to change the country’s Constitution to provide for open presidential term. After hitting a blank wall, he never gave up, with the support of his minions he campaigned fearlessly for the infamous Third Term Bill. The unfortunate happened. Malawians through their legislators rejected Muluzi’s Third Terms bid.
Did he give up? Nay! If he had given up on his dream to rule beyond his term limit, he would have handed power to his vice or alternatively choose one of the founding members to succeed him. Instead of smooth succession, he opted for an outsider who in his assumption, believed would be docile and hence allowing him to be ruling for the third term through him.  The ploy was that after Mutharika first term, he would turn around and hand over power to Muluzi, an arrangement that has perfectly worked well for former Russian leader Vladimir Putin whose successor the current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said the current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin should run for the top job in 2012.
Putin had already served two terms as president before  Medvedev took over in 2008.
But in the Malawi scenario, the game plan went haywire. Mutharika confounded his predecessor by becoming his own man.
Probably seething with emotions that his open term bid flopped, his third term bid failed, his attempt to rule through Mutharika became disastrous, his 2009 comeback hit a blank, Muluzi wants another comeback in a fashionable way; and this time it’s through his son Atupele who is copying the same old worn-out cliché “Kaya wina afune kaye asafune zinthu zisintha” which has just been rebranded through basic translation and called “Time for agenda for change.”
Strangely Muluzi’s comeback through Atupele has been welcomed without questions as to who really wants power. Is it Bakili Muluzi? Is it Atupele Muluzi? Or is it the same tenacious Bakili Muluzi through Atupele Muluzi?
I am asking these questions because I have serious doubts if Atupele who others at one point were doubting if he really holds a degree in law and has never worked elsewhere or run his own business except being embedded in his father’s businesses has the experience of solving the complex challenges facing the country.
I tend to agree with one commentator who observed that “presidency requires unbridled wisdom, intelligence, stature necessary for one to be a statesman and make decisions for over 14 million subjects and generations to come. “Atupele is only a lawyer and parliamentarian who walked from Saint Andrews to England and into parliament representing an ostensibly rural under developed Machinga North East constituency. He holds little attributes for the presidency besides his age.”
 According to that commentator, “Atupele has never been in cabinet except for some obscure membership of some parliamentary committee. He does not hold any working experience not even at corporate level and yet he thinks he can gun for the Presidency. He has no experience and wisdom for effective political or national leadership except his parliamentary responsibilities.”
He concludes by saying: “It thus makes it absurd that a person of tender age, questionable political credentials and poor experience can harbor ambitions for the highest office in the land. It will be asinine that Malawians allow him to play with their lives simply because they detaste the incumbent.”

The question is: Why is Atupele popular among some UDF supporters despite his inexperience and age? 

The answer is simple. UDF has some members who through strategic political positioning and others who through corruption, ethnicism and nepotism were beneficiaries of all the ‘great deals’ including contracts and handouts that were happening during Muluzi’s regime. In Chichewa, such people are called atidyenawo.  At the moment their assumption is that once Atupele bounces back into power they will resume enjoying the same trappings they were benefitting during Muluzi’s reign. The support for Atupele is for their pockets and stomachs and nothing else.

Despite parroting the axiom of agenda for change, which his dad also used, Atupele’s simply copy and paste truism seems to enjoy support because of good timing. His call for change is coming at the time when the country is embroiled in economic, political and governance crisis. The public expectation is that the major political parties will rise to the occasion and assure people that change is possible, but to their chagrin the major opposition parties are said to be busy strategising for the future.

As a matter of fact, it took the civil society leaders to mobilise the masses to press for change by holding mass protests and vigils when that would have been championed by opposition parties who are ‘governments in waiting’. It is, hence, not strange that Atupele’s copy and paste agenda for change pronounced at the time when the country is going through political, economic, diplomatic and governance turbulence has been welcomed with ululation and handclapping. In a crisis, any one who rises up to occasion and offer words of hope even if the suggested solutions are empty promises is endorsed and supported as a leader.

The point is UDF executive leaders were stuck in strategic myopia, busy planning and strategising at the time when masses wanted them to stand up and offer words of hope and alternative policies and solutions during the current political and economic crisis. They never did that and instead it was the inexperienced Atupele who did it.

In my view, it is a huge mistake for the UDF and all opposition parties to be telling their membership and the masses that they will unveil their torchbearers in 2013 or 2014, when people are anxiously waiting for alternative policies and solutions on fuel and forex crisis being offered by opposition leaders now.

People want a strong voice that becomes the face, the soul and the spirit of the UDF. If the UDF NEC assumes that such a move is tantamount to recreation of Big Man syndrome in the party, it should not be surprised if Atupele, despite being a conduit of Muluzi’s dynasty coupled with his lack of experience, continues to gain popularity. 

At the time when Muluzi want a comeback through Atupele or worse still create Muluzi dynasty, the UDF should abandon its plan to strategise for three years and hold a convention the soonest to identify new leaders, or else watch Atupele’s campaign spreading like wildfire while they are stuck to their strategy. Some call it strategic myopia, thus sticking to fixed strategies while losing lots of opportunities being seized by entrepreneurs and market oriented entities.