TWISTER
BY BRIAN LIGOMEKA
I am still following political events that are unfolding in Zambia with The Post Newspaper being my favourite source of information. As I penned this entry yesterday, I had just finished perusing a story on how Patriotic Front youths in Chipata had carried out a citizens’ arrest on fugitive Lusaka Province MMD chairperson William Banda and handed him over to the police.
Banda, who was with his family, was picked from a lodge and was found with three firearms, two pistols and a Greener shotgun.
The embattled Lusaka provincial governor was notoriously known in the entire Zambia for openly smoking out opposition figures, civil society officials and members of the media. His arrest has been described as a very good lesson to the entire country. It is lesson that when you are in the ruling party, you should not intimidate people because the things that you do will one day come back to you.
William Banda is not the only one who is now a victim of his political idiocy as his boss, Rupiah Banda, the trounced president is also swallowing bitter gall of foolhardiness. To appreciate this, Mike Mulongoti who at one point was Rupiah Banda’s spokesperson and later served as cabinet minister has a good explanation. According to Mulongoti, Rupiah goofed fulltime by surrounding himself with opportunists.
Mulongoti said it was unfortunate that Rupiah could not see through the lies of those who surrounded him and fooled him by assuring him that all was okay.
"This is what happens when you choose to ignore divergent views and choose what to hear only what you want to hear. Vultures and opportunists that surrounded Banda began to see through him and say things that he wanted to hear," Mulongoti was quoted by the paper as saying.
He has since branded Sata's election as timely, arguing greed and lack of respect for divergent views and advice led to former president’s downfall.
According to the former journalist turned politician, “Banda became intolerant, selfish and greedy in his rule. Banda also became disrespectful to colleagues who supported him into office. He even denied that those of us who were close to him had helped and that was part of the backlash.”
He added: "Banda and his colleagues became immune to advice. They became arrogant because of the power of incumbency and treated public resources like they were family resources. Those that advised them were perceived to be enemies of the state, such that even their friends in government were threatened that they would be dealt with through interaction with them."
Mulongoti’s remarks reminds me of what Sydney Finkelstein, a professor of management at the Tuck School of Business once observed about the pattern that dictators take when they are falling.
“The pattern repeats itself throughout history. The dictator eventually oversteps his bounds one time too many and the people revolt. Where once they cowered in fear, now they step up and declare, ‘enough is enough.’ The dictator must go.”
The professor adds: “And the dictator decides he better make some concessions to keep his ultimate power in place. Some demands of protestors are met, but the protests become more intense. Rather than pacify the people, the concessions embolden them. The dictator is uncertain, for the first time in a very long time, on what to do. One minute he is defiant, the next he is back to making concessions. He fires his cabinet, backs down from some of his more odious policies, but the protests mount.”
After those antics: “The dictator falls. And no one can remember how it was that the dictator could hold sway for so long. The fall was that abrupt.”
I am not sure who is the next dictator to fall but there are reports that in this continent there is a nation where the masses through various protests are chanting “Enough is enough. The dictator must go.”
Like all others dictators, the despot in that nation becomes defiant and threatens to smoke out his critics; but when he is confronted, he quickly makes concessions and calls for reconciliation only to become arrogant and defiant again after taking few tots of whiskey.
I am not sure whether the dictator’s party will survive in the country’s next polls, but the Zambia experience shows that even parties of the incumbents can be booted out of power.
Atupele: Malawi’s Obama?
A fortnight ago, I wrote on how dictators love to create dynasties in both autocracies and democracies. I cited the example of how Egyptian ousted leader Hosni Mubarak had a political blueprint in which he planned to handover power to his son Gamal, while Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi wanted to be succeeded by his son Saif.
I observed: “Even here in Malawi, the trends are the same. If you think I am lying, let someone challenge me, apart from being Muluzi’s son, what qualification, experience, track-record, political stamina does Atupele have to be harbouring presidential ambitions? What has he done as an individual that is worth pointing at that makes him qualify to be the next president? If he was just a mere MP, and not Muluzi’s son, could he be making noise about presidency?”
“The same questions go to Peter Mutharika. If he were not Bingu’s kid brother, would he be a politician harbouring presidential ambitions? I am not against Atupele and Peter’s ambitions, but sometimes we need to put trends and issues in their correct context. My assumption is that these two have found themselves on the presidential campaign trails because of their father and brother respectively just as Gamal and Saif are in hot soup because of their fathers.”
My arguments irritated my close friend who sent me an e-mail trashing my observation. He argued that Atupele Muluzi might end up being Malawi’s Barack Obama. Part of his email read: “Atupele Muluzi just like Duncan Phoya is a politician to watch. The so-called veteran politicians have nothing to offer apart from gossiping, engagement in mudslinging, making smoke-out threats and political greed.”
He added: “In my view if the old guards in UDF can just throw their weight behind Atupele and forge an alliance with another party, the UDF can bounce back into power. Atupele’s campaign strategies outsmart those of his father, those of old UDF guards and those of other parties. No mudslinging, no political violence, no arrogance just his vision and how he will achieve it.”
My response to my colleague was simple. “You are entitled to your opinion, just as I am entitled to mine.”
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