Anti-Bakili Muluzi / MALAWI POLITICS TODAY

UDF creating problems for Chilumpha and Malawi

If issues coming from the recent UDF caucus are anything to go by, then it is bad politics because the party is creating problems for Vice-President Cassim Chilumpha, itself as a party, and the country as a whole.A shadow Cabinet which they are talking about is a government-in-waiting, so it requires no special political talent to realise that by involving Chilumpha in a shadow cabinet, UDF is worsening the already precarious political situation in the country.In effect, the UDF is putting Chilumpha on a collision course with the public on whose tax he is surviving as the country’s Vice-President. The situation the party is creating is untenable by Chilumpha as a public servant. It is unimaginable to expect him to effectively serve two masters at the same time.In his capacity as Vice-President, Chilumpha is expected to be working in the government where he holds that position. Already the situation on the ground is far from desirable. Malawians are getting a raw deal by maintaining a Vice-President who is hardly attending Cabinet and government meetings. He is literally an outsider in his own government.It seems UDF will never learn to do things in the interest of Mother Malawi. What the party was planning during its caucus is exactly what the recent African Leaders Forum in Mozambique was trying to address by advising the UDF chairman, Bakili Muluzi to slow down on partisan politics and concentrate on peace initiatives in the region. In fact, what the party is planning in the absence of its chairman is counter-productive to the good advice Muluzi’s peers are offering him in his interest, and indeed the interest of the whole country. That Muluzi, is being offered something in the new set-up is sheer arrogance by the party. It shows the UDF has not learnt anything Muluzi’s encounter with his peers in Mozambique.Regrettably, since Muluzi fell out of favour with President Bingu wa Mutharika—his own anointed successor—the UDF is busy churning out a lot of negative energy which is doing the country more harm than good, as evidenced by its efforts to impeach Mutharika. One wonders why, for a change, the party cannot patiently wait for 2009, and for once champion something for itself and the country as a whole.

-Nation Publications Editorial