Lets face the reality
By: Peter Qeko Jere
A quick analysis into the 2009 Parliamentary and Presidential elections in Malawi shows that these elections are very crucial in the life of the country. These elections are very important because the results there will determine the social, political, economic and spiritual destiny of the Church and entire Christian body in Malawi. Thouhg some may not like to hear this but it is an absolute truth as far as these coming elections are concerned. We have therefore put down some few points to show and demonstrate how serious these elections are to Malawians.
Firstly is that the 2009 General Elections will be about Malawian Christians response to the question of whether there are ready and willing to be ruled by a Moslem president for the second time. It is a fact that Christians who are 80% in the country have a larger voice or say in determining the political destiny of anyone who would want to rule the country which at the same time brings religion into the power of Christianity in Malawi. What we mean is that any politician who wants to rule Malawi can not avoid the church because it is in majority and controls the destiny of the country and that of any presidential aspirant. Thus next year' s elections are about whether Catholics, Presbyterians (Livingstonia, Nkhoma and Blantyre CCAPs), SDA, Baptists, Assemblies of God, Living Waters, Calvary Family and all charismatic and Pentecostal churches are ready to be ruled by a Moslem president for the second time. Some would get angry as to why we are bringing this issue into the picture now because they don't want people to talk about real issues in Malawi's politics. They may as well rebel us religious confusionists or call us any name suitable for them but the truth on the ground in Malawi remain that next year's elections are so much crucial in the live of Malawian Christians because the results will affect the entire destiny of individual Christians and the church. What we mean also is that these elections will decide the destiny of the church in terms of propagation of the gospel because things can't and will not be the same in situation where a president is a Moslem as we witness the last decade of UDF rule. We don't have to pretend but become so much real and face reality here because 2009 election is about the destiny of the church and individual Christian whether we like it or not.
We argue this because it was during that troubled and trying time when we had a Moslem President (1994-2004) that Malawians lost Bible Knowledge as a course for student to pursue. We have in memory how the Catholic Bishops and the clergy fraternity tried and worked so much hard to save bible knowledge that hour. This course which some of us took during our old secondary school days has been diluted and its not the same again and will also not be the same anymore. We need to understand and not pretend that in any situation what matters in the kind of president you have in a country because he is the one who is at the heart of any policy. The most worrisome and threatening thing in their campaigns today is that Bakili Muluzi and his entire team are not saying anything regarding what they will do with existing policies in Education, Religion and others. They need to come to the open and tell the nation what they have and what they plan to do and not surprise us as they did when they were removing the bible from its rightful place in the syllabus. We are skeptical because if he comes again he will end up completely removing the bible in schools. Since 80% of Malawians are Christians, what is needed is bible knowledge and not religious and moral education. Removing and playing games with bible knowledge as Muluzi and his government did was stepping on the foot of the Malawi Church and it's from such actions that the church can not be comfortable to hear of his coming back into politics. Therefore, the church and church leaders should realize that next years elections are not just like the other elections they have been having in Malawi because these ones are crucial in the life of the Malawi church.
Secondly the 2009 elections are about the decision that Malawians will have to make in order to protect the economic destiny of the country from collapsing again. That vote will be crucial because it will have the power to decide whether Malawians are ready to have their economy flashed into the toilet again? Malawians are aware and have vivid memories of how the economy was quickly flashed into a deep toilet the past ten years of UDF rule. The economy that Dr. Banda left was messed up and ordinary Malawians became poor faster than they could realise. There was no food at all and this was terrible and every family was affected. For some of us who have relatives in our villages, life was never easy because even if you wanted maize, you couldn't get any because we heard that it was sold to Kenya. That difficult time, people left their villages so that they should die in town with their relatives. The idea was that it was better to go to town and eat whatever little those in towns were eating to survive. At the same time, the national riches were being consumed by the few elite mainly those close the President. They became richer faster than never before and there was no one to question the source of their income. They became millionaires and billionaires and the poor Malawians continued to live in poverty and misery. Now that we have our economy restored and we have food again, next year's election will be so crucial because it will be about protecting that which Malawian have and are enjoying at the moment.
Thirdly the election is about the impact of religion and tribalism in the country's politics. There are some few indicators that shows that in Malawi religion and tribalism plays a huge role in the political decision that people can make. Some people make decision based on their religious beliefs and others its because of both religion and the tribe they come from. For instance, a critical analysis of Bakili Muluzi and those who follows him, reveals that they do so because of their religion and tribal affiliation. This is clear because the UDF catchments areas of Machinga and Mangochi are full of people whose key influence is religion and tribalism. They follow him not because he is a great man with great idea but because he is someone from their religion and also because they relate with him very well in terms of their tribal background. This is what we may called blind politics where key issues and ideology are not issues at all but religion and tribal background. It is worse because leaders like Bakili Muluzi know that the support they get from their catchment's areas is not because of their political brilliancy but because of their religious and tribal affiliation. This is the way how politicians abuses the tribal and ethnic divisions which creates resentments from other quarters. Like wise John Tembo, has some support in the central region not because he is great politicians but because he is a home boy from among the chewa people. Therefore next year's elections will show us which part of the country practice tribal politics.
Finally, this election is crucial in Malawi because for the first time MPs will the severely punished by the power of the vote because of playing games with the budget. It has become so much clear that some MPs openly advocate for the implementation of section 65 over the budget and the good thing is that ordinary Malawians, who have the destiny of these politicians in their hands, are aware of everything they are doing and they are waiting for the right time and right moment to have them punished. As we pointed somewhere else, section 65 has nothing to do with the poor people in our villages and these are two different thing and MPs don't have to used this as an issue to the point of refusing to have the budget passed. Malawians MPs mainly those from opposition will be in for a rough ride because they have not done enough to develop their constituencies and have ended up enriching themselves and at the same time they refuse the have the budget passed something which is there to help the poor.
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