Malawi's re-elected leader starts the final lap to history or oblivion

By: Barrack Muluka

[ Posted On: 2009-06-01 ]

Malawi edged closer to political maturity and stability with the re-election of President Bingu wa Mutharika this week. Mutharika is a case study in how difficult it can be to institutionalise good governance in Africa, and especially fighting corruption in high places.

Mutharika's first term was marred with unending blackmail by a fraudulent Parliament. A decayed Legislature fought him unremittingly because he stood in the way of Anglo-Leasing kinds of deals in Malawi. Many were the times Parliament refused to pass the country's national budget so as to force the President to embrace corruption. It has been an odd case of reversals in Malawi, with the President watching over the watchdog. In the proper order of time, Malawian voters have spoken. They put aside regional and ethnic concerns to vote for a President who has placed his country above all other interests and concerns.

But the real test has just begun, for President Mutharika. Unlike President Kibaki who trashed the 2002 Kenyan revolution within the first few months of his presidency, most African leaders mutate into avaricious behemoths after their first term. They are case studies in the Kiswahili saying that when he is clothed in praise, the brewer will dilute the drink.

Zambia's Fredrick T. Chiluba rode to the throne on an overwhelming wave of popularity, after many years of Dr Kenneth Kaunda's one man rule. As he rode to State House in Longacres, everyone wanted to kiss him. By the time he was ending his second term, everyone wanted to kick him. He left Zambia yearning for Kaunda. They still want to kick him almost seven years after he left power – what with tales of drug rings in his former government, multi-billion dollar corruption scandals and the ilk!

Then there is, of course, Bakili Muluzi in Malawi. A former loyalist of the late dictator, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, Muluzi reinvented himself as a vehement critic of Banda once the multi-party political push got into irreversible gear. He was very much like Kenya's Kibaki, who got onto the democratic bandwagon only when it was clear the wheel of change could not be turned back. Like President Kibaki, once he got into power Muluzi threw overboard everything that democrats like the late Chakufwa Chahana and Otton and Vera Chirwa ahead of them had fought for. Charmed with the trappings of power and the good life, both Muluzi and Chiluba tried to meddle with the Constitution so that they could make themselves life presidents, like Kaunda and Banda before them. But here even their most ardent sycophants in Parliament defeated them.

The big test for Mutharika is three-fold. First, will he continue to be the reformist that he has been this far, or is he going to panic and begin stealing from his country like his counterparts elsewhere on the continent?

Legacy test

Second, will he grow institutions that will entrench the democratic tradition and good governance in the Legislature, the Judicature and the Executive? Third, will he resist the temptation to meddle with the constitutional limit on the Presidential term? To this may be added the need to refrain from trying to fashion an Uhuru Project for Malawi. If he can pass this test and hand Malawi over to a democratically elected successor, regardless that the fellow is from his party or not, then Malawi will have truly passed the test of democracy. History will then reserve a very generous place for Mutharika.

Regrettably, such distinction has eluded African countries, with the exception of Ghana, Botswana and Tanzania. Senegal, Mozambique, Namibia and Angola may also be gravitating that way. Rwanda is a sitting duck. Stability, law and order gravitate around the person of President Paul Kagame. It is frightful to imagine what is likely to happen once Kagame completes his second and final term in office. Uganda is the master of awful politics in sub-Saharan Africa, with a leadership that is degenerating into dynastic rule. South Africa is still groping for identity and it is too early to celebrate its change of guard so far.

Back home, in Kenya, President Kibaki has been an unmitigated let down. Here is an old man who has enjoyed the best that this country could give anyone, ever since he was an adolescent. And yet this old man does not consider that he should secure the country's future as a way of being thankful for the very rare comforts he has enjoyed.

In academic circles today, there is talk of such a phenomenon as Apocalypse 2012 in the event that a reactionary president continues to resist taking charge of genuine institutional reform ahead of the next general election. It is difficult to see what old men in their 70s and 80s hope to gain from perpetuation of retrogression. Sometimes one genuinely longs for former President Moi.

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: Barrack Muluka is a publishing editor and a media consultant with Mvule Africa Publishers. okwaromuluka@yahoo.com

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