Press StatementLilongwe, September 6, 2020
PRESIDENT CHAKWERA SHOULD DISCIPLINE MR. HARRY MKANDAWIRE, MCP VICE PRESIDENT FOR THE NORTH
The Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) is challenging President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera to publicly distance himself from the retrogressive and highly insensitive remarks his Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Vice President for the North Mr. Harry Mkandawire made over the weekend at a political rally held in Karonga.
CDEDI has learnt with shock about Mr. Mkandawire’s remarks captured in an audio which has now gone viral on social media, repeating the very same mistakes made by the previous government which is in sharp contrast to what the Tonse Alliance promised Malawians.
Mkandawire made highly insensitive and derogatory remarks to the Vice President Dr. Saulosi Chilima. Mr. Mkandawire is heard in an audio clip lambasting the Vice President, arguing that Dr. Chilima’s powers are not equal to those of the President, and that he should not be acting as if he is the President of this country.
Mr. Mkandawire further says government should prioritize the MCP supporters when disbursing the funds for the Malawi Enterprise Development Fund (MEDF), arguing that they are the ones who belong to the ruling party.
Ironically, Mkandawire’s remarks are coming barely a day after President Chakwera smartly avoided to commit to Malawians in his inaugural State of the Nation Address (SoNA), a roadmap on how he would work with the National Assembly to ensure that he empowers the office of the Vice President, as per the promise made by the Tonse Alliance partners.
It is against this background that CDEDI and indeed all patriotic Malawians are looking forward to hearing from President Chakwera on the steps he is going to take in empowering the Veep’s office.
Given the lukewarm approach he has taken to honour his promise, it is not surprising therefore, to hear some MCP party loyalists discrediting the Vice President, barely three months after the two were ushered into the high office.
Just to refresh the voters’ memories, President Chakwera in his capacity as the Tonse Alliance torch bearer accused his predecessor Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika for underutilizing Dr. Chilima and disrespecting the constitutional office, that of the Vice Presidency.
Instead of walking the talk, President Chakwera has all of a sudden developed cold feet on his promise, and has been overtaken by his party zealots who are now fighting the office of the Vice President. Of late, we have also witnessed verbal attacks between supporters of the MCP and the UTM on social media, a development which can be construed as an indicator that all is not well among the Tonse Alliance partners, specifically the UTM and the MCP.
We have also recently witnessed a scramble for Members of Parliament (MPs) between the MCP and the UTM who are enticing independent MPs and those from other political parties such as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to join either the UTM or the MCP, a situation which is very worrisome, because the UTM and the MCP are already in bed in the Tonse Alliance administration.
One would wonder, therefore, as to what this scramble of MPs is all about! One thing we can be sure of, is that something big is cooking between the MCP and the UTM, and it smells bad for the peace-loving Malawians! This ticking bomb has finally been confirmed by Mr. Mkandawire’s unfortunate remarks.
As CDEDI, we do not only find Mr. Mkandawire’s thinking as retrogressive, but also very careless considering that not long-ago government sent on forced leave the MEDF senior management team for purportedly politicizing the loan disbursement process. This begs the question as to how different is this action compared to the new ‘police directive’ by the MCP Vice President for the north? Mr. Mkandawire and indeed his boss Dr. Chakwera ought to be cautioned against taking Malawians for granted.
They should also be reminded that Malawians voted for the Tonse Alliance, a coalition of nine political parties, and not MCP alone. It is therefore not wise for any of the leaders for the nine political parties to take to the political podium to claim victory in the June 23 Fresh Presidential Elections (FPE) as a ruling party.
This far, CDEDI is advising President Chakwera that he should remember that the Tonse Alliance partners promised a new Malawi for all, and that there is no way they would break their campaign promises willy nilly at the watch of all Malawians!
CDEDI is therefore asking President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera to discipline Mr. Mkandawire as proof that he is not party to this scheme to frustrate the Vice Presidency.
BACKGROUND
CDEDI is a non-partisan, nongovernmental organization that was established in a quest to attain a well-informed and organized citizenry that can ably demand their social and economic rights at the same time hold duty bearers accountable for their actions. Among many others CDEDI aims at sensitizing the masses on matters of national importance, inculcate the spirit of a peaceful coexistence among people of different ethnic, political and religious affiliations; provide civic education on people’s rights and responsibilities in economic independence and contribution towards national development and lobbying for the electoral law reforms.
SYLVESTER NAMIWA
CDEDI EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
0993462700
sounds funny, isn’t it? by the way, when was this cdedi established? they fight nepotism, tribalism…ok but, it seems is the same case of selective justice. the lomwes continue to suffer from political harrassments and yet this cdedi is mute. there were political violence championed by mtambo and tonse to force dpp out, where was cdedi? anyway, first things first. do we have a political party called tonse in malawi? what about in our parliament? may be i’m the one at greater loss. is there any mp in our august house who represents tonse alliance? now that there will be bye-elections and each party is show casing its creativity in campaigning and we all know what campaign brings in our local vocabulary. even chilima camp of tonse proved to the whole world that they are experts in linguistics and ideogies don’t matter but the guys with dirty verbal attacks at their opponents carry the day and cdedi knows this. these alliances is another trap set by the judiciary and it will be used to stripe another victor who wont be liked by them. from experience, all the impunities brought in the past governments were perpetrated by the vice presidents. just imagine if these guys had powers similar to the president, what will lead us into? total chaos is the right answer from a sober mind. there is no way the vice can be accorded the same powers as those of the president, this is insane. even in greater democracies there is no such a thing. with this there will be no need to have the vp but rather two presidents who will be running concurrently and mind you, the leader of opposition will be useless. mkandawire is just campaigning for his party and his main contender is utm so he is at liberty to say what he believes would entice more to vote for mcp candidate. if these critics are honest, they would have started this by silencing akweni, jb and saulo himself.
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I am MCP, but what the honourable said is as unpolitical as it is insensitive. Politics does not break, it builds. It unfortunate that a person of his calibre can say or think like that.
there is nothing wrong here. if people want this to end then let tonse form 1 party. as long as there will be different parties, then what mkandawire had done will never be avoided. there is no insensitive issue in politics world over.