A season of intolerance

Tom Sangala July 1, 2016

40 3 minutes read

News that days after leading a ‘naked’ demonstration in Lilongwe for the cause of people with albinism in the country, Mulanje South Member of Parliament Bon Kalindo was chased from a rally President Peter Mutharika addressed at Limbuli in Mulanje has surprised no-one.

As expected as this development was, what makes it worrisome is the fact that it is happening at a time when our democracy should have, as a minimum, reached a phase where each and every individual is supposed to be free to think and act as they deem fit within the supreme laws of the land, on any issue of national interest; regardless of a position of the party they ascribe.

It becomes more troubling when such intolerances happen in the ruling and main opposition parties i.e. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Malawi Congress Party (MCP), respectively.

In the DPP, regional governor for the South Charles Mchacha and secretary general Ecklen Kudontoni—dressed down Kalindo in the presence of Mutharika, saying he is not part and parcel of the party for going ahead with the demonstration.

And, in the MCP, Hon Felix E. Jumbe and Hon Dr Jessie Kabwila find themselves being demoted, their positions diluted and being relocated to the back benches in Parliament all in what the party justified as a “normal” reshuffle.

Both incidences are signs that the DPP is nowhere close to being democratically progressive as the MCP is nowhere closer to being the gold standard in intra-party tolerance and maturity.

To put things in their proper perspective, Hon Kalindo – like many Malawians – was perplexed by the inaction of the Malawi Government on the plight of the albinos, and when it started taking action, he was far from satisfied with the inappropriateness of the measures.

Fact is: the State, despite its absolute control of the Intelligence, Police Service and Armed Forces, failed dismally to protect albinos, let alone their final resting places.

The second thing is that whosoever was and is apprehended or implicated in the chain that leads to abductions, killings, mutilations of people with albinism or desecrating graveyards to hunt for albino body parts, ought to have been facing stiffer penalties.

And until Judge Dingiswayo Madise’s sentence, everything that came before that, in terms of sentencing, were – if anything – an insult to all those who were disgusted by the onslaught on people with albinism.

This inaction by the state duty bearers made Amnesty International agree with Kalindo and concluded that ‘the rights to life and security of person for people with albinism in Malawi have been seriously compromised by the government’s failure to deploy an effective plan to end violence against people with albinism and to bring perpetrators to justice’ in their report; Malawi: “We are not animals to be hunted or sold”

To make his point and leave no-one in doubt, Kalindo was willing to march in his birthday suit, or something close to that. It is against this background that he announced his intention to march – naked or otherwise – to drive his point home, and indeed he marched.

Now the bone of contention according to Mchacha, MP for Thyolo West, is that, by proceeding with the ‘naked’ demonstration, Kalindo was dramatising a serious issue which the President, his party, government and other stakeholders were addressing.

If this was not a serious matter, I would have said that Mchacha’s statement, just like the now internationally famous presidential admonition to eat mbewa and dziwala, is another sick joke. But Mchacha, it seems, really believes that police marches in protest of albino killings are “addressing” this issue.

Assuming the President, his party, and government were indeed successfully “addressing” the issue, what are the indicators of their success?

Turning to the issue of Jumbe, everyone knows that ever since he lost badly in the race for the MCP presidency at the 2013 convention, he is barely tolerated in the party.

This intolerance is so palpable that former Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo and others who contested at that level, are now – more or less – in political party exile.

Despite this being the case, for reasons best known to him, Jumbe still goes about town claiming to be ‘MCP to the bone’, much like Hon Kalindo’s ridiculous claim to have ‘been born DPP’, although the DPP was not in existence when he was born.

Talking about Hon Dr Jessie Kabwila, the story making rounds is that she courted trouble after condemning the firing of some senior party members as “undemocratic” in her response to the media in her now subdued capacity of MCP’s Publicity Secretary.

The point is: while DPP is an out and out dynasty like its bed-mate the United Democratic Front (UDF), MCP once belonged to all Malawians, and it still does. Hence, everyone in MCP has a right to be ambitious, without fearing reprisals.

And since 2019 is approaching fast, whichever party moves away from this culture of intolerance now in high season, stands to gain. The converse is also true.