Malawi Congress Party (MCP) legislator for Lilongwe Mapuyu South Esther Kathumba on Thursday said something very unusual at the launch of the Millenium Challenge Corporation.
She said given a chance, she would move Parliament a enact a law making President Lazarus Chakwera ‘Life President’.
Of course, Chakwera moved swifty to distance himself from the sentiments. It should have been expected of him.
Whatever was going on in the mind of Kathumba was senseless. It is ridiculous that someone can be talking about someone being a life president in this democratic era.
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Since 1994, when Malawians first voted for a democratic government, presidents have been changing in line with the Constitution.
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Former president Bakili Muluzi once attempted to push for an open term before trying to stand for a third term. It never happened because Malawians did not allow it.
Drunk with power, politicians sometimes forget that their senselessness can be quickly noted by people. They think everything is possible.
That is why Kathumba went that far, obviously in a bid to please the President.
Malawi is a democracy and does not need a life president. Whether Kathumba feels Chakwera is delivering, he cannot be a life president.
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One wonders what she was thinking about when she was making such sentiments.
Chakwera has one more term to stand and it is up to Malawians to give him another go or not. It is ridiculous that someone can even entertain a thought that any leader in this democratic dispensation should rule forever.
Speaking at a rally after the launch of the Millenium Challenge Corporation, MCP Secretary General Eisenhower Mkaka clarified by saying Kathumba must just have been excited about what he called Chakwera’s sound leadership.
Whatever that means, there are also those who hold different views and would disagree with whoever says Chakwera is showing sound leadership.
And Kathumba’s excitement is dangerous if it really takes her to such levels.
That is why she must be condemned using all means necessary. She may return later to repeat the mistakes and many more MCP lawmakers would be willing to support her proposal.
Using their numerical strength, they may be tempted to indeed take the issue to Parliament and have it legitimised.
There obviously are people who would want Chakwera to rule forever because they are “eating” with him and would not want to lose the comfort that surrounds them.
To such people, reason often does not occur. They will go to every length to sustain their positions including pushing for more terms for the President.
They will try as much as possible to even change laws as long as the changes will ensure they remain in comfort.
Our democracy might not have really matured but the truth is that some patriotic people fervently fought for it.
In fact, returning to a kind of one-party state would be a very laughable thing in modern politics. We are already a laughing stock out there for having a lawmaker suggesting that laws should be changed so that her choice of a leader should be imposed on everyone else.
Malawians are given the right to elect a president of their choice every five days because it is a democratic state.
The democracy that they chose in 1994 should never be tampered with because of someone’s personal sensibilities.
Kathumba’s sentiments might have been meant to test the waters. She perhaps wanted to see how people would react and must have surely learnt the bitter way that people hate being taken for a ride.
Of course, whatever she said are her own views but being a Member of Parliament—filled with powers to change laws—the words might eventually turn into reality.
She may just get more support and push that the laws should indeed be changed for her wishes to come true.
Of course, there would be several ways of stopping her, including using the courts, because that would be raping our Constitution.
But in the meantime, Kathumba should not be smiled at because people like her are enemies of democracy. They are more interested in what makes them happy than what makes the rest of us content.
