In recent days, we have once again witnessed how dirty politics can be. It has always been this way, especially in our context, where, for political survival, politicians will go to drastic lengths, including severely damaging the reputations of others.
In fact, there are reports suggesting that politicians can even resort to murder if it will consolidate their power and authority or simply satisfy their egos.
It is not uncommon across Africa to hear of someone being murdered by their political opponents, especially during tense moments like campaigns ahead of elections.
We are already witnessing unfortunate scenarios in Malawi, where the pursuit of power has led our politicians to attempt everything possible to gain momentum.
The truth remains that no politician in our country truly has the welfare of the citizenry at heart.
Whatever conflict is occurring in this country within the political sphere has nothing to do with anyone genuinely seeking to improve your welfare.
They are all focused on fattening their own pockets as well as those of their families and cronies.
They should not deceive you into thinking that they lose sleep over your suffering and that all they want is to ensure you live happy lives.
They are all after the public purse and at the core of their struggle is the desire to control or consolidate access to public resources, so they can satisfy or continue satisfying their personal desires.
Our politics, by its very nature, is dirty.
We have all seen what has been happening since we returned to multiparty politics in 1994.
The trend has largely remained the same, with the Bingu wa Mutharika administration at least showing some effort to improve the welfare of Malawians.
However, despite Bingu’s so-called zero tolerance of corruption, it later emerged that he had illegally accumulated wealth while many Malawians were languishing in abject poverty.
Reports surfaced regarding how certain businesspeople and contractors were awarded public works without truly deserving them.
This indicates that it was possible to achieve more with limited resources if they had all been channelled towards genuinely required and honestly arranged projects.
The positive aspect of Bingu’s administration was that he was in control of the economy and endeavoured to resist external pressures that could jeopardise it.
What we witnessed afterwards, following Bingu’s death, was a country that seemed to be without a decisive leader—a nation lacking a clear economic strategy.
During the Joyce Banda administration, there was an economic recovery plan which, by its very design, lacked any viable means of recovering the economy.
History tells us that you cannot recover an economy by weakening your currency when you do not have an export base to bring much-needed foreign currency into the country.
Then came the Peter Mutharika administration, which also largely contributed to the country’s decline through various acts, including corruption, cronyism, nepotism and disregard for the rule of law.
Mutharika himself was largely an absent president who allowed his cronies to make important decisions regarding state affairs.
Today, we have the Malawi Congress Party government, which is also playing its part in ruining this country.
Corruption remains endemic and we still have individuals occupying crucial public positions solely because of their connections to the ruling party and the ruling elite.
All this illustrates, once again, that we have not had, and still do not have, politicians we can trust to move this country forward.
Malawi needs to revolutionise its political system to include individuals who genuinely care for the welfare of the citizenry.
So far, all we have are either frustrated individuals who simply want to gain power because they have failed to share in the spoils with those they thought would grant them a slice of the cake, or those who have experienced the allure of squandering taxpayers’ money and do not want to miss the chance to continue doing so.
Then there are those who are simply eager to return to power so they can pick up where they left off with their unpatriotic schemes.
It is not that all the vitriol they direct at their opponents is motivated by a desire to improve the lives of Malawians.
They simply want to regain control of the public purse to enrich themselves, their families and their cronies beyond what they previously managed.
It is all dirty politics that we have in this country.
It is all politics designed to empower a certain clique to squander the little resources that are available.
Perhaps voters must simply opt for the lesser evil, for it is clear that the choices currently available offer no hope.
