Former Speaker Henry Chimunthu Banda is now popping up at presidential functions, greeting President Peter Mutharika and all those who matter most in the ruling elite of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
He was down after the DPP presidential primaries but neither out of the political arena nor of the party.
He has attended three or four functions presided over by Mutharika and received all the respect accorded to such high-flying but humble politicians.
Why he has resurfaced now from his political sabbatical two years before another exciting general election is a question he himself can answer.
But obviously his decision to attend public functions presided over by Mutharika is sending mixed and confusing messages to the DPP establishment.
But the clear and straightforward message is that he is welcomed back after his prolonged political sabbatical if the acknowledgment of his presence at the public functions by the president and other speakers are anything to go by.
Chimunthu Banda is not just an ordinary member of the DPP.
He is one of the remaining four trustees of the party out of the original 10 trustees.
The other three remaining trustees are presidential aide Hetherwick Ntaba, Labour, Man power and Sports Minister Henry Mussa and Civic Education, Culture and Community Development Minister Patricia Kaliati.
He is, therefore, the only trustee outside the government.
He also held the position of director of youth in the party and was the party’s secretary general at the time DPP registered the historic landslide victory in 2009.
I am not, therefore, surprised that he has been warmly welcomed back in the DPP fold after his decision to come out of the political sabbatical which he officially announced in December 2013 after losing the party presidential election to Mutharika.
His appearance on presidential podiums reminds me of how Chimunthu Banda and others fought hard to save the DPP-led government of Bingu wa Mutharika from sinking in the harshand stormy political waters during the unholy marriage of the powerful Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and United Democratic Front (UDF).
This rekindles memories of how the powerful John Tembo and Bakili Muluzi vowed to make the Bingu administration ungovernable and gave the DPP a tough run for their money in Parliament.
This was so because Muluzi was extremely bitter that a presidential candidate he had sponsored and supported, Bingu, had decided to quit the UDF to form his own party, the DPP.
To be more specific, if my memory serves me right, Bingu announced that he had quit the UDF to form the DPP on February 5 2005 at a function to commemorate the World Anti-Corruption Day in Lilongwe.
That announcement created a big political storm probably second to Kamuzu Banda’s cabinet crisis of 1964.
Leader of the House was Yusuf Mwawa who was appointed in 2004 soon after the UDF won the general election.
When Bingu ordered the arrest of Mwawa in 2005 on corrupt ion charges , which coincided with Bingu’s decision to dump the UDF, Chimunthu Banda was appointed Leader of the House.
To be more precise, Chimunthu Banda was appointed Leader of the House in June 2005, at the budget session of Parliament when the UDF had gone to the opposition, to join forces with the MCP.
Life was tough for part of Chimunthu Banda and the 50 legislators who had defected to the DPP.
Then the number of legislators on the government side in the 193-member House steadily grew to 72, but it was not enough to beat the MCP/UDF alliance numbers though.
This was the time when the then Leader of Opposition John Tembo spent much time in Parliament to push for the axing of the UDF members of Parliament who had defected to the DPP including top cabinet ministers in order to bring down the Bingu administration.
This was why Tembo was infamous with his phrase, “Section 65 first, budget second”.
This was the time Speaker of the National Assembly Rodwell Munyenyembe collapsed in Parliament and died as he could not bear the political pressure that nearly toppled the government of Bingu.
This was the time Lucius Banda, a UDF parliamentarian, started the impeachment process of Bingu.
Chimunthu Banda, as Leader of the House and his colleagues, Henry Phoya, Davies Katsonga, Goodall Gondwe and Ken Lipenga, were always on their toes in Parliament, standing in defence of the government from possible collapse.
This is why I say the DPP should not take Chimunthu Banda as an intruder.
Had it not been because of selflessness of these four DPP senior members, we could not have been talking of the DPP landslide victory in 2009 and the fall of Tembo and the further sinking of the UDF in the country’s political waters.
Chimunthu Banda, Katsonga, Phoya and Lipenga were among Bingu’s senior ministers who travelled to China, along with Peter Mutharika when he was minister, to negotiate the current massive Chinese development programmes the country is enjoying.
To be frank, I am surprised that Katsonga is on the sidelines after his decision to rejoin the party.
I know it is all politics as Mwanza Central constituency, where Katsonga is MP, is home to Nicholas Dausi, Minister of Information and the blue-eyed boy of Mutharika.
I can see the battle lines clearly drawn between Katsonga and Dausi for the constituency.
Whatever the outcome, the DPP history cannot be written without mentioning of Chimunthu Banda, Phoya, Goodall Gondwe, Katsonga and Lipenga.
Even if the party decides to erase the names for political or other reasons, these names and that of others long enough to publish here, loom larger.
I know the five are not bigger than the DPP but the role they played in forming the party alongside Bingu has put the DPP where it is today.
These people have one thing in common, they are humble, they do not like beating their own drums as is the case with other loud-mouthed politicians, and they are political gentlemen who deserve a special place and special mention in the DPP, when they are still alive!
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