BY GEORGE KASAKULA:
After holding its National Governing Council (NGC) meeting at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe for the first time in five years, the Democratic Progressive Party – DPP leadership announced last week that they will hold a national convention starting tomorrow in Blantyre.
Information Minister Nicholas Dausi has been appointed chairman of the organising committee and he has been busy telling the country that all positions, including that of the President, are up for grabs.
We know Dausi is playing politics here because the person who should have challenged President Peter Mutharika is Saulos Chilima, the Vice President.
Nonetheless, battle lines have been drawn as a big fight has ensued for the vice presidency post in the influential region of the South.
Initially, we thought the battle will only be between former minister of Agriculture George Chaponda and challenger Kondwani Nankhumwa, the Local Government Minister.
But we woke up to discover later that the field for the position of vice president in the South is oversubscribed, with Nankhumwa and Chaponda also being challenged by Trade Minister Henry Mussa and his Agriculture counterpart Joseph Mwanamvekha.
Other interesting battles involve Hetherwisk Ntaba who will slug it out with Uladi Mussa for the vice presidency of the Central Region.
But by all standards, this is a redundant convention that has no intrinsic value to Malawians at large for it is one-sided. The delegates are all unanimous in their support for Mutharika.
It must be remembered that the DPP was practically divided between the conservatives and the liberals, as represented by Chilima’s challenge against his boss after former first lady Callista Mutharika said Chilima would be a better candidate for DPP in next year’s presidential election.
The conservatives won this battle because they threatened everything that included violence and barring any Chilima supporter from even attending the indaba. The purge worked now that this convention will be attended by only conservative supporters of the status quo.
It will be a drab affair for the next three days as like-minded individuals who are all loyal to President Peter Mutharika and would want to keep the status quo of things both at party level and at government level have congregated.
There will be nothing to write home about because they will not be any change of policy on anything as it is the same people that have made our lives a misery for the past four years who are running for the positions and they intend to keep things the same way for another five years, should they win next year.
Certainly the Kondwani Nankhumwa versus George Chaponda and others battle will be the most interesting one and widely watched as a bitter rivalry seems to be developing between the two.
They both come from Mulanje and after the fall of George Chaponda over the maize importation scandal from Zambia, Nankhumwa has emerged as the chosen one to fill the gap in the establishment as he succeeded Chaponda as Leader of the House in Parliament.
From the look of things, both Nankhumwa and Chaponda are ambitious and probably looking at the post Mutharika period and positioning themselves for the eventual take-over of the DPP.
This is the last convention for the President and the party does not have another Mutharika to grace the ballot box after next year’s general elections and it is time for pretenders to the throne to show up.
As for people such as Ntaba and Uladi Mussa, one wonders of what use they will be to the party as they are both tired old politicians who have outlived their usefulness and are way past beyond their sale by date.
The DPP has simply not attracted any considerable fresh talent and it is the same tired old individuals that have been part of the party and responsible for all its past failures.
The problems that have rocked Malawians such as corruption will still go on although the President says there is no corruption as being exemplified by the latest scandal of K3.3 billion of pension being swindled and stolen by corrupt civil servants.
Greed of leaders will continue as they only think of themselves and their bellies. Has this not been well exemplified by all MPs unanimously agreeing the other day to raise their perks as a condition to pass the national budget?
The bottom line is that Malawians must not expect too much from the DPP convention as it is a redundant one with no rigorous debate for both policy and leadership quality.
The meeting falls short of delivering and consolidating democratic processes for a better Malawi where power indeed rests with the people.
It is just a business as usual convention with no strong take home value for all Malawians.
Change will not come unless parties learn to attract fresh talent with fresh ideas.
There is no excitement at all.
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