THE CHAKWERA DOCTRINE

As the dust settles on Malawi's political scene which is recovering from the shockwaves triggered by the recent and historically momentous election of Dr. Lazarus Chakwera both to the office of President of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and to the responsibility of representing the party as its candidate for president of the country when Malawians go to polls in nine months, it is time for serious minds to assess what the new candidate has to offer. 

Making an assessment of Chakwera's philosophy of government is no easy task, firstly because he is a fresh addition to the political landscape and thus has next to no political baggage that can be dug up to give us a glimpse of how he handles affairs of state. This is unlike Professor Peter Mutharika, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party, whose activities in and handling of state matters are well documented from his years as a minister of government in his late brother's cabinet, not to mention the political decisions he was involved in making immediately after the death of our former president. It is also unlike Atupele Muluzi, who is no stranger to politics not only through his public service for a number of years as a Member of Parliament, but also through his brief stint as a Minister of Government in President Joyce Banda's first cabinet before he resigned his post due to irreconcilable political differences. We even have some idea now of how Dr. Joyce Banda handles state affairs because on top of her work as a government minister in previous administrations, we are also able to assess her work as Malawi's President since April, 2012. For Chakwera, on the other hand, there is no such history of public service to dissect. Secondly, Chakwera's philosophy of government is difficult to assess because he is vying for Malawi's presidency on the ticket of a party that has not been in government during Malawi's era of multiparty democracy. Though the mighty MCP held the seat of government for the three decades in which it was the only party in Malawi, no one really knows what the MCP's handling of state affairs would be like in this democratic era, and so we can't even rely on the party's history of handling state affairs for clues on how Chakwera would handle them, for unlike his counterparts in other parties, if Chakwera were to win the general election, he would be taking his party where it has never gone before. Lastly, Chakwera's philosophy of government is particularly difficult to assess because his candidacy and eventual nomination has sparked unprecedented levels of political discourse among Malawians of all backgrounds, making the task of separating the hype from the substance a very difficult one indeed. 

Notwithstanding, an assessment must be attempted, and fortunately his acceptance speech at the party convention that nominated him gives us a sense of the man's mind on the principles by which he would lead the country. The speech, delivered in Chichewa, was thoughtful, impassioned, and eloquent, though sometimes it lacked the kind of engagement with the audience that his seasoned predecessor had achieved in his own valedictory address at the same convention, and sometimes it came across as preachy, no doubt owing to his work as an ordained minister in the Assemblies of God Church. But past the passion, eloquence, and improvements that will no doubt need to be made to put his vision in terms that Malawian villagers can relate to and feel like the candidate speaks with their voice, one could see and hear distinct traces of the kind of governing the man believes will really matter in turning the corner in Malawi's development. The government principles articulated in this speech were not just promises of what he would do as president, but prescriptions of what he would be leading all Malawians to do to lift the country out of its cycle of poverty, corruption, and dependence. The prescriptions can broadly be summed up in ten themes that may loosely be regarded as the beginnings of what I am calling The Chakwera Doctrine:                   

ONE: past mistakes must be forgiven, not just buried

Chakwera's call for forgiving each other's past mistakes is an emotive one in the Malawi Congress Party because the party's presidency was bitterly contested, and even though this was not reflected in the wide margin of votes by which he secured the nomination, a conciliatory tone was nonetheless needed to heal fresh wounds. Further, the call for forgiveness is an emotive one in the context of the country's general perception of the MCP, for many Malawians had only associated the party with the suppressive regime through which the party ruled the country from 1964 to 1994. The biggest challenge that the party's new president (or any president of the country for that matter) faces in making forgiveness of the past a cultural norm in the party and in the country is to inspire people to actually forgive the past, not to just revert to their usual cultural default settings of burying the past and pretending offenses did not happen. Public forgiveness is a powerful panacea, but only where people who have been hurt can make their grievances public so that the act of bringing their wounds into the light can kill all the germs and preserve public scars that serve as a reminder of what was done wrong so that it may never be done again. And Dr. Chakwera indicated his commitment to leading and inspiring this kind of reconciliation that confronts the painful truth by offering the example of his own mended relationship with his predecessor for others to follow.

TWO:  work together for a better Malawi, not for self-interests

Chakwera is clearly outraged at the little that Malawi has to show for its nearly half a century of political independence, and he places the blame squarely on our entrenched mindset of looking out for own personal, political, or tribal interests even to the point of enriching ourselves through people who have no regard for maximizing our national heritage for the common good. Chakwera's is an active outrage, not the kind of anger that calls for certain persons to be punished, but the kind that invites every person to come work on nation-building so that the next 50 years are a reversal of the mismanagement of the last 50 years. He does not see himself as bidding to secure a five year term as president, but to use his term in office to secure a 50 year blueprint of sustained, collective, and focussed development that involves Malawians doing hard and real work to build that country, not receiving hand outs from others who have worked hard elsewhere. Now obviously the biggest challenge with such a big vision is giving 15 million people direction and opportunity into the kind of work that will build the nation.  

THREE: do business cleanly, not business as usual

Chakwera lamented the degeneration of values in the country and the tragic acceptance that business in the public and private sectors cannot be done cleanly without greasing the system with bribes. Corruption is so much the norm that it has become either the only way to get things done quickly or the only way to get things done period. His call for everyone to do business cleanly is obviously an indication that he would work to reform all government systems and services to work efficiently for every Malawian so that no one need grease the system to make it work for them, but it is also a warning shot to everyone who is benefitting corruptly from keeping the system broken and slow. Chakwera is not naive about what a fight he'd have on his hands against corruption, for a fight against corruption is a fight against the practices and behavior of ordinary Malawians and of the very civil servants he hopes to manage as president, and yet corruption cannot be defeated without the help of the very people who are either running the corrupt system or putting bribes into it. This may very well be the biggest challenge on Chakwera's agenda, for it is no small feat to recruit an army and convince it to go to war against itself!

FOUR: Follow focussed leaders, not trial-and-error politicians

Chakwera said those wishing to support him, or follow him, or lead with him must not do so as a trial and error experiment. He said that since 1994, Malawi has been a lab rat for politicians who knew not what they were doing, and the time had now come for the disastrous political experiment to end. He said MCP under his leadership will not be merely trying to go back into government, and those wishing to be a part of it's rebranding must not come in the spirit of trying out Chakwera or MCP. He made it clear that he has not come to try things out, but to get things done. Big difference.  

FIVE: show your predecessors respect, not just their mistakes

In the presence of the MCP's old guard represented visibly by the Right Honorable John Tembo, Chakwera admonished younger voters (including himself among them) to learn from and respect those who have preceded them in building the country and keeping the party active. He acknowledged that it is easy to look only at their mistakes and overlook their tremendous contributions, deep wisdom, and strong sense of value, which will be needed to make Malawi great. He pointed to his predecessor's exceptional achievement in accomplishing a smooth and democratic transition of leadership as an example of what can be learned from our elders.

SIX: respond to people's dreams, not just their needs

Chakwera enumerated the dreams and aspirations of villagers as being worthy of all our efforts to build the kind of country where such dreams come true. He spoke passionately about the dream Malawians have to be self-empowered to build their own house, grow their own food, make their own income, educate their own children, and pursue their own vision for the country. This tone is a marked departure from the usual tendency politicians have of promising to provide a government that offers things that appeal either to the interests of the wealthy few or to the desperate fears and needs of the poor masses. Chakwera did not speak to the needs and fears by which typically convince us to continue our dependence on their individual efforts, but to the dreams and aspirations by which Malawians wish to end their dependence on big government, foreign aid, and the narcissism of politicians who have no faith that ordinary Malawians have the ability and resolve to build themselves dignified lives without depending on the government as desperately as they have been made to do thus far. 

SEVEN: reward everyone for excellence, not partisanship

Chakwera decried the common practice of using differences in political opinion and political affiliations as an excuse for depriving excellent and hardworking people in government, business, and private sectors of their rightful rewards. The muffled response from his audience was no surprise, for it was either brave or reckless of him to say this in front of a very partisan crowd who are now as accustomed as the rest of the country is that presidents, ministers, parliamentarians, CEOs, managers, employers, contractors, and businesses  will give you the rewards and results you desire much quicker and more gladly if you are of the same political views or party and if you are likely to advance such politics militantly. Even so, in saying it, Chakwera made it clear that his intention would not be to go into government so that the MCP can do to other parties what they have done to his, but to welcome all hard working Malawians to the task of rebuilding the nation and to set in motion a culture of removing all political considerations from the way people are rewarded. He said the best practices of conducting business must be rewarded without regard to the political colors one brandishes.

EIGHT: value each person's strength, not their title

In the presence of the other contestants he had freshly and resoundingly beaten, Chakwera warned against treating those who have no titles or positions of authority as having nothing significant to contribute to the development of Malawi. He said his would be a leadership that values what each person can do well in our collective quest for a better Malawi, not what title they hold. This is no small warning, for it opens up the possibility of the new president working with people that are capable of getting things done if those who have the titles and positions should be found wanting. It will no doubt give encouragement even to those who admire him but do not like politics to gravitate towards his leadership to put their talents and strengths at Malawi's service. It is definitely a fresh standard of performance assessment that is counter to the usual focus on positional titles one has previously held or academic papers one has acquired. It appears that by his own example, Chakwera believes education and positions can be useful catalysts for creating opportunities for service, but must never be the standard by which such service is measured, for the measure of everyone's work must be the quality of its results.

NINE: provide honorable succession, not favored successors

In a political milieu where the highest office in a party is given to a favored and hand-picked successor, often a member of the family of the founders of the party, the MCP is well placed to lecture its rivals on the democratic values exemplified in the succession process through which Chakwera had been elected. It put to bed all rumors that Tembo would use a family connection at the electoral commission that facilitated the vote to swing the vote towards a change in the party's constitution to allow him to retain the presidency. And Chakwera was replete with metaphors of relay running as he sung praises of John Tembo's management of the transition from his tenure to that of a candidate duly elected by the party delegates in a contest that was open. That the MCP will be the only party whose presidential candidate is running solely by virtue of the party's democratic process as opposed to the influence of being a party founder or having any family ties to people who founded the party may very well be a formidable case the party makes to the nation about the democratic values by which it has rebranded itself.

TEN: make politics a clean debate about policy, not a dirty fight about parties

Chakwera wants a clean fight, not just among presidential aspirants, but also among their clashing and competing visions of the country's future and the ways to get there. He wants politics to mean a debate about policy, not a smear campaign about politicians or their parties. This is a needed message for many independent voters who are sure they want to support him but not so sure they want to support MCP. Chakwera is telling them to look at the policies that he and his party will be proposing to put in place for the country, not the politics that have muddied the waters of leadership across all political parties. He will need those votes to win a general election, and he has now made it clear that he wants to be a good policy maker and good policy implementor, not another good politician, and now the electorate has nine months to decide whether his policies and leadership are worthy of the highest office in the land. 

The pundits from the other major parties immediately reacted to Chakwera's speech by insisting that they do not see him as a threat to their prospects of securing the presidency in next year's election. However, if Chakwera's overwhelming victory at the MCP convention is anything to go by, then even they will know that it is a colossal mistake to underestimate him, and an even bigger mistake to underestimate the conflagration of voter enthusiasm that is rapidly blazing for him and against them across the country. Chakwera is a common citizen going up against the seasoned politicians, and if the next election is poised to be the struggle of The People against The Politicians, it is easy to see that Chakwera is a symbol of the People, and easier still for the Politicians to see that they will be outnumbered unless they make the election about something else.