Maravi

I've reconciled with Mutharika, claims Muluzi

I've reconciled with Mutharika, claims Muluzi
Written by Chibaula Silwamba
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 1:43:26 AM

FORMER Malawian president Bakili Muluzi has said he has reconciled with his successor and re-elected President Bingu wa Mutharika.

And Muluzi said his United Democratic Front (UDF) party's electoral alliance with losing opposition presidential candidate John Tembo's Malawi Congress Party (MCP) ended the day electoral results were announced.

In a telephone interview from Blantyre in Malawi, Muluzi said he had reconciled with President Wa Mutharika and forgot the past to enable the country move forward.

"Whether it's the Bible, it's the Quran, it teaches about reconciliation, isn't it? As a nation, people must reconcile. You can't keep on quarrelling, particularly we the elder ones we need to show a sign of reconciliation so that the younger ones can learn from us," said Muluzi, who is a Muslim. "For people to say that President Mutharika was my bitterest enemy I think it is wrong. The only difference is that he belonged to another party and I belonged to another party but to say he was my bitterest enemy it's not correct."

He said he had always been talking to President Wa Mutharika contrary to the public's misconception.

"We talked even at the time when he was in his own party, I was in my own party. I am in my own party and he is in his own party but to have different political parties should not be a source of division or hatred; I don't believe in that and therefore we should not have multiparty, let us have one party because we will always differ anyway in terms of policies, all kind of things and somebody who believes in democracy myself I think that we have to create an atmosphere of tolerance. I think the word tolerance is very important," Muluzi said.

"Talking about his re-election, immediately after we knew that he was winning, as the former president of this country I thought I should lead the way by conveying my congratulation to him personally and we spoke on the phone, I wished him well and yesterday [Friday] I did attend his inauguration. I thought that we should be moving forward, not looking back. We need to look forward."

He said, as somebody who fought for introduction of multipartism in Malawi in 1994, he believed in democracy.

"Democracy means one wins and one loses. So that is my comment about the re-election of President Mutharika. As for the elections themselves, I don't know. I just heard just the way you have heard about the results," Muluzi said.

On his alliance partner, Tembo whom he vigorously campaigned for but after losing last Tuesday's elections he plans to petition against the electoral results, Muluzi said he was not party to Tembo's plans to challenge the results in court.

"First of all I don't want to be speaking on his behalf because he has got his own political party that is Malawi Congress Party, I have my own political party. What we had was what we call an electoral alliance, an electoral alliance ends the day the results are announced and so I don't know, I made up my mind that we would want to move on as a country," Muluzi said.

"A loss is painful but when you lose you have to go on because elections come and go. So I don't want to speak on behalf of honourable Tembo."

Muluzi said Tembo was free to petition against the results.

"He [Tembo] wants to challenge the results and I think that is his right to do so but as for me I thought that maybe let us forget the past and let us move forward," Muluzi said.

On the arrest and the court's denial of bail to his top aide - Humphrey Mvula, Muluzi confirmed that Mvula was in custody at Chichiri Prison though he did not have full details of the offence the spokesperson of the UDF and its alliance partners was alleged to have committed.

"Yes it's true. I was also told. In fact I was just speaking to his son just 20 minutes ago. What I have been informed is that it is in connection with elections; I don't know what it is, honestly. I have not met him yet. I spoke to his wife two days ago, she was saying that his house was searched and the police picked him up, he has been held at Chichiri Prison," said Muluzi.

"I thought that after the elections we should be forgetting the past. These arrests sometimes are not good for the country."

Muluzi, who served as president of Malawi between 1994 and 2004, handpicked President Wa Mutharika to succeed him after his third term bid collapsed in 2004.

However, shortly after Wa Mutharika ascended to power he differed with Muluzi after the new President's anti corruption crusade led to the arrest of the former president on alleged corruption charges.

Due to continued political pressure exerted on him by Muluzi's supporters over his arrest of the former president, President Wa Mutharika left the UDF in February 2005 at the brink of expulsion from the party and formed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Muluzi's bid to contest the presidency in the May 19, 2009 elections failed after the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) disqualified him, a decision which was backed by Malawi's Constitutional Court, on grounds that he had already served the maximum two five-year terms of office in line with the Constitution.

Thereafter, Muluzi formed an eleventh-hour electoral alliance with Tembo aimed at dislodging President Wa Mutharika from power.

On April 12, in an interview with The Post, Muluzi declared: "Mutharika must go!"

"We feel that a combination of two big political parties in this country will bring in the results which will see President Mutharika not winning the elections," Muluzi had said.

On May 14, Muluzi told The Post that the combination between him and Tembo was a big threat to President Wa Mutharika and the DPP in the elections hence the governing party supporters were trying to block him from holding campaign rallies.

During his presidency, Muluzi's government prosecuted Tembo over the alleged murder of four politicians during the tyrannical regime of the late president Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda.

Muluzi and Tembo were never close allies until when they formed a 'marriage of convenience' electoral alliance in late March, just a month before the May 19 general elections.

Labels: BAKILI MULUZI, BINGU WA MUTHARIKA, ELECTIONS, MALAWI

posted by MrK @ 12:46 AM