Maravi

People are angry, warns mulongoti

People are angry, warns mulongoti
By Chibaula Silwamba
Sun 10 Apr. 2011, 04:01 CAT

AN election disaster is looming for the MMD after the convention because it is a divided house and people are very angry, says Mike Mulongoti.

And Mulongoti has advised Vice-President George Kunda to pack his bags and start looking for an alternative after the abolition of the MMD vice-presidency post, an indication that the people he works with have no faith in him.

Meanwhile, Mulongoti said the victory of people like Sylvia Masebo, whom President Banda wanted to block from standing at the just-ended MMD convention, is a sign that delegates wanted to vote for individuals that were forced to withdraw or barred from contesting.

Commenting on the MMD convention, Mulongoti, who served as party chairperson for elections and works and supply minister before his sacking and expulsion, said the ruling party would not have enough time to heal the wounds inflicted before and during the convention to win the general elections.

“MMD is a divided party now. Even at the time they were doing selections of delegates to the convention, people were lumped with accusations that they were not in good standing,” Mulongoti said.

“Now the term ‘not in good standing’ cannot be taken in isolation; the individual concerned must be charged so that they know the mistake they have made and if they are proven innocent, they are allowed the opportunity to go to the convention. But what happened is that willy-nilly if it pleases the authorities, people were eliminated.”

Mulongoti said some MMD officials that were supposed to be delegates to the convention were eliminated under the guise that they were in bad standing with the party. He said even those alleged to be friends and supporters of the individuals that President Banda and his allies did not like were also removed from a list of delegates.

“I can tell you there is anger. I have been receiving calls from all over the country. People are angry and they are asking, ‘what is the way forward?’ And it’s so simply because the people who were selecting and compiling the list of the people to go to the convention, some of them were so naîve, some of them were so arrogant, some of them did not consider the consequences of those actions,” Mulongoti said.

“I don’t think they have got much time to heal the wounds. The people that attended the convention could not have been more than 2, 000 but the injured souls around the country who were left after being termed ‘not in good standing’ are so many and these people are calling to ask, ‘what is the way forward?’”

Mulongoti warned that the MMD and President Banda would pay dearly.

“I can tell you, a house divided cannot stand and I am sure those who did that, I do not think they thought that what they were doing will have consequences. They were reckless and in a selfish way they have eaten into their own future because I can see disaster looming,” Mulongoti said.

“I am deeply saddened by the development after working so hard over the years to try and buttress intra-party democracy.”

Mulongoti observed that there was intolerance and intimidations in the MMD.

“What I have witnessed during the recent convention of MMD has been intimidation and forcing people to withdraw even after they filed their nominations; others were threatened, others were told to withdraw with a promise of appointments,” Mulongoti said.

He said the intimidation and forcing members to withdraw from contesting for positions started during the provincial conferences.

“When the convention came, we saw at the beginning, very keen members of the party wanting to participate and contest. After what happened to me, it dampened the whole spirit and even those who wanted to were very cautious and subdued in their approach,” Mulongoti said.

“It robbed the party the vibrancy that was expected of its members. There are people who defied odds, who were told to withdraw, and given the democratic nature of the electorate they voted even those who defied instructions not to stand. It’s an indication that if they were allowed to contest freely, many more capable people could have made it except that they had to satisfy the criteria of being amenable to the powers that be, which is very sad indeed.”

He said unless MMD members began defending their rights as enshrined in the constitution, the party’s NEC would be constituted of friends and relatives of President Banda and hero worshippers, which would not be in line with the principles of the party at its formation.

“When we formed the MMD, we wanted transparency, accountability, democracy, freedom, justice. But we don’t see these things. We see a lot of people being threatened,” Mulongoti said. “The language that is being used often times is threatening, ‘it’s either you do this or you are out’.”

Mulongoti said in an environment where there was shortage of employment, weak economic base of individuals and lack of academic qualifications, some people were subdued into accepting unacceptable conditions.

“I don’t think that was what MMD was formed for. It’s unfortunate, it has been hijacked and people who are perpetuating practices that are alien to our party are the people who are in control.” Mulongoti said.

“I am speaking as outgoing chairman of MMD; I have no wish to be seen to be back because of these conditions tolerating injustice.”

He said he had no capacity to tolerate injustice and intolerance and would be happy to remain out the MMD.

“I am sure what happens in the MMD will have very serious consequences and maybe people will learn lessons from such kind of conduct,” Mulongoti said.

He said when late president Levy Mwanawasa appointed Rupiah Banda as Vice-President, everybody assumed the due diligence had been done to check on his loyalty to MMD and its ideals.

“But what we started noticing after he became President was the departure from constitutional provisions. For instance, in the election of people to the NEC, the constitution clearly states that it must be done by secret ballot by members of NEC, but we saw the bringing in of individuals into NEC without following that constitutional provision,” Mulongoti recalled.

“We questioned that at one point. Sebastian Kopulande raised that in the NEC and I supported him that we must respect the constitution. Now, I could see evidently that there were others who because of fear of their jobs or whatever, quickly moved in to support the position that was erroneous. But I think our statement was that if in the past we made mistakes in doing it, we should correct those mistakes because the constitution is the bible of the party which we must follow and respect at all angles.”

Mulongoti said Vice-President Kunda had been at the centre or encouraging the raping of the MMD constitution and was now the victim of his own activities.

“Before I was dismissed, there was a NEC meeting where unfortunately Vice-President George Kunda made a statement that a constitution must not be a fetter, we can make decisions without the constitution being a fetter,” Mulongoti said.

“I found that preposterous and very irresponsible, to say the least, that a legal mind can advise that we should not take a constitution as something that binds us from doing things.”

He said Vice-President Kunda, who is an NEC trustee, was doing that as the party was preparing for the convention.

“You can see what has happened, the constitution has been raped and the consequences of rape are never good. Mr Kunda himself is a victim of the same thing he talked about that the constitution should not be a fetter. The same constitution he allowed to be abused has also consumed him, which is a lesson to him,” Mulongoti said.

He said the defeat of the constitutional amendment bill and abolition of the MMD vice-presidency was a disaster for Vice-President Kunda.

“Two major disasters have happened: one, he lost the constitutional bill in Parliament and two, the humiliation of having filed and only go there to be greeted by the abolition of the position. It means there was no consultation because if there were consultations, he would not have filed. It’s the indication that there is no faith in him anymore,” Mulongoti said.

“If I were him, I would pack my bags and begin to think about the alternative. I don’t think he has any credibility or any proper standing in the eyes of the people he is working with.”

And Mulongoti said Masebo’s victory at the convention confirmed that delegates wanted to vote for individuals that were forced to withdraw or barred from contesting. He said he was aware that President Banda had ordered Masebo not to contest the position, but she defied him and proceeded to win because that is what the delegates wanted.

Labels: GEORGE KUNDA, MIKE MULONGOTI, MMD, SYLVIA MASEBO

posted by MrK @ 2:52 PM