Maravi

MMD at the crossroads

MMD at the crossroads
By The Post
Fri 25 May 2012, 13:30 CAT

LOSING power in last year's elections might have been a blessing in disguise for the MMD. It was not possible for the MMD to continue in government and as a political party with such high levels of corruption and abuses of power. It had to come to an end to save the nation and the MMD itself from disaster. Losing power has given the MMD, as a political party, the opportunity to renew and reorganise itself. And this renewal requires a total change in the type of its leadership and cadres.

Whether they accept it or not, the MMD, as it stands today, is a very discredited political party. It is a party discredited by corruption. And corruption has disgraced the MMD in the eyes of the public.

Their perception was of corruption and unfitness for public service. And as we have pointed out before, such distasteful perceptions can endure and do them damage for a long time. They should face these issues head-on and deal with them.

The last three years of the MMD leadership profoundly disappointed its supporters, and disgusted many others. Their reputation has suffered because of corruption. They were thought to favour greed, vanity and corruption. They were thought to be arrogant, insensitive to the cries of the people and out of touch.

People certainly need a break from the MMD, and the MMD leadership needs time to reflect, listen and come to understand themselves and the people better than they did when they were in office. They certainly need to do a lot.

They need new and better leadership. They also need better and different organisation if they have to harbour any chance of a reversal of political fortunes.

They need to spread their appeal and attract different sorts of people than the tainted, untrusted, uninspiring elements they are today trying to choose a leader from. None of the seven candidates, in our view, will save the MMD from extinction; none of the seven candidates has what is needed to revive that political party.

They certainly need to take a fresh look at themselves in the new circumstances. They also need patience. If they take the difficult decisions and renew their party in a more visible way, opportunities will be there and their time will come again. If not, they should forget and as Daniel Munkombwe correctly observed, they will never bounce back to power.

The leadership that is there today, and the characters that are seeking to be elected as leaders of the MMD, can in some way be legitimately accused of having destroyed that political party in the first place.

All of them, to varying degrees, were supporters of Rupiah Banda - the butcher of the MMD, the man who sank the MMD to these depths with his corruption and abuses. And some of them may soon find themselves facing corruption charges because they did not exercise the public responsibilities they were given with sufficient honour and integrity.

None of the MMD presidential candidates seem to have the qualities of a leader of the masses. We believe that if a politician doesn't have certain leadership qualities, they cannot lead a troubled political party like the MMD to victory.

And, conversely, if someone has leadership qualities but nothing else, they can also not successfully lead such a troubled political party, either. It is absolutely necessary to have leadership seriousness, ethics and spirit of self-sacrifice which accompanies one's actions for one to be successful in leading a troubled political party like the MMD.

One might say people change and even those who appear to be poor leaders can eventually become great leaders.

We have very great doubts about whether or not any of the seven candidates will be able to overcome the defects of their milieu and lead the MMD back to glory.

In our view, most of the people aspiring to lead the MMD today will soon be swept away by time, by history.

However, new ones are probably already there inside the MMD, beginning to write the true history of that political party.

If these are the best people, the only people, the MMD can get for its top leadership, then they have got a serious problem. But this is the problem any political party will find itself in if it allows itself to be consumed by corruption.

The MMD tolerated corruption over a very long period of time. They even hated their own leaders who were not corrupt, who were not patronising them, who were not dishing out stolen money to them. This is the party that even didn't like a crusader against corruption like Levy Mwanawasa. Most of the people who are in MMD today hated Levy for simply being against corruption.

They only came back to MMD, together with their corrupt leader and friend Frederick Chiluba, when Levy died and was replaced by Rupiah. We all know where Rupiah stands when it comes to issues of corruption and abuses of public office.

This is a party that rejected Ng'andu Magande, an honest and clean politician, and instead put in office and in top leadership Rupiah, whose record of corruption is well known. Most of the honest people were hounded out of the MMD by the Rupiah corrupt clique.

Today, the MMD is looking for an incorruptible, clean and honest person to lead it. But there are none left in that party now and that's why they have to settle for one of the seven low calibre and highly questionable characters for party president.

Yes, someone will today be chosen to lead the party. There will be no an unfilled vacancy for the MMD presidency because it doesn't matter what qualities the candidates possess or do not possess, one of them has to be elected to lead the party today.

This is the misfortune the MMD is in. However, there are few misfortunes in this world that you cannot turn into a triumph if you have the iron will and the necessary skill.

But in the case of the MMD, a lot of work, very hard work and sacrifice will be required to turn one of the seven candidates into a leader who can help the party have a new start and a promising political future.

We can only wish them the best in this difficult endeavour of theirs. We are not wishing them extinction because if they survive and do well, they will contribute greatly as a loyal opposition to making this country a better one for all our people.

And therefore we wish each one of the seven candidates to get what they deserve in today's election - no more, no less but simply what each one of them deserves.

Labels: MMD

posted by MrK @ 2:30 PM