In Francis Muluzi, MCP has a joker in its hands, literally

Former Malawi President Bakili Muluzi, him who seems to hog and somehow love the limelight lately, must be an unfortunate person.

From being advocated for by rogue Parliamentarian Jessie Kabwila, his political party the UDF, to alleged machinations of him positioning his son Atupele to partner with Mutharika in the 2019 elections, now comes Francis – a man hitherto unknown – claiming to be his son.

Not only is Francis flouting the claims, he takes a step further and decides to bedfellow with opposition Malawi Congress Party for whom pointers are that Muluzi is not backing them for the 2019 race. Muluzi is clearly in bed with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

But the issue here is not Muluzi, the Patriarch, it is the other Muluzi whose hogging of the limelight has been because of his association with the MCP: Francis. The man whose social media interactions speak more of a man deprived of education, civility and decorum than of a Parliamentary aspirant in Kabula (oops! That should be rewritten: anybody can be an MP these days. Ignore it!).

In his entry into the city he has been shunning for years before Mia, Blantyre, MCP President Lazarus Chakwera was welcomed by among other people the so-called Muluzi.

It was a triumphant welcome, if you may, because on the same rally MCP welcomed to the fold sons (or so-called sons) of former politicians of which Francis was among them. It was said, in some quarters, to be the Mia effect that attracted these sons of whoevers to MCP.

While the light was shone on all of them, the beam certainly focused on Francis such that he was given a podium to speak. The moment he took to the podium, Francis showed the exact reason why nobody – let alone MCP – should take him serious. He went into a joke overdrive.

Francis did not stand up as a politician worth of any salt. He stood as a comedian good at mimicking Muluzi. His welcome remarks carefully tailored to sound as the slogan of the actual Muluzi also borrowed heavily the voice of Muluzi. Only if DNA could be ascertained by the voice, then Francis was going to be declared the only Muluzi son. That boy Francis is certainly a good actor. I am sure telling him to sound like Peter, he would also do that with a distinction.

You should have seen the MCP President the moment Francis started speaking, he nearly fell off his chair with laughter. Who knew really that Chakwera could laugh that long and hard, especially after his Parliamentary speeches that are coloured with anger and an ill-mannered temper? He was certainly amused. Entertained. And treated to a buffet of jokes – not anything meaningful – he cannot get from Daliso Chaponda for pretty much obvious reasons.

Even that sizeable group that gathered at Lunzu certainly were also tickled by Francis’ successful attempts at mimicking Muluzi. Beyond that he really said nothing useful. Nothing beneficial. Nothing that reflects on the MCP as an alternative party. In other words, Francis practised the politics that we should quickly forget as a nation: of Bakili Muluzi. That childish politics of feeding the nation with bellyful amount of jokes while hunger ravaged, education standards plummeted, health standards collapsed, AIDS swept and corruption ravaged.

It is 2018 and elsewhere people are understanding that politics is no longer that free-for-all parade of idiocy and jokes. People, especially the youth like Francis ought to be, are elsewhere understanding that politics is a matter of life and death. That it is a defining feature of the times they are living and the times the future generations will live in. Yet, somehow, Francis and the MCP that has given him a platform for his award winning ‘jestery’ are convinced that the only alternative they can bring to the table is someone imitating Muluzi.

This must be sad, not for MCP obsessed sympathisers, but for Malawian who love their country. The fact that MCP, parading into the elections from outside government, appears to choose jesters for its frontline campaigning in a city that has denied them before such as Blantyre is an enough cause for worry. #

The MCP should have really been serious in Blantyre where Peter Mutharika camped not long ago and made flamboyant promises he might be forced to implement just to score political points ahead of the campaign. Like him or not, but Mutharika in Blantyre gave the impression that he has the thought of the city at heart. The ring road he promised already has contractors on sight now. The plans of a city at Chileka are just about to take shape (forget that it’s selling the Chilekan soul to the Chinese).

Instead of the MCP mounting such spirited and serious campaign in the city, look at what they do? They bring in Francis to sell dry and dead jokes. You would actually think the MCP are on a suicide mission and instead of planning to win the 2019 elections, they are plotting to disband soon after the 2019 polls. Or, perhaps, Francis is a trojan horse meant to destroy the MCP from the inside?

Or the trojan horse might actually be the person whom they say attracted them to the MCP, Mia? Come to think of it, the las time Mia paraded shadow MPs for MCP in Blantyre, do you remember what happened? He paraded the bemused Fischer Kondowe as an aspirant of the MCP. Minutes later, actually before Mia had even arrived home, Kondowe made a U-turn. What was that about?

Now, this Francis joker!