The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) was once the dominant political party in Malawi, but recent polls suggest that its popularity is waning. This article explores the reasons for MCP’s decline and asks whether the party is still popular on the ground. According to the Britannica Dictionary definition, popularity is the state of being liked, enjoyed, accepted, or done by a large number of people.
Background
What is the reason for popularity? Like most things in life, popularity is more complicated than it looks. Some people are popular because they are likable—their peers like them, trust them, and want to be with them. Others are popular because they somehow gain a certain status and use that power to wield influence over others.
Argument
Arguing that political speech‐making can have a significant impact, a study surveyed 416 members of the audience at appearances by four presidential candidates during the 1976 primary in Illinois. The researchers concluded that rallies attract a large percentage of persons who are not members of the featured candidate’s political party. From the uses and gratifications perspective, audience motivations for rally attendance were complex, and while the strongest motivations were of a cognitive‐orientation nature, reasons related to the excitement of the event were surprisingly prominent.
Why Was Tonse Alliance Chosen
What are the main reasons Malawians voted for the Tonse Alliance Government?
Many Malawians thought that leaders in the Tonse Alliance had the ability to inspire, to take the people along on their journey, and to be credible. People wanted higher salaries in the civil service and not peanuts, loans from banks and MADEF so they could buy cars and houses and not challenges, jobs and not joblessness, cheap fertilizer and not farming without fertilizers, employment based on merit and not nepotism, transparency and not corruption, infrastructure development and not digging in the same place for three years without any tarmac road to show within a distance of one kilometer roads.
Turning Point
Leadership in the Tonse Alliance started failing when they appointed family members and friends into the cabinet and failed to reshuffle the cabinet when it was failing to tick. When they could not consider merit to direct them, leadership focused on church members in advisory positions, giving the president misguided and misconceived goals which are quickly leading them to their downfall.
Political Rallies
There are many reasons people attend political rallies today.
First, they attend public rallies because of music entertainment that is brought to play at such functions. Music has become part of political meetings because leaders know for sure that many people wouldn’t attend a meeting without any entertainment. Some people attend political rallies to watch musicians that are hired to perform so they can listen and dance to their music.
Secondly, some people attend these meetings because they would like to receive party regalia. Party regalia can be received by both true and fake members for different reasons, to be proud of their party while others, it’s a free shopping simple to dress themselves.
Some people attend MCP rallies because they are paid by some party leaders so that good-looking videos are produced and shared with the top leadership. This is more like a mind game to pretend they are gaining ground while just creating a scarecrow for opponents.
Thirdly, people today would attend a political rally in an effort to compare ideas being spoken by the party on the podium, yet they belong to different political parties.
Fourthly, people may attend a political rally as a way of passing time. They have nothing serious to do on the day, so they would prefer loitering around where politicians are sweating to drive their message home.
Fifth, it must be noted that some people attend political meetings simply to get paid a little something at the end of the day. Mostly, this group comprises genuine members, but a small percentage of non-members can easily find their way just to alleviate their poverty for the day.
Conclusion
Rallies attract a large percentage of people who are not members of the featured candidate’s political party. The strongest motivations are mainly related to the excitement of the event.
Malawi Congress Party leadership should not believe those huge numbers of people attending their political rallies today because many of them get there just for the excitement. Chakwera should not listen to lies being reported to him by party leaders. Fake advisors are there simply misreporting to keep their jobs for the time being. The other reason they tell lies could be that they are in self-denial that Malawians have spoken their minds against the ruling party very clearly.
MCP leadership must conduct three proper surveys so that they are able to read the accurate mindset of the people on the ground. The President should assign people who are experts, neutral, and not MCP party zealots to do this job for him, and then he will learn something. The videos and pictures circulating on social media are fake numbers intended to mislead the President.
Otherwise, I would say Malawi Congress Party has lost its steam, relevance, and it’s not popular on the ground!
