The Yellow Farm

One Journalist early this year reflected on how God hardened the heart of Pharaoh as Moses asked him to “let his people go”. God brought many calamities to Egypt and its people such as rats, drought, insects, including killing all the first born sons. It seems we read these bible stories as fiction instead of learning from these incidences and asking God to give us the ability to listen.

As DPP and Bingu are ushered into Government, I think the biggest loser in this whole election is the UDF. Despite the fact that it is what I would call a Party of a “Landlord and Tenants”, UDF had built a formidable organisation and had style, glamour and splendour when it came to campaigns. The spicing of the events by Lucius Soldier Banda and before that the “Tanzania troops” was not something one could ignore. Without realising, even if you were not a fan of the Party, you would sing along and dance to the famous “Yellow” song. The Party brought in intellectuals who in all fairness were level-headed and many times believed that they could change face of Malawi for the better.

Unfortunately, the landlord could not allow the tenants to be part of decisions in determining the future of the farm. The landlord always decided what to plant, how many acres, what fertiliser to use, where to source all inputs, which market to sell the crop, and who gets paid and who starves. The landlord would also decide whether the tenants would work on that farm that year, or they would be sent to another farm, or indeed bring in new temporary tenants. In silence and praise the bowed and kissed the landlord’s feet.

The “Yellow farm” is now reaping what they sowed. For a Party of UDF’s magnitude and infrastructure, the envisaged number of seats that they are expected to win calls for a long hard look on the way forward. The obvious one is for the Chairman to step down and let the remnants map way forward. There is a lot to salvage and I am sure with “Yellow” in the heart of people like Brown Mpinganjira, (aka BJ), Jumbe, Mtafu and perhaps Chilumpha, the Party can be revamped. They should learn from the miserable destruction of AFORD, for which the “landlord” played a part.
Muluzi builds and destroys. He deserves a Statue in Malawi for many people will look back and ask? How did one Bakili Muluzi manage to toy around with our lives and destiny whilst we watched? Well God did harden his heart and he became Malawi’s Pharaoh

I wish UDF all the best in rebuilding the party. Democracy can only thrive in Malawi with strong competition and co-operation.