JOYCE BANDA: THANKS BUT NO THANKS

By many means, Joyce Banda is an icon in Malawi. She has a lot in her and to her name that makes her stand out. However, contrary to that and what is arguably a popular view, Joyce Banda in not what Malawi needs for a president right now or in the future. She is way too nice for the job, and she is not as gifted nor is she qualified enough to take Malawi into the next chapter of its independent life.

Malawi like most other developing countries in the world has reached a very crucial juncture of its sovereignty. It is a make or break time for the country. The last thing that we want to do as a country is to experiment with leaders. We also do not want to use the presidency as a gender promotional commercial or worse still as others are saying, as a recompense for the alleged suffering Joyce Banda has gone through.

It is very important for us to understand and differentiate between Joyce Banda as a person together with her achievements and Joyce Banda as she would be if she were to become the president of Malawi.

There are so many positive things about Joyce Banda that makes her an ideal Malawian woman that any Malawian would want to show off to the world. She is blessed with that imposing beautiful stature through and through of which she compliments very well with her special traditional dressing style. Also her humility, her etiquette, her love for children and hard work makes us all be proud to be Malawians with such as her as our mothers.

Looking at that pleasant personality aura Joyce Banda oozes, it becomes very difficult to understand how someone could be cruel to her as she says of her ex-husband. Most men would actually kill to have her as wife and mother of their children.

In those same lines though, before we tackle the presidency issue, it does not mean Joyce Banda is an angel. She is human and there are certain unpleasant things about her. Issues like women complaining that she is one who does not support fellow women. Instead of using her privileged position to pull them up it is said that JB always is in the forefront of pulling them down. Adding on to that, think of her treacherous political activities that led to her ouster from DPP; also her involvement in the corruption scandal that saw maize meant to cover Malawians in time of need being sold abroad. A lot of people who should not have died ended up dying of hunger in Malawi during that time.

If all the other attributes that we are looking for in the next president were present in Joyce Banda, all those flaws though some of them very serious could be ignored because it is impossible in this world to find a perfect person. However this time what we are looking for is not a perfect human being, what we are looking for is a perfect presidential candidate and sadly Joyce Banda is not and cannot be that person. The problem with her in as far as that is concerned is not her problem; it just happens that she is predestined not to be the president of Malawi.

Even if we pray, go without food or whatever else people do to try and alter the misfortunes of life, Joyce Banda can never be that presidential puzzle peace that we are looking for in Malawi. She does not have the intellect, the charisma, the knowledge, the exposure or the people skills needed for that job. Also, as of late, the way she has allowed her integrity to get some kicking makes people wonder if she is really serious about the moral values that she professes to uphold.

Her intellectual limitations could best be understood by her poor sense of judgment and could best be explained by using Sarah Palin and Jeward as an examples.

Looking at what we know about people like Brown Mpinganjira and the other UDF mercenaries she has given key positions her new party it makes one wonder if she really understands what Malawians are weary about in their politicians. The worst scenario to that thought is that it is actually not her making decisions, if anything she is making her decisions under some sort of psychological duress. Her decisions are only as a result of the pressures of the moment and are but limited to the given dynamics within the PP as formed for her. She is made to believe that she is in control and yet in actual sense she is not. She is an unknowing robot doing as manipulated by circumstances and powerful and intimidating characters like Brown Mpinganjira.

  

With her having that low intellectual capacity the danger is that Mpinganjira or any other strong figure within the party could become a proxy president. The strong personalities under her can also start fighting each other and having us ending up with a government of conflicts.

The other thing about her that makes us question how she reasons is the idea of her remaining as VP and still takes up a key position in another party. That is wrong from both legal and moral point of view. Her thinking is that the constitution does not tell the president where to pick a vise president; he can pick him or her from anywhere or any party. That is callow thinking through and through.

This is multiparty politics about which we are talking. We have the ruling and the opposition. Unless we had a coalition government between the DPP and the PP that understanding of things defeats the whole constitutional embodiment of a multiparty democracy.

The constitution gives the VP a job description of which in the technicalities of politics, it is impossible to fulfill if you officially subscribe to a deferent political persuasion from the seating president. You cannot be an assistant to someone whom you don’t agree with and when you officially belong to the opposite bench as a person you are called upon to assist. Unless all Malawians reading into this are insane then you would wonder with that kind of reasoning what kind of mess is Joyce Banda susceptible to take the country into if she were to become a leader.

The other thing is the way she uses God in her political maneuvers, it just shows how careless she can be as a leader. She speaks as though all Malawians are Christians and that they should accept her as the next president because her God has given her to them. I am a Christian myself but I think that is just being insensitive and offensive for nothing. The fact that she cannot distinguish that is more of a judgment problem for her than it is a spiritual problem.

There are so many examples that can be given to show how intellectually deficient Joyce is for the presidency but space and time cannot allow. However of every limitation there is, the worse is the fact that she seem not to know that she has that limitation.

This is where Joyce Banda and her prototype, Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska in the USA join hips. For some reason someone told her that she has what it takes to be the president of the United States and she believed them. Now what she is doing is to make a comedy of the whole political landscape in the United States. Like we are patronizing our Joyce in Malawi people patronize Sarah a lot and she is losing it. She is busy making blander after blander and embarrassing people.

On the entertainment scene the equivalent of JB are the two kids that appeared on the UK X-factor program two years ago. They are called Jedward. People supported them for the fun of it and yet they are talentless. They are just crazy and funny and yet don’t have the x-factor when it comes to music. Joyce might not be funny and might also not be imbecilic but surely she does not have the x-factor or the intellect for the presidency.

  

The other thing is that Malawian in most part are downcast right now. They need someone with the charisma and the ability to articulate issues to uplift them and give them hope. Joyce Banda is too melancholic; with her wanting people to be in a sympathy mood towards her there is no way she can uplift their spirits. We need someone with phlegmatic temperament and who is also intelligent to inject some life back into the people.

Another thing that is very important is education; some people might say education is not that important when we are looking for a leader. That is not true and nonsense. Education is very important. The key to Malawi’s sustainable development is in having its citizens educated. An educated leader is a great model for that apart from the fact that most issues that they will have to handle require them to have a substantial knowledge base. Especially things to do with the economy, international relations, international trade, legal matters etc, all that need someone to have a proper and universal grounding in them. You cannot pick a person from the streets and expect them to be a good presidential. We lost ten good years with the uneducated Muluzi. We cannot afford to do that again this time around.

Lastly, as of late Joyce has shown that her integrity is questionable. Her holding on to a key position in the DPP led government raises some serious questions of principle and morality. She is at the moment of no use to the running of government but she is still clinging on to the seat. All she wants is free money and to impede the DPP’s good progress. She is happy to be a thorn in the flesh. If she really is serious about what she claims to stands for, she would have packed all her bags and go the same way she did with her previous marriage. Being principled is a virtue for a leader and to have good moral values is a bonus.

There is more we cannot talk about on this but the bottom line is that Joyce Banda is a wonderful person; however that does not qualify her as a candidate to be the president of Malawi. She is simply not gifted enough nor is she qualified enough. It is better for her to protect her legacy so far rather than try to take up presidency a thing which is obviously impossible for her to manage. Malawians are becoming nasty when criticizing and as a way of protecting her and her good legacy it is important for us to be honest with her and tell her not to bother. Joyce Banda is our mother and we are all proud of her. She has done great things for herself, her family and the country. However being the president is a different ball game. Much as we love her as our mother, for what we know about her we wouldn’t want her to be the one to call the shots in Malawi.