Bingu victory: Clever marketing mix, lack of alternatives and protest vote

Unless you are JZU Tembo, Brown Mpinganjira, Loveness Gondwe or a blindly loyal supporter of theirs, you will know that Bingu wa Mutharika and his Democratic Progressive Party gave their opponents a thorough thrashing at the polls, hands down … or should we say fingers up! There are a number of factors that led to this convincing victory.

Clever Marketing Mix

In part the Bingu and DPP election victory was a result of an effective election campaign based on a strong political brand and a record of service delivery. The marketing mix used a variety of media platforms ranging from billboards, television, radio, posters, mobile video, slogans, music and whistle stop road shows with a fleet of branded buses and pickup and Hummers. This allowed the party to sell its policies and programmes to all country's diverse communities. Online party supporters used email, sms and social media such as Facebook and Twitter to advance the DPP’s campaign. It is only fair to say that there has never been a campaign quite like this one.

The only time Malawi came close to such a campaign was in 1994 when MCP came up with some ingenious campaign tactics. This time around they failed to even produce t-shirts or party cloth, the ‘presidential convoy’ was sad and posters quite dull. James Nyondo and Loveness Gondwe at least had some cloth.

No Alternative

The UDF/MCP Alliance wasted too much time attacking the president for acquiring a fleet of Hummers, saying they would arrest the ruling elite and advancing nonsensical promises such as reverting to the old seating capacity of minibuses and allowing vendors back onto the streets. The MCP only released their manifesto two weeks before the end of the campaign and when it did, it had inconsistencies with what the party leader was saying at public rallies. The NARC party of Loveness Gondwe gave unworkable promises such as the abolition of city and municipal rates, free fertilizer to women and other equally crazy promoses. Independent James Nyondo also had his list of nonstarters such as free iron sheets for the poor and converting all government 4x4 vehicles into ambulances. The other presidential candidates were rarely seen let alone heard. Kamuzu Chibambo admits he only visited four districts where he promised people his government would introduce cable cars! The DPP, while also at times getting involved into unnecessary mudslinging, communicated their solutions to bread and butter challenges. Their manifesto was released early and sold to the electorate in all the four political regions. They were really the only alternative.

Protest Vote

In the past four years, the Bingu administration has been like a cat on a short leash trapped in a corner. They were either fighting off threats of impeachment and Section 65, having bills rejected or trying to get the national budget passed. Despite these insurmountable hurdles, they managed to implement a number of developmental programmes and brought the economy back into check. On the other hand Bakili Muluzi threatened to deflate the tube (Bingu) he had inflated. He forgot that it is the voter that ‘inflates and deflates tubes’ not party chairmen or presidents.

People saw all this and decided it was time to register their protest vote. And as former vice president Cassim Chilumpha right said ‘We politicians should now know that it’s the people that know better than we do’.

All we can now do is hope that all those electoral promises will be translated into developmental projects. I am very optimistic that Bingu will make good use of the current political capital and can proudly look forward to a future of progress – economically, socially and politically.

Congratulations!!

It was a thorough thumping!

Four Reasons to fire Bakili Muluzi

All seems calm and quiet in the UDF and it comes as no surprise if history is anything to go by. Bakili Muluzi has always had the last say in the party and each time has gotten away with it. But it is time for the real owners of the party (if they are any) to stand up and claim back what is rightfully theirs - their party! There are more reasons than one now than at any other time to fire Muluzi and get the party back on it’s feet.

Reason 1. There has never been a time where UDF has faced such uncertainty before in it's history and especially with only two months before a general election. This uncertainty has been caused by the greed of one Bakili Muluzi who wants to stand again for the presidency, a post he already served twice. And why does he think he is the only suitable presidential candidate? See reason 2 below.

Reason 2. Muluzi has failed to nurture a leader to succeed him. The job of a leader is not only to lead but to produce other leaders. We are not indispensable and sooner rather than later we need replacements. Muluzi has failed miserably in this area.

Reason 3: Muluzi continues to cause uncertainty in the party but pursuing a court case against the Malawi Electoral Commission while at the same time engaging himself in alliance talks with Malawi Congress Party. He is clearly showing the party he feels no one is fit enough to run the affairs of the party or government other than himself. The ‘madeya’ issue at play here? Maybe.

Reason 4: By pursuing alliance talks with Malawi Congress Party, Muluzi is effectively securing himself the post of UDF presidential candidate come 2014.

Now someone tell me the UDF faithful have no reason to fire it’s leader and all reason to rally behind him!

New year, Same old power problems

Last Tuesday many residents of Area 49 in Lilongwe and other townships rushed home to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama as president of the US of A. But it was all cut short when they faced an electricity blackout. The power was only restored at the point when Obama was escorting Bush to Executive One, the helicopter that would take Bush to Andrews Airforce Base. Naturally many people were angry that they could not watch this historic moment live. On Wednesday I visited the profile one such person who hit out at Escom and the numerous comments below it also took a swipe at the corporation.

I have learnt to take a different view of the electricity supply body. The ESCOM-customer relationship is kind of like a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship. The girlfriend (Escom) is tired of her over-demanding boyfriend (Escom customers) and keeps trying to show him that she is not interested in him any longer. But as dumb as the boyfriend is he can't read the body language and she is not willing to tell him in his face for fear of the backlash.

I believe Escom has capacity problems and I believe it would love if we could all find alternate solutions to satisfy our power demands. There are alternatives like solar, gas and bio-gas we could use but we fail to embrace those technologies. If all of us currently building or who have just built houses decided that our houses will use a solar gyser and solar lighting, gas or bio-gas for our cooking and Escom to power the fridge, microwave and iron ONLY we could relieve Escom of the constant load shedding we are subjected to throughout the year. We have a young man in Kasungu who ‘invented’ a wind powered solution to supply lighting to his small house there. We even have (or had) an organisation called Malawi Industrial Research and Technology Development Centre (MIRTDC) that normally pioneers research into low cost technologies. Why can’t we tap knowledge and implement solutions from this body?

I doubt if Escom will ever come out in the open to tell us to look elsewhere. The supposedly 'poor' customer service is most probably Escom's body language that even if we went elsewhere they would not be very concerned and for good reason too!

If we don’t start looking for alternative sources of power Malawians will continue to face the same old problem – power blackouts!

The politics of fuel prices

There has been a multitude of calls in the local press regarding fuel pump prices. The calls have come against the backdrop of the fall in crude oil prices on the world market in the past few months. People have argued that the Petroleum Pricing Committee (PCC) should reduce the pump prices by up to 40%, some circles argue. Government on the other hand has argued that it was/is building up the stabalisation fund that was severely depleted when the PCC refused to raise prices last year when the price of crude oil sky rocketed. Others have said that the PCC should wait to see how the Gaza conflict and Russia gas row will play out as they have the potential to send the commodity sky rocketing again and this has been evident in the price movements in the past two weeks.

I say our focus should be on this price stabalisation fund ... at least for now.

Lilongwe Water Board strike

I read with interest yesterday an article in the newspaper that 5 LWB staff members had been arrested by police for disconnecting water supply to certain parts of Lilongwe during their recent industrial action. While I appreciate that prison is a nasty place to be I think it sends a very powerful message to other like minded selfish individuals. The industrial action had nothing to do with residents of the city and as such there was no need for people to suffer.

24 hour clinic

Early this morning I walked into a 24 hour clinic to see if I could get some treatment. I found two ladies sitting on the visitors chairs drinking tea and watching TV. They greeted me then hesitated a bit before one of them mumbled something. When I asked what she said, "A dokotala kulibe" (the doctor is not in) was her mumbled reply because of the food in her mouth. Then both her and her companion continued to drink their breakfast and chat away. When asked what time the doctor would be in "Chamma 8" (around 8). Looking inside the treatment room I saw no nurse and assumed she must be off too.

Two nights ago when I went to the same clinic I found a huge group of people waiting to be attended to. Reason? There was no doctor so someone had gone to pick him up in another part of town! No explanation or apologies from the receptionist, a different one from the ones I found today. People kept coming in and she just welcomed them as if nothing was wrong.

Need I say more