As the battle for presidency in the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) continues to grow, DPP College wings in the South and Eastern region have accused the country’s vice President Saulos Chilima of betraying President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika.
The development comes barely days after President Mutharika dined with the University students at Sanjika Palace in the commercial capital Blantyre where each student went away with MK20,000 cash.
In a letter jointly signed by Presidents of DPP youth wings from Chancellor College, Polytechnic, Domasi College, Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST), College of Medicine (CoM), the students have accused Chilima of being behind the infighting rocking the party.
In the letter, the University students have cited “Njoka saweta” remarks and President Mutharika’s death rumours as one of the clear examples that Chilima is in desperate need of leadership.
The students have also accused Chilima for reading a letter released by Bishops in the country urging Malawians to demonstrate against Mutharika’s leadership style.
Below is the letter;
AN EPISTLE TO CHILIMA
DATE: 16TH May, 2018.
Your Right Honorable Sir,
It is with honor and dignity that we chose to write you on matters of our mighty party DPP as a
branch of the party and indeed young politicians who value constructive politics for Malawi to
develop. We get disappointed every time we see Malawians take us three steps back after taking
two steps forward. We believe the manner in which you are exercising your political right to take
over the leadership of this country is taking us backwards. We emphasize that we are not against
your rightful political ambition but your approach to the fulfillment of the same ambition.
Your Honor, there is in-fighting within our beloved Democratic Progressive Party which is
becoming clear that you are behind, however you are deliberately giving it a blind eye in order to
deceive Malawians that you have nothing to do with it.
In our critical analysis and after reflecting on the political logic of a number of incidents, we
refuse to believe that you have nothing to do with this conflict in the party. Your silence leaves
us with no option but believe to the allegations that you impatiently need the presidency which
can be echoed by the following reasons:
1. “Njoka saweta” remark.
We want to remind you and the Party that you told the President he was hatching snakes in the
party. We admit that there were a lot of theories that came forth. As we exercise our right to
opinion, we believe you were referring to Honorable Atupele Muluzi who came into the cabinet
from outside the party because you feared that he was going to displace you as the next running
mate. This was an expression of your jealousy. It is for this reason that we are forced to believe
that you have always looked at yourself as an automatic successor to Peter Mutharika! We also
believe that there are no automatic successors in a democracy because it defeats the democratic
principle of giving the people the right to competition and choice.
2. Head of State death rumors.
Your Honor, when the head of state goes out of the country for official duties, you are the acting
president here at home. We remember well when the President had gone out to the United
Nations two years ago, rumors of his death spread so fast like an infectious disease. As a person
acting in the capacity of the President, you did not tell the nation the status of your boss. Instead
we heard that you proceeded to form your own cabinet in preparation for forming your own
Government. This is a serious allegation that you should have refuted. Your silence was to us an
act of admission and the same compelled many of us to establish that you have been nursing the
ambition and contemplating to take over power for some time.
3. A call for demonstration against your own Government.
Your Honor, when you read the Pastoral Letter in church, people recall you added to the Pastoral
Letter your own words that urged to demonstrate against Government “not on Facebook but on
the streets”. We also recall that these demonstrations whose real political motive was regime
change of the DPP Government as has always been advocated by the Public Affairs Committee
and the Malawi Congress Party.
Our assertion that you have been contemplating to take over the leadership in a wrong approach
found its vindication in your action of urging the nation to demonstrate against your own
Government, which further proves that you have been praying for the fall of your President
under such circumstances that everyone knows that you would take over.
We also believe the infiltration of your politics into the Catholic Church is also observably
confusing the church as proven by the fact that Bishops were misled to join demonstration that
were set to create violence and regime change. Your Honor, we believe you would have
demonstrated leadership in standing up to speak against these allegations otherwise there are
many people like us who believe that you have been working against your Government and that
the eruption of Callista Mutharika was only a fulfillment of some underground plan.
Parliament Fracas Condemnation Letter
Your Honor, clean politics where each being is allowed to express his/her opinion as we are
doing here, is truly what Malawi needs. We therefore respect your right to express your views on
violence. The letter rightly condemned in strongest terms the foolish act demonstrated in our
most respected house, the parliament.
Our immediate observation is that your letter was an act of insubordination because as Vice
President you should always remember that you act on delegation. Moreover, we join the many
people who concluded that the condemnation of violence in the party was at the same time
hypocrisy because you are believed to be the source of the problem. Therefore, your Honor, don’t
you think that a wiser man deals with the source of the problem instead of politicking around the
problem to get political scores? Can you tell the nation that you are not aware of the main reason
of the why people fought at parliament and why people are fighting in the party? Why do you
believe that people will believe that you are not the reason of all the fighting after all the history
of your political activities outlined above?
We have no reason to believe that all the people involved in the confusion of the party are acting
under your instructions! How can t-shirts bearing your name and face be printed without your
consent? Are you aware that you are seriously disrespecting the rules and guidelines of the
Party? How do you expect us as a generation of Youths to trust you as the future of our Party
when you cannot respect the principles and values of the party?
Finally, we know that this letter puts us at a greater risky of political victimization by your camp.
Your Honor, know that we are not afraid of the consequences of standing for truth and justice.
Take note that this observation is held by many people who are afraid to speak out in fear when
your team is openly castigating and undermining His Excellency our President every day. We
will not fear for the sake of truth, fairness and justice.
As we put our pen down, we would like to leave you with a million dollar question you must
reflect on. You have failed to show gratitude to one man who trusted and favored you to support
You will agree that your public image is now that of a betrayer. You also need to know that
people are now saying you have a history of betraying and kicking out your seniors wherever
you have worked in Carlsberg, Airtel and now in the presidency. If you betray your leader, how
should we the people trust that you will not betray us?
We also want to put it on record that the approach you have used to pursue your political
ambition is proving that you are not a role model of leadership. We the intellectual Youth of the
Party therefore cannot support you because we want to follow proper political role models. Your
political approach is fast destroying the trust which we the Youth have been preserving for you
and we too feel betrayed.
We have written to you in the spirit of good faith because we think you are making a very
serious blunder that you need to address. We also want you to know that with the lack of
leadership qualities you have shown, we the intellectual Youth of the DPP are not going to be
blinded into the bandwagon of following you for the sake of following. That we will never do!
We wish you well!
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Chriss Connex Muhuwa Tifu Victor Kadzinje Harry Gundani
DPP President (Chanco ) DPP vice President ( Chanco) DPP President (MUST)
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Chriss Katchire Blessings Jamuteni Israj Mkwanda
DPP President ( Domasi) DPP President ( COM) DPP vice President (COM)
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Michael Fatch Patrick Kalombola
DPP vice President(POLY) Publicity Secretary(MUST)
