Malawi has had the most interesting 3 weeks in recent history: peaceful elections; female vice president; some established political heavy weights have fallen; some have retired; national economy continues to progress, good maize harvest has been project; and perhaps the most important, the state president, Bingu wa Mutharika has mapped out his plan for the next five years: 'development'.
Mutharika has told Malawians and everyone interested that he is ready to work with literary everyone for the benefit of the country, which can only be a good thing, especially that all the opposition leaders but John Tembo have predged to support Mutharika and his government. The prospects are even more interesting considering that Mutharika has achieved the recent economic success despite the hostile opposition that he endured in his first five years coupled with the tragic loss of his wife - RIP.
Nonetheless, Mutharika has stressed that reconciliation does not tantamount to amnesty, those who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law will have to face justice, regardless of their political positions and status.
It would appear that the politics of uncertainties and secrecy is fast fading in Malawi, as Mutharika announced couple of weeks ago that his Party will disclose the names of the people who helped the party with election campaign materials even though the degree of the disclosure is not known.
However, Mutharika has been mum on one issue and it appears that everyone has overlooked it: the cabinet. It is exactly 18 days since Mutharika was sworn in for his second term and yet there is no cabinet in sight. I wonder if this is just one way of admitting that it is Principal Secretaries who do the real job at the ministries? Otherwise who is running it?
I know Mutharika will have headache picking the cabinet, the elections have claimed some major casualties, but this need not be a problem, after all Mutharika has already broken most of the political traditions in Malawi. He does not need MPs to become cabinet ministers as has largely been the case in Malawi's young democracy. The best example is Aleke Banda who was a successful senior minister in Muluzi's adminstration even though he was not a parliamentarian.
I am anxiously waiting, and so is Mr. Nicholas Dausi, I think, and if Dausi makes it as a minister that would mean all journalists in Malawi will have to visit Dzuka or Maneno Bookshops to buy Advanced English Dictionary. The man has some vocabulary