PATRIOTISM IN POLITICAL TOLERANCE; FOLLOWING THE PATH OF DEMOCRACY

Malawians voted for multiparty democracy in the referendum of June 1993. Through the referendum, Malawians expressed their desire for parties to co-exist in a market based political field; where the one with the bestselling skills should excel. In addition, they also accepted that these groupings would surely have different ideas and ideologies and that belonging to either of them should be the total freedom of an individual.

But for the existence of these political groupings, and peace in the country, there is a need for political tolerance. It can thus be only patriotism and an understanding of our past that should challenge every Malawian to be politically tolerant.

Political tolerance at the conceptual level must be viewed to refer to the will to accept and recognise that the rights an individual enjoys, must also extend to organisations and persons whose view point differ from one’s own. From the foregoing, one cannot overemphasize the importance of political tolerance.

Political intolerance is a burning fire dining with a gallon of flammable gasoline in the midst of a gathering. It has fuelled conflicts in many areas in the world such as Rwanda, Northern Ireland, the Middle East and with recent happenings, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

With the adoption of multi-party democracy in 1993 through the referendum, the basic idea is that the right for all to participate in politics is established. This abolished the suppression of dissent that characterised Dr Banda’s rule in Malawi. Without a guarantee political rights, which are rooted in the liberal theory of democracy, we cannot expect ideas to emerge to counter or perfect the ideas of the ruling parties in Malawi which through its subsequent leaders have believed to be the Moses in between the citizenry and our destiny.

Political intolerance should not be tolerated at all costs

John Stuart Mill is one of the liberal philosophers to have thought that different groupings must be given the opportunity to think differently and market their ideas like products in a market place. The same should be the understanding in our country. Every political grouping should be given the opportunity to market their ideas in order to woe the electorate into their fold. The only ideas we cannot allow to be sold to be electorate should be extremist ideas or indeed such any other ideas that conflict with human reason and the dictates of the laws of the land.

Political tolerance is a central tenet of any liberal democracy. The challenge of realising political tolerance is when other groupings are viewed as dissidents of the ideas one subscribes to. It should only be viewed as pathetic that in a 21^st century Malawi, we still have souls that believe in political intolerance to the point of stripping those who subscribe to different views from their own.

 

Political tolerance is both an abstract idea and a concrete one. It is what is enshrined in our constitution and what we must all practice as Malawians. Let’s not leave any stone unturned here.

Political tolerance shall remain a far fetched dream if for all practical reasons we have leaders who cannot handle criticism. To be a leader in the world is to have a following. Followers of a leader act what the leader preaches. To avoid going astray, the political intolerance currently happening is because of the intolerance of the President himself.

He might not have said it directly, but in his actions by viewing the opposition as enemies, threatening to fall on them like a tonne of bricks, failure to denounce violence and tolerating the monopolising of national functions and the state broadcaster, only serve to tell his followers to indulge in this impunity. The body is always as bad or as good as the head!

As we edge closer to the May elections, political tolerance must not be a bargain or a compromise, it should be the norm, firmly established and practiced by all as a fact.

The tripartite elections present a chance for our country to redefine its path. This path is not only through the ballot box as one might think. The path includes the run up to the May election itself. Through the activities leading up to the election, it is our opportunity to affirm and confirm the following things. To affirm that as a country, we stand firm on the principles of multi-party democracy rooted in the rule of law according each citizen the right to join, belong or form a political grouping through his own free will without fear, forceful coercion or any unwelcome means; and to confirm that at the end of the day, we remember that Malawi is a free country with freedoms to every citizen and correlative duties towards other citizens, without prejudice of wanting them to think like us for as argued above political intolerance is a time bomb.