REMEMBERING DU: AN EPISODE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MALAWIAN POLITICAL CULTURE

In September of 1962, Dunduzu Kaluli Chisiza, Secretary Generalof the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), ‘prison graduate’and prospective Minister of Finance for Nyasaland, died in acar crash. Immediately, rumours began to circulate that thiswas no accident but a case of political murder. For the firsttime, ‘car accident’ became a metaphor for politicalviolence in colonial Malawi. This article examines the availableevidence pertaining to the accident and concludes that althoughit appears not to indicate foul play, much of it was not madepublic and this, coupled with a troubled political climate,bred suspicion. It is argued that the rumours about DunduzuChisiza's death demonstrate a popular awareness that the imageof political consensus advanced by the MCP during the late 1950sand early 1960s was false. Further, the rumours reveal a profoundambivalence about the growing personalization of rule underDr H. Kamuzu Banda. While the Cabinet Crisis of 1964 was thefirst public demonstration of leadership rupture, it was a culminationof tensions rooted in an earlier period, tensions which werealready felt by many and expressed through rumour in 1962 andafter.     

THE PRODUCTION OF HISTORY IN MALAWI IN THE 1960s: THE LEGACY OF SIR HARRY JOHNSTON, THE INFLUENCE OF THE SOCIETY OF MALAWI AND THE ROLE OF DR KAMUZU BANDA AND HIS MALAWI CONGRESS PARTY

This article joins the debate on culture, history and politicsin postcolonial Malawi. Concentrating on the production of historyin the 1960s, the paper shows how the decade marked the beginningsof serious research, teaching and public discourse of Malawi'shistory. It proceeds to examine factors, such as the existingliterature, which helped to fashion the direction which theplayers, mainly teachers and researchers, took in accomplishingtheir tasks. In this connection the paper considers the mannerin which Harry Johnston, the first person to write widely onthe peoples of the Lake Malawi region, influenced the historiographyof the country. It also evaluates the role of the Society ofMalawi and its publication, the Society of Malawi Journal, inthe production of history. Finally, the article pays attentionto the ways in which the work of historians was affected byPresident Kamuzu Banda and the policies and actions of his rulingMalawi Congress Party.     

DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALISM IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: THE CASE OF MALAWI

The collapse of the Banda regime in 1994 has led to a renewedinterest in the nature of the Malawian political tradition.This paper seeks to contribute to the debate by focusing onthe political beliefs of nationalist politicians in the decadeleading up to the cabinet crisis of 1964 which marks, in someviews, the true origin of the Banda dictatorship. It suggeststhat early nationalist politicians like James Frederick Sangalaand Levi Mumba combined a belief in the importance of unitywith a democratic awareness of the virtues of civil society.As Congress grew in popularity, however, elements of a totalitarianideology, deeply intolerant of dissent, began to appear, notonly in Dr Banda's speeches but in those of his lieutenantsand subsequent opponents such as Masauko Chipembere and KanyamaChiume. This tendency increased with the founding in 1959 ofthe Malawi Congress Party which developed as an absolutist bodyboth in terms of its own internal structure and in the demandsit made on Malawian society. Some politicians drew on the autocratictradition of the colonial era to produce justifications forthe establishment of an African-controlled dictatorship. OnlyDunduzu Chisiza provided a coherent democratic alternative tothese views. And even Chisiza had difficulty in reconcilinghis belief in strongman government with the need to protectindividual rights. A totalitarian strain, deeply intolerantof dissent, had thus entered Malawian politics prior to 1964.But this strain coexisted with a democratic tradition, articulatedin particular by Mumba and Chisiza.     

The relationship between Kenneth Koma and the Botswana Democratic Party, 1965-2003

This article assesses the weaknesses of opposition in Botswanathrough the case of Kenneth Koma, the influential Presidentof the Botswana National Front (BNF) from 1977 to 2001. Thisis done by examining the perception that from 1997 Koma's relationshipwith the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) destabilizedand weakened the opposition in the country. The article challengesa view, held by some of his detractors in the opposition, thathis leadership style was out of tune with global trends. Italso argues that what some people have viewed as ‘tribalism’— the domination of the BDP leadership by members of theBangwato tribe (of which Koma is also a member) — seemsto be primarily a matter of expediency. This alleged tribalismis used by Koma's critics as a smear. The article analyzes therelationship between Koma and the BDP at both political andpersonal levels. At the political level, Koma's failure to keepthe BNF united has been capitalized on by the BDP to tightenits grip on power. At the personal level, Koma has used hisconnections in the BDP to advantage in his business dealings.Koma's cult status and his personal and political choices havetherefore significantly contributed to de facto one-party rulein Botswana.     

BETWIXT AND BETWEEN: 'TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY' AND DEMOCRATIC DECENTRALIZATION IN POST-WAR MOZAMBIQUE

The end of civil war in Mozambique has been accompanied by democratizationof political processes, as exemplified by the 1994 multi-partypresidential and parliamentary elections. Under the rubric ofdemocratization, the issue of state decentralization has alsobeen raised. Current political debates focus on what role ‘traditionalauthority’ might play in local governance. Advocates arguethat ‘traditional authority’ constitutes a genuinelyAfrican form of local governance, while detractors suggest thatthese institutions were irrevocably corrupted by their involvementwith the colonial administration. This article challenges notonly the black-and-white framework in which the present-day‘legitimacy’ of ‘traditional authority’has been debated, but also questions the value of the term ‘traditionalauthority’ itself. The article explores the diverse historiesof kin-based political institutions in Mozambique, arguing thatthe meaning and function of ‘traditional authority’has been transformed many times over with changes in the largerpolitical contexts in which local institutions have existed.As a result of historical events, the issue of ‘traditionalauthority’ is, today, intimately bound up with the dividebetween the ruling FRELIMO party and the opposition, RENAMO.Only by approaching the issue of ‘traditional authority’through an understanding of its variegated and contentious historywill policy-makers and Mozambican residents alike be able totranscend existing political divides on issues of local governance.     

华人政治地位与马来西亚的政治分层

本文通过分析马来西亚华马两族执政党的不同地位、政府公共职位的族群分配比例以及选区划分的族群利益倾向,探讨马来西亚族群政治分层以及族群在政治领域存在的结构性差异.结果表明,华人明显处于政治弱势,在族群权益博弈中的地位由此大为削弱.     

Developing Powers and the Challenge of Peacekeeping: The Example of Malawi

Abstract

Malawi’s contribution to UN peacekeeping is growing. The development of the Malawi Defence Force was stunted under Hastings Banda, but Malawi’s foreign and security policies were reoriented under multiparty democracy and the Defence Force and police personnel were engaged in peacekeeping missions. Peacekeeping has had a profound effect on Malawi. It has led to the procurement of military hardware, contributed substantial sums to the national economy, and raised the income and living standards of participants. It has encouraged the adoption of UN best practice and contributed to gender integration. However, there are issues around transparency and accountability, and more partnerships with developed countries are desirable. There is also a role for the Commonwealth.     

新加坡人民行动党政府的社会控制方式

本文从制度环境、制度安排、政策和策略等方面对新加坡执政的人民行动党及其政府如何处理与其它政党、社群组织和普通选民的关系和社会控制方式进行了分析。指出在制度设计上,它是一个存在一定程度多元制衡的一党独大的以行政为主导的软权威主义的政体。在处理与反对党的关系方面,执政党的基本原则是一方面对其严格限制和控制,采取一切“合法的”手段把其摒弃在国家权力之外,另一方面则保证其在一定程度上的发言权,以对执政党进行一定程度的监督、反映不同的利益和政见。在处理与社群组织和选民的关系方面,其基本原则是通过推行国家合作主义的政策把人民群众纳入执政党所设定的政治发展进程之中;实行一种具有多元利益表达和一定民主性的、提倡体制内合作的自上而下的制度;人民行动党在联系群众方面已经形成了高度制度化的联系机制,尤其是这种机制不是一味迎合人民群众的眼前需要,而是着眼于其长远利益。     

Singapore’s 2015 General Election: Explaining PAP’s Resounding Win

Abstract

While Singapore’s 15th general election came about as expected, the ensuing results did not. In view of the opposition’s performance in the 2011 general election and the general sense that the ruling party had done well despite its performance being anything but sterling, the results were somewhat shocking. Even the leaders of the ruling party were caught by surprise at the party’s ability to garner 70% of the valid votes, 10% more than in the previous election. While many factors played a role, it was the opposition parties that lost the election rather than the ruling party that won it. Most of the opposition parties were rejected by the voters on grounds of not being worthy of support. The leading opposition party, the Workers’ Party, also suffered as many voters feared that it might perform too well to the detriment of the ruling party. In the end, the 2015 general elections strengthened the one-party-dominant state in Singapore and the quest for greater political representation was placed on the back burner.     

With David Livingstone to the Falls

The following account of his visit to the Victoria Falls isextracted from the explorer's "Missionary Travels and Researchesin South Africa." The centenary of his discovery of "Mosioatunya,"—the place where the smoke thunders, and the only place,incidentally, which Livingstone gave an English name to—isbeing celebrated at Livingstone, Southern Rhodesia, next month.     

ZANU(PF) strategies in general elections, 1980-2000: Discourse and coercion

For many analysts, the general election campaign in 2000 showeda new face of the ruling party, ZANU(PF). Against the new oppositionparty, the Movement for Democratic Change, ZANU(PF) engagedin violence and intimidation, often relying on youth and warveterans, even as it accused its opponents of subversive violence.Moreover, ZANU(PF) appealed to its liberation war credentials,while dismissing its chief opponents as puppets of British imperialismand reactionary white settlers. After the election, PresidentMugabe appealed for reconciliation between winners and losers,only to permit violence against those who had voted againstthe ruling party. For ruling party perpetrators of violence,there was impunity and later a presidential pardon. The purposeof this article is to demonstrate how the ruling party usedremarkably similar strategies in every general election since1980, notwithstanding striking differences in the contexts,issues, and nature of the chief opposition party. Given thiswell established pattern of ruling party violence and intimidationand characterization of opposition parties as illegitimate,the article seeks to understand why analysts repeatedly sawin the regular multiparty elections either a democratic systemor one that was amenable to democratization.     

Sino-African Relations and the Problem of Human Rights

China's political and economic activities in Africa are increasingat an exponential rate. Equally, they are attracting criticism,chiefly over Beijing's no-strings-attached stance on human rightsand governance. It is clear that many African states that enjoyChinese support not only trample on civil and political rights(as per Western ideas of human rights), but also subvert theircitizens’ economic and social rights (as per China's discourseon human rights). If whilst adhering to the principle of non-interference,Chinese activities actually make things worse for some in Africa,then Beijing's argument that basic socio-economic rights aremore important for the poor than abstract politicalrights is potentially problematic. This is because there isa danger that Beijing's engagement in Africa might be exploitedby autocrats on the continent for their own, well-understood,reasons. Doing no harm, rather than a studied disinterest, needsto be part of China's overall African policy, something thatBeijing is bound to recognize. The author gratefully acknowledges the British Academy, CarnegieTrust for the Universities of Scotland, Chiang Ching-kuo Foundationfor International Scholarly Exchange, and the Russell Trustof Scotland for financial support for fieldwork on Sino-Africanrelations, carried out in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Namibia, SierraLeone, South Africa, and Uganda. The ideas for this articlewere initially tested at seminars at Wilton Park, the Universityof Plymouth, the State Department, SAIS-Johns Hopkins University,and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. I am gratefulto participants in these events, this journal's two anonymousreviewers, and Shaun Breslin for commenting and helping to crystallizemy thoughts. Any errors remain my own.     

The Myanmar Elections 2015: Why the National League for Democracy Won a Landslide Victory

On November 8 the vast majority of Myanmar's citizens participated in what official observers – international and domestic – widely hailed as the most genuinely competitive, free, fair, and orderly parliamentary elections in the nation since 1990. Yet the poll, which resulted in a resounding victory for the National League for Democracy (NLD), surprised many observers, who expected that members of the ruling party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), would have done better through widely anticipated vote-rigging and manipulation of the results. Right up to a few days before the vote, observers were concerned about the possibility of a cancellation of the election as a result of politically motivated violence or, in the event they went ahead, administrative chaos resulting from errors in voters’ registration information and large-scale vote-rigging and manipulation by the ruling party. These fears were well-founded given that only 3 weeks prior to the elections, the government's Union Election Commission (UEC) proposed delaying the polls, citing recent floods that had devastated 12 out of Myanmar's 14 states and regions, killing 103 people and displacing 1 million others. This proposal predictably met strong resistance from the NLD and other opposition parties, which expected a strong public support for them in the poll.     

Protesting gender discrimination from within: women’s political representation on behalf of Islamic parties

Abstract

In recent decades, Islamic political movements, and their subsequent political parties, have been increasingly recruiting and nominating women to high-level decision-making positions despite the fact that the ideology they espouse often acts to dissuade women from assuming positions of political leadership. My ethnographic research on religious women’s activism in Iran and Turkey helps explain this unexpected trend by shedding light onto the role of Islamic party women in challenging the gender discriminatory attitudes and behaviours of their male party leaders. In particular, I highlight the role that a number of high-ranking Islamic party women with close ties to the ruling elites played in pressuring their male party leaders to address women’s political underrepresentation in formal politics. Women’s close ties to the ruling elites consisted of formal ties with key Islamic leaders that evolved thanks to women’s long-term devotion to the Islamic movement or learning at Islamic seminaries. I demonstrate that such close ties to the leaders, as well as the presence of a public discourse in favour of women’s increased access to politics, enabled influential Islamic women to leverage a form of ‘internal criticism’ as an important strategy to enhance women’s political rights and status from within the Islamic movements.     

伊斯兰原教旨主义与马来西亚穆斯林妇女

伊斯兰原教旨主义推动了马来西亚社会和政治的伊斯兰化,并影响到马来穆斯林妇女的权利和地位.本文从分析伊斯兰原教旨主义妇女观入手,探讨马来西亚政府、政党、宗教部门和非政府组织如何从法律、法特瓦、政策、宣传来规范妇女的行为,并分析联邦政府与州政府、执政党与反对党、乌来玛与非政府组织围绕妇女权利展开的争论和斗争.     

2008年大选后马来西亚政党政治的走势

2008年大选后,马来西亚执政党近四十年来在国会中的绝对优势被打破,一党独大制正在受到日益增大的转型压力.国民阵线面临着如何重塑执政合法性的问题,而反对党则会在加强联合的基础上进一步向执政党发起挑战.但在新的形势下执政党仍然具有较强的制度韧性,凭借其结构性优势还能继续执政,真正意义上的两线制或两党制短期内难以确立.     

Seychelles: Democratising in the shadows of the past

This article is an assessment of the country's governance and the likelihood that the country can break free from the shadow of former President René and his one-party state. The paper examines eight key areas of democratic governance: the constitution and rule of law; the judiciary; the National Assembly; elections; civil society; the internal security forces; economic life; and the executive. Although it finds some changes for the better over the last few years, old habits remain of a politicised judiciary, a blurring of the boundaries between party and state, regime policing, partisan distribution of state benefits and a constrained National Assembly. It concludes with a discussion of the likely role of the former incumbent, given that he still retains the chair of the ruling party and shows little sign of allowing the new President to be his own man. The likelihood of further governance progress for Seychelles depends on the political courage of President Michel.     

“Informal pluralism” and Japanese politics: Sino-Japanese rapprochement revisited

This study attempts to take the 1972 Sino-Japanese rapprochement as a case study testing the hypotheses that emerged from recent research on the pluralistic nature of Japanese politics. It concentrates on “informal pluralism,” an important characteristic of Japanese political life. Internal maneuvers of Japanese politics during the normalization process have been closely examined. These internal elements include: the Liberal Democratic Party—informal organizations in action, the ruling party/bureaucracy apparatus—informal channels, opposition parties diplomacy—informal styles, and intellectuals—informal advisory groups.     

Elite interests and political participation in Botswana, 1966–2014

ABSTRACT

Botswana’s tiny economy is overwhelmingly government-driven and political participation, particularly on the side of the ruling party, is critical for one’s economic survival and prosperity. This has led to enduring intrigue and conflict among the country’s political power elite. Opposition party activists traditionally have embraced leftist policies and claimed to be representing the country’s poor and downtrodden while castigating the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (in power since 1966) of being pro-rich and politically connected business. Ironically, some members of the opposition elite also engage in business ventures with their ruling party counterparts. The scramble for economic opportunities has fuelled debilitating factionalism within both the ruling and opposition parties over the years. In some instances tribalism was mobilised in intra- and inter-party elections for positions of influence even though voters are more interested in service delivery than traditional ethnic issues. Our paper considers the question: ‘Whose interests do Botswana’s politicians represent?’