Let ‘fix it’ be slogan for 2015!

Honourable Folks, 2014 harboured lots of hope. There were tripartite elections that promised to bring back ward councillors and city mayors.
British forensic experts rekindled hope that Cashgate culprits would be dealt with expeditiously and their networks exposed and shut down permanently.
But the biggest hope was on Malawi at 50. There was consensus that there was very little to show for the past 50 years but, with transformational leadership, we could do things differently and claim our place in the sun in the next 50 years, starting in July, 2014.
If it was difficult to choose the winner of the first ever presidential debates in the run-up to the elections, it’s because, without riding on well-articulated different ideologies, they all sounded like Barack Obama, promising change we could  believe in.
They, too, attributed the woes of the past 50 years to bad leaders who demanded to be served instead of serving, amassed wealth for themselves while pursuing policies that exacerbated poverty and deprivation among the people they led.
They sounded like going forward, it would be Malawi first, Malawi second, Malawi third…and themselves last.
But trepidation defines the mood we exit 2014. The comeback of councillors appears to be superfluous as MPs seem determined to cling on to the task of spearheading development at the grass roots as well.
Besides the power-play, local polls haven’t met the interest of giving back power to the people either. No sooner did the local polls take place than the demand for federalism assumed advocacy proportions.
I shudder to imagine that in 2015 we just might get closer to the possibility of creating another tier of bureaucracy to drain further our meagre resources for the comfort of another bunch of ineffectual and corrupt leaders at the regional level.
Proponents of the system base their advocacy on the premise that the current unitary system hasn’t worked as it gives too much power to a president who rises on a minority and largely tribal vote. This is true but the problem is largely in the first-past- the-post system.
It can be fixed by laws which encourage inclusiveness and victory based on the 50 +1 principle.
APM got less than 37 percent of the votes and yet the semblance of an inclusive government he champions is defined by the inclusion in his Cabinet of Atupele Muluzi leader of UDF. This is done out of choice for there’s no legal tool to ensure government isn’t build on tribal, regional or religious lines.
What’s baloney is the argument that we can’t fix the current system that nurtures and satiates tribal greed and that instead, there should be federalism. We already have a structure of government in which power is devolved through local governments.
We need not compound bureaucratic red tape with replicas of the failed system. Reforms should bring a lean and efficient government.
On our part, we’ll need to channel our remaining energy on demanding from our leaders nothing less than total accountability and transparency. They owe this to people who are suffering now as a result of failed leadership which incensed donors by its indifference to a corruption, allowing it to reach Cashgate proportions.
The zero-aid budget isn’t working. In October, the shortfall on tax revenue was at 9 percent against target and, although there was improvement in November, the macro-economic environment isn’t at all conducive to the generation of wealth from where tax revenue is generated.
Yet government is under enormous pressure to make unplanned for huge pay hikes for workers in the public sector amid the rapidly diminishing buying power of the kwacha due to forces of inflation and depreciation.
Unless this cycle is broken, the already highly indebted government will be forced to borrow more and use more of its revenue to settle or service debts and appease its disgruntled workers.
Now that APM has asked Public Affairs Committee (PAC) to plead with donors to resume budgetary support, we should realise that donors won’t come back because we are languishing in abject poverty.
The politics of aid hinges on ability of the recipient country to use aid for the intended purpose and show results for it. PAC and other civil society leaders should therefore start by demanding that government walk the talk on its pledge of zero-tolerance for corruption.
There’s need not only for the likes of Lutepo but past presidents as well to account for their billionaire life-styles, especially now when we know that their monthly salary was no more than K1.5 million, albeit tax free.
Unless we, Malawians, stop leaving the task of holding leaders to account to the likes of John Kapito or Martha Kwataine and begin to collectively demand good governance from our elected leaders, including presidents, it shall always be one step forward, two steps backwards.
Wishing you all, my honourable folks, a 2015 of change and hope.