Honourable Folks, a fact we can’t ignore as we begin the count-down to the New Year is that we shall have clocked 50 years as an independent sovereign state by July, 2014. We shall also have clocked 20 years as a multiparty democracy by May.
There’s little, if any, debate on whether there’s much to show for our post-colonial exploits. Our major credit is on the fact that we are among few countries on the continent that have not suffered coups, civil strife or tribal wars.
The transition from one-party to multiparty political dispensation was very smooth despite that we were dismantling a system steeped in the life presidency with its inherent autocratic tendency to brook no different, let alone opposing view to the one held by the incumbent and endorsed, albeit by default, by his cronies in government and party. Kamuzu Banda was vehemently opposed to change!
We’ve also smoothly sailed through four presidential elections and, in April 2012, power changed hands peacefully from DPP to PP following the sudden death from cardiac arrest of President Bingu wa Mutharika.
Ironically, there has been very little in terms of development and economic growth to show for the peace we’ve enjoyed since 1964 and the multiparty dispensation that’s been there since 1994. We move in the rhythm of one-step-forward-two-steps-backwards.
Imagine in the 1980s we bragged about feeding about a million refugees from Mozambique, yet today, we spend 10 percent of our national budget on farm input subsidies yet hunger still looms and we look to donors to help us feed 1.5 million to 2 million of our people every year!
Our public health system is designed in such a way that minor ailments are treated in health centres, those that can’t be handled there are referred to district hospitals and those that can’t be handled at the district hospital level are transferred to referral hospitals—Queen Elizabeth in the South, Zomba in the East, Kamuzu in the Centre and Mzuzu in the North.
Such a structure presupposes that the regional referrals are best equipped. Yet, they lack gloves, ventilators, pain killers, etc, just like health centres!
As for education, we’ve done enviably well in constructing classroom blocks and increasing enrolment from primary to the university. Yet the standards have deteriorated so much that only poor people send their children to these public schools. Politicians send their children to expensive private schools locally or abroad.
The results are there for all to see. It’s much harder for a brilliant poor child going through public school system to compete with a son or daughter of a politician or rich parent for the opportunities that education brings.
We may have peace and multiparty democracy but for a future with a difference at the national and household levels, we also need quality education, improved health delivery system and sustainable agriculture. These are core public sector functions for which government collects tax revenue and receive donor aid in our name.
There’s also the need for those in government to stop being petty and partisan. Unless the multiparty dispensation gives equal opportunities, based on merit, to all Malawians regardless of their political affiliations, what happened to Nation Publications Limited (NPL) during the Mutharika regime and what’s happening to Mulli Brothers Limited now—government trying to destroy local companies perceived to be unsympathetic to its cause destroy the economy further and worses unemployment and poverty levels.
Last but not least, government should de-politicize development, decisively arrest corruption which robs an estimated 30 percent of public revenue a year and reform the public sector to ensure it has the capacity to carry out development projects cost-effectively, within set deadlines and without compromising on quality.
If there’s a presidential candidate out there you think has the wherewithal to fight corruption, invest taxpayer’s money in projects that’ll help the economy to grow and rise above petty partisan interests—even if that candidate belongs to a different party from yours or indeed, different region or ethnic group, that’s the one to cast your precious vote for.
If we continue electing wrong people, researchers have already predicted that even after another 50 years, we’ll still be moving one-step forward, two steps backwards while still enmeshed in poverty.
Honourable Folks, when we queue up to vote in May next year, let the vote be about reclaiming our country and our democracy from the political mediocrity that has seen us moving round the vicious circle of poverty since the advent of multiparty government in 1994.
We took the multiparty path for a purpose. We believed that, unlike the one-party system that crams power in the hands of an intransigent dictator, the multiparty system devolves power to the people, a fundamental principle best articulated by Section 12(iii) of the Constitution which stipulates that:
“The authority to exercise power of State is conditional upon the sustained trust of the people of Malawi and that trust can only be maintained through open, accountable and transparent government and informed democratic choices.”
Of course, we were right on ditching the one-party system. It’s bankrupt and behind the development inertia that caused resource-rich sub-Saharan Africa reek abject poverty that forced the rest of the world squeeze its nose on us in the first part of the post-colonial era.
Within the two decades of the multiparty era, sub-Saharan Africa, including our neighbouring countries—Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia (there’s fear Mozambique might revert to civil strife)—has made noticeable economic strides.
It’s not Asia or Latin America that has claimed the 21 century but Africa which yields highest return on investment! Yet Malawi, the Warm Heart of Africa, has since 1994 been moving one step forward, two steps backwards. Only last year, the JB administration mesmerised the world when it took bold steps to correct the mistakes of the previous Bingu wa Mutharika administration.
Government devalued the kwacha by almost 50 percent and floated it at the same time. It also allowed the Reserve Bank more autonomy to regulate the monetary policy on free-market principles.
These measures brought untold suffering to the citizenry as the cost of living went over the roof overnight. They could have sparked off unrest. Malawians, however, bit the lower lip and accepted it all as the inevitable pain that comes with the pressing of the boil to remove the puss so the wound can begin to heal.
Both government and donors assured us we needed to stay the course for the economy to pick up. On its part, government made a commitment to avoid mistakes of the previous administration which brought the economy to its knees within a year of zero-deficit-budget madness. Hitherto, the economy had been growing at over seven percent a year on average.
On their part, donors, too, made a commitment to keep the aid-tap flowing. In this year’s budget, aid was increased from 30 to 40 percent, allowing government to finance the extremely expensive but politically correct Farm Input Subsidy Programme to the tune of over K60 billion and adjust salaries in the civil service without making tax hikes which are bad in an election year.
What the JB government didn’t do, however, is to seal the gaping hole on its purse through which 30 percent of its revenue was being lost to corruption, pilferage and inefficiency every year. The reason for this is easy to discern; many holding key positions in the Cabinet were “recycled politicians” who had served in the Mutharika and Bakili Muluzi regimes as well.
These masters of the art of defection brought with them years of experience in how to make easy millions or billions from government which pays miserable salaries to all its employees, including ministers and the President.
It’s by ensuring the prevalence of weak internal systems so that only the weak can be held accountable for their actions. How else do you explain the fact that almost 20 years down the lane of democracy there’s still no Access to Information Act and it’s only now that the Asset Declaration Bill has been pushed to Parliament, apparently to impress donors in the wake of wanton looting at the Capital Hill.
Why is it that since 1994, people working in government have been allowed to do business with the same government without putting in place a credible system to ensure that tenders are won on merit and government pays fair prices for adequate quantities of quality supplies? The question is: where in the echelons of government is the angel who does not personally benefit from the chaos?
Flashback: Muluzi is answering for allegedly diverging K1.7 billion of public funds into his own personal account and his successor, Mutharika, is said to have swindled our miserable economy of K61 billion in the eight years he was President. Allegations for the incumbent, if any, shall be known after change of government, right?
But the nonsense has led to aid freeze and government has already gone into borrowing like mad on the domestic market to cover the deficit which is currently at over K40 billion and growing. Soon and very soon, the gains of persevering pangs of massive floatation and devaluation will turn into ashes.
Folks, any aspiring presidential candidate who waffles on how his or her government would fight corruption doesn’t deserve your vote unless you want us to continue moving one step forward, two steps backwards.
Raw Stuff
Cashgate scandal self-inflicted choice?
With Edward Chitsulo
Esteemed patriotic, law-abiding Raw Stuffers, isn’t it an under-statement to argue that the cashgate scandal that has hit our Capital Hill is, ideally, a wake-up call for all of us?
Of course, while the chejumos (big fish) may not have been netted and matters are still under the due processes in the courts for the ‘small fish’ that have been linked to the loot, we can still say something; something we have been making noise about, that as a nation—we get busy with matters or individuals that don’t add value to our lives? No?
Esteemed, patriotic Raw Stuffers, at the expense of always being labelled anti-establishment, confusionists or mercenaries, we have always argued that we Malawians squander our precious time with things and/or leaders who really don’t have much to offer to our desired socio-economic fabric.
The cashgate scandal just vindicates our point. How, for instance, should our hard-earned taxes be siphoned out of the Treasury and various ministries, just like that, when we have full-time Presidents, Cabinet ministers, central bank technocrats and senior government ‘dogs’ whose task, effectively, is to be vicious watchdogs of the same resources?
Esteemed, patriotic Raw Stuffers, does this also not put to test the question of how we choose our political leaders, civil/public servants and what ToRs we set for them?
In simpo language, what do we want our leaders and senior technocrats to be doing: Distributing cattle and goats like agricultural extensions officers, clapping hands and political hero-worshipping when there is substantive work to be done at the Capital?
Of course, not long ago we laughed our lungs out, at the advent of multiparty politics, when one Atcheya denigrated the original Ngwazi when the Kapoloma fellow argued he would not hole himself up at Sanjika (to work) like nkhuku ya Mikolongwe but, instead, pledged he would be all over the Republic attending funerals, presiding over petty functions and demystifying the presidency.
Did we not clap hands for the fellow?
Now, about 20 years down the multiparty lane, what has happened? Massive plunder of our national wealth and pride, making us the laughing stock of the world.
With due respect to the incumbents—past and present—do we have leadership at Capital Hill? How come our national resources and pride as a hard-working, honest people have been laid so bare for the desecration we have witnessed of late when the oversight role of whole Executive, Judiciary and Legislature is in place?
These, esteemed, patriotic and law-abiding Raw Stuffers, are the questions we must ask ourselves, instead of laughing at the small ‘Domasi matemba’ being flushed out of the cashgate tunnel.
Our thesis today, we repeat, is that we are all to blame. We must own up and clean up the mess. We are, in electoral terms, responsible for choosing and clapping hands for mediocrity in terms of leadership and standards.
In fact, this sad chapter reminds some of us of the choice some overzealous folks of the olden times made in the Holy Land when they preferred Barnabaswachifwamba to the righteous Son of Man; or, more recently, when we chose wakuba yemweyo instead of upright fellows at the dawn of our multi-partyism.
In other words, when we switched from the Ngwazi’s loathed dictatorship and unforgivable ruthlessness, we oscillated to the extreme and threw out the baby alongside the dirty bathwater. No?
There are some elements we could have retained for our political and economic governance. These, we submit, should have included a sound education, training, experience, professionalism, Victorian integrity, vision, morality, orderliness or unbridled patriotism—elements that folks such as the Ngwazi of Kasungu stood for.Tikunama kapena?
Esteemed Raw Stuffers, as we head for the 2014 polls, we believe these are some values and attributes we should be seeking in our candidates, osakahala zinyalala zinazi that will subject us to further shame in post-independence Malawi.
Ndi ma
cartoon omwe such as the ‘Lifebuoy-fame’ Jacob Zumas of South Africa should be laughing at us, when we have the requisite resources—hard working, law-abiding citizens, a premium of peace—that can easily make us tread the path of progress?
FEEDBACKBOX
Fellow Raw Stuffer, I totally agree with you that there is chaos in our town and city streets today as vendors ply their trades right in the middle of ‘streets’ (ask Zuma if we have ‘streets’). City authorities are unable to act to protect their jobs. We cannot blame them. Top politicians will do anything to make sure they remain in power. –RS.
My Diary
With George Kasakula
Why is Hara still minister?
Malawi President Joyce Banda should tell Malawians why Catheline Gotani Hara still has her job as Minister of Health when poor people are dying like flies in government hospitals throughout the country due to non-availability of drugs and basic equipment.
Our health system is a complete shambles and in total disrepair. Doctors are left helpless as they cannot operate on anybody due to non-availability of vital supplies that include detergents.
What is happening at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH), the bastion of the crisis, is simply the sort of stuff that you see only in high sci-fi horror movies except in our case, it is real.
Staff there reveal of more than 40 people dying in a week from curable ailments amid shortage of the most basic hospital requirements. The intensive care unit has become a waiting room for death before proceeding to the next life.
The morgue at the referral facility is so overburdened that 40 unclaimed bodies of mostly prisoners and accident victims had to be offloaded to a mass grave to give room to fresh ones dying needlessly and senselessly every day.
Operations of patients, including those suffering from highly debilitating ailments such cancerous tumours, have had to be heavily scaled down.
Dr Carlos Valera, Head of Surgery Department at the facility, had this to say by way of pleading with authorities to provide them with the tools of their trade: “We are losing a lot of lives and we can’t help them, not that we don’t want, but we don’t have the materials. Sometimes we keep the patients in the hope that we will find materials, but they just get worse and they die.”
This is pure mass murder of the poor people by this government and the one who is in firing the line is Gotani Hara and so, I ask again: Why is the President still keeping her when she is clearly and slovenly incompetent to sit at the head of a ministry that manages our health system?
In case, you are wondering why I have to gone this personal, the reason is simple. This is not the first time that a crisis of this magnitude has happened under the watch of Hara.
A couple of months ago it did happen and the bastion was once again KCH. Hara’s idea then to solve it was to dress up with a couple of officials from Central Medical Stores for a press conference where she blamed the DPP and told the nation that drugs were last procured some years ago.
She then donated a few cartons of drugs to KCH from somebody in the US and that was it—a PR stunt.
But real problems involving real people in the real world do not go away using propaganda and spin and so it is not surprising that it has resurfaced and this time it has come back with the fury of avenging gods and poor real people who cannot go to South Africa, like ministers do when they have been afflicted with a disease, are being murdered in a place they placed their faith in.
This social injustice cannot go on. This country has gone to the dogs. We already have enough problems with thieves stealing our tax while our people are dying.
Incompetents like Hara just make it worse than it really is. Joyce Banda must tell Malawians why Hara merits to be called Minister of Health when she is a failure and it is costing lives of poor people.
Good peace…well done.