‘Government should invest in economic growth’
In this interview Chancellor College social and development critic Dr Mufunanji Magalasi shares his thoughts with our news analyst EPHRAIM NYONDO on the just-ended elections and the country’s development journey.
Q. If there could be a major lesson from the May 20 elections regarding the electoral commission’s capacity to hold free, fair and credible elections, what could that be?
A. I think, as a country, we should learn to let the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to run the elections and not allow the courts to intervene too much. I think in the recent elections, the courts won and not necessarily Malawian voters.
Q. There is an argument that courts do not act unless moved. So should we really read much into the courts or rather the characters of those moving the courts?
A. At that time, there should be a sort of state of emergency on the court and let MEC be the Supreme Council to run the elections as is expected. For example, what became of the irregularities and how did MEC resolve them? They never did anything because the courts came in, moved or not!
Q. What is your take on Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its capacity to deliver to Malawians?
A. My hope is in the fact that they know the mistakes they made, and they know the Parliament that they are in and they could have a tough time moving anything. If they show goodwill, the country should be able to move forward. Remember, all the three trailing parties are entering government aggrieved. I will be interested to see how they move the Economic Recovery Plan (ERP) forward: a policy that was created because of DPP’s own mismanagement.
Q. What is your take on Peter Mutharika? How much do we know of his capacity to lead a nation?
A. Being a chief executive officer (CEO) is the apex of management. Will he be able to choose a good team for the different departments: a team that will be able to plan, implement and give us a transparent evaluation of what they are doing? Is he going to make appointments based on party loyalty? Is he going to get petrified to take risks, like his inability to make a decision during the academic freedom impasse? Let us wait and see.
Q. What is your take on donor aid and development in Malawi, especially seen from the perspective of the current struggle for economic supremacy between the West and China?
A. Traditionally, we need donors because that is how Malawi is run. The British gave us budget support for 20 years after independence, and Kamuzu Banda acknowledged this in one of his speeches at the United Nations. But we can take risks by creating a strategy that would see us move towards economic independence in 10 years. The question becomes what do we need to put on the ground as a base for economic growth: What infrastructure, what to produce, for which market? If we talk to donors, should we take the China approach to ask for loans to build infrastructure and not the West that enslaves us to their support because they support social welfare, described as development? Social welfare is not development. It is hand to mouth. Peter Mutharika should move the Chinese approach way and not the West’s. If the West wants to support us, it should be on economic growth. For example, we should reclaim our routes and recreate Air Malawi. They should loan us six big planes and allow us on the routes that will make us money. On mining: we should be talking to the South Africans to loan us finance and expertise for us to mine our minerals to sell on the international market. Qatar should loan us money to build oil rigs on Lake Malawi, plus a refinery so that we can drill the oil and add value to it then sell it. Government should do things like those. We will grow in that way. Kamuzu was supported through Sucoma for sugar, Chikangawa for paper pulpwood by Iran and it worked. I am sure we can take off as a country if the leaders are serious about finance for economic growth
Q. What is your impression of the current Paliament regarding its capacity to provide impartial checks and balances to the Executive?
A. If by Executive we mean the ministers and their head the President, we do have people among them who have skills enough to see through the policies being made and how they are being implemented. Of course, the majority are there just to support the party line and in every country, we have that but at least a five percent of them are capable people, as long as they do not fall into the party-line trap to rescue the nation.
Q. What would you consider as key priority areas that the DPP should concentrate on?
A. I am expecting huge investments in economic growth-related infrastructural development, skills training, energy and minerals, wooing investments (even car assembling etc) and even in the university.
Q. You teach in a university. What are the critical issues affecting our universities that need urgent redress?
A. Move it from being a teaching University to emphasise on developmental research targeting the above areas: capacitate leading scholars, support research centres, and postgraduate research, pushing the university to move towards entrepreneurial research.
Q. Lastly, with a new government in power, what could be your message to government and again to ordinary people in terms of entrenching democracy in Malawi?
A. Message to government: We want to develop economically and be competitive as a country. Create plans for that in the first two years and start implementing by third. To ordinary people? In Malawi ordinary people do not exist in the drama of power. They do not have competitive critical education to withstand manipulation by political elites so I have no message for them because their problem for me is too big.
