Loose ends that need tying

There are certain loose ends that I believe need to be tied. I do not know if I have to first define what I mean by loose ends, but perhaps I will be clear by the end of the article.

The Public Sector Reforms have now been launched at a lavish ceremony which included on the menu, poems, drama, song and dance. I will not comment here on the dance and song; and whether these need to change as we move forward with the reforms. The first thing I want to comment on was the advice we got on the day. The powers that be said the reform programme was not just a civil service reform agenda. We were schooled or educated (however, you want to call it) that the public sector was larger and included the civil service, the defence force, the police, immigration and parastatals.

Up to this point, I have no problem. But when the initial contracts were being signed by the State President and the others, I only saw government ministries. Ministers came forward starting with Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe. The rest trekked, signing that passports now will be printed in all the three regions of the country and many others things. There was no parastatal, no MDF and no public university parading. This absence was conspicuous and needed to have been corrected before the launch. Having said that, I believe the reforms need to trickle to the parastatal.

There was an interesting indicator that Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security Paul Chibungu committed to. The Immigration Department will be printing passports also in Mzuzu. On one hand, this is progress, but one needs to know whether it will now become faster to get a Malawi passport. Ladies and gentlemen,   whether the passport is printed at Likoma, Marka, Makanjira or Dzunje is not an issue. I believe Chibingu will not make us all wait longer. When he does, he has satisfied me.

The enhancement of the national registration exercise is a decision in the right direction. We all need to be counted. Yes, many of us were born and no birth certificate was issued. I want at least to have a death certificate made when I die. Cause of death: natural causes or something like old age.

I have an eight-year-old boy. One of these days, he came to me and told me he was sad. “Dad,” said he, “when am I going to die.” I didn’t know what the reason for such a question was. So I asked why he wanted to know. “I want to know what I will be doing when I die.” He asked whether he will just lie still or will be doing anything.