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Malawi youths asked to embrace politics

Aspiring politicians in Malawi have been asked to be courageous by embracing the culture of politics.

Chancellor College Association of Young Politicians director Mapopa Mwafulirwa made the call on Monday during a debate on economic challenges the country is facing held in the Great Hall in Zomba .

He argued that the nation needs young people with a mindset of developing Malawi.

Said Mwafulirwa: “The country is experiencing a high rate of unemployment, poverty, inflation as well as food shortage. These problems are not caused by an individual nor do they affect one person since some are natural; for example, lack of natural resources and poor rains while others are due to policy changes such as devaluation.

 “All these are national issues; hence, they have to be approached from a national perspective. In this regard, Chancellor College Association of Young Politicians has a conviction that the nation has to sit down…take decisive measures that will solve these problems.”

In his contribution, Professor Ben Kaluwa said it is surprising that countries which were more backward than Malawi are now prospering.

 “The reason behind this situation is that Malawi is not producing goods for export. Let us take Japan as an example, which during the post-World War period became rich because of textile export.

“Undervaluing currency is not a danger to economy because China has deliberately done that and as a result, she is becoming economically powerful because more people are buying cheap consumable goods which have also led to increase in exports.

Malawi has to identify products that would be exported cheaply, but not maize. In short, our country has to move from an importing nation to an exporting nation,” he said.

Panellists on the debate included Business Consult Africa executive director Henry Kachaje, human rights activist Rafiq Hajat, law lecturer Sunduzwayo Madise and Ministry of Education principal secretary John Bisika.

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