Politics for money not responsibility
It is, actually, true that Malawi is a very poor country and by extension Malawians, too, are suffering with abject poverty.
Meanwhile, it is equally true to say that leaders of this country—from the Head of State, his Cabinet, members of Parliament and others—have a habit of taking no responsibility, let alone, think of resigning when things go wrong.
In fact, resigning to them is no option because they wrongly think that no one else can take over from them. Imagine that they even seem to think that the suffering of Malawians is not their responsibility. In Malawi, ‘everyone is for himself and God is for us all’.
In some African countries Cabinet ministers show a lot of responsibility to the extent of resigning when there is a big problem in their ministry. For example, recently in Egypt there was a train accident which claimed about 25 lives. In response to the accident, the minister of Transport resigned right away.
Despite him not being the train driver, he thought of taking responsibility, instead of contributing to relax in his comfort zone while people are suffering with pain and sorrow from the accident. If it were in another country the minister of Homeland Security would have resigned for failing to provide security to people with albinism who are suffering from murders and abductions.
At the moment, Malawians are looking forward to the elections. This is against having a number of failed leaders and a failed government included. Unfortunately, Malawians are faced with most of the failed leaders who are seeking re-elections. They pretend that they want to continue where they left in developing their areas.
Honestly speaking, most of them left nowhere. What they do not want to say is that once again they want to make cheap money. One wonders why our leaders cannot borrow a leaf from Rwanda, which has developed so much (even to the surprise of the West) within a short time.
Rwanda is a star performer in all sectors because all the leaders, including President Paul Kagame himself, have shown integrity, hard work and responsibility to the people of Rwanda. President Kagame was once quoted as saying that some Africans remain mentally married to the idea that nothing can get moving without external finance. Without a doubt Malawi leaders have been living with such a mind set.
It is common knowledge that joining a quest for political leadership has more to do with getting cheap money than showing responsibility. It is in the desire for money for it by finding ways and means of getting some more money even if it means converting public resources into personal fortunes. This is how corruption has taken root in Malawi and is perpetuated by those people in leadership positions, most of who still need to be re-elected.
It is not a secret that the leadership is not willing to decisively deal with corruption, just because most leaders benefit from it at the expense of suffering poor Malawians.
Definitely, Malawians will continue to suffer if failed leaders, with no sense of responsibility, are voted back into power. In order to save Malawi and its people, a new government should be put in power.
In the same vein, new MPs and councillors should be in order. These late promises from candidates that Malawi will be like a country in Europe or there will be a mega construction here and there, should not be taken seriously. In leadership, one should learn from the past. Those who have failed in the past five years, there is no way they can do better in the coming five years.
