This is what thieves have done to us

After scary figures of billions of kwacha that have been stolen in the last 20 years were rattled in the press, a case was made that Malawi can actually balance its budget.

The argument there is that even when money of such magnitude as K110 billion—and this is what we know, but there is much we don’t know—was stolen, Malawi did not go under.

And the fact that donors decided to take an obvious decision of cutting aid to our country, thereby protecting their taxpayers from Malawian vultures, puts all this into sharper perspective.

I have reached one conclusion after weeks of national inquisition into the cash-gate and it is that the thieves that have stolen money paid into Treasury by hardworking Malawians have been responsible for keeping Malawi poor, 50 years after independence.

We should not be surprised that our bad roads are the subject of bad jokes even from discredited leaders such as Jacob Zuma. (He of the ‘I took a shower’ fame)

Never get perplexed that in this day and age when the developing world has fully computerised even the classrooms of their toddlers, here kids of poor people are still learning under trees.

We should never wonder that poor people are being murdered in our full view in government hospitals because there are no drugs and basic equipment which doctors need.

Those who doubt this should visit Kamuzu Central Hospital where this genocide has reached appalling levels.

Never scratch your heads as to why police cannot respond to your distress calls, leading to demolition of police units due to citizens’ frustration.

It is happening because the money that the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) collects from us under the most brutal of duress does not pay for any public service but instead ends up into the pockets of a cartel of thieves connected to the top.

Talking of police, do we need to wonder why our police seem to specialise in cruelty on Malawians and engage in blatant corruption instead of keeping law and order?

They lead frustrated lives characterised by pathetic salaries and poor housing. Imagine some of them live in one bedroom shack with grown up children!

It’s total humiliation and one can only imagine. What life is in such households but this is what happens in a country where tax is routinely stolen.

This is my point. The issue that has engulfed Malawi at the moment is a watershed one. It is the single matter that has made us a laughing stock in the world while others are forging ahead.

We are a pathetic lot who depend for our survival on what side of the bed the donors have woken up from.

But this would not have been the case if all the money generated in this country were spent on the good of us all. The question is when will the stinking endless cycle be broken?

Unless Malawians rise up to find an answer, the motherland will always be poor and be under the tight vice grip of Western donors for beggars will never be choosers and the one who pays the piper is one who calls the tune.