We don’t need ‘dogs mating’ load of rubbish

It did not need to take the umbrage of the US and UK envoys in Malawi to tell our political parties that most of their ranting during rallies borders on mudslinging and name-calling because, as Malawians, we deserve better during this critical time when we are preparing to renew the contract for the right of who governs us after next year.

I cannot exactly fathom whether it is out of the inebriety of ignorance or as result of taking Malawians as a bunch of hopeless idiots who do not deserve anything better, but the truth of the matter is that what gets to be said at political rallies is most of the time downright banal and the message is bland.

In worst cases, some of it is x-rated pornography not fit for the ears of our children. For God’s sake, what has politics got to do with how dogs mate as the PP’s Uladi Mussa tried to portray the other day in his attempt to dissuade other candidates from challenging President Joyce Banda for the right to rule Malawians after next year? Do we deserve such banality from our politicians?

Of more concern is the fact that this was broadcast in broad daylight on national radio and television. Do politicians such as Mussa care about the impact their utterances have on the mental development of our children when they get to hear it?

But, dear Malawians, let us not allow the politicians to get away with it and relegate to something else the importance of what is before us next year.

What is of importance and what we need to discern is who has a better plan to take Malawi to the next level after clocking 49 years with nothing substantial to show for self- rule.

What we desire is not daylight pornography from our leaders but their plans on the various facets of devel-opment. What plans do they have for agriculture, for example, to stop the poor village farmer from toiling using a hoe day in, day out with meagre returns when his counterpart in the West mechanised the endeavour long time ago and gets better returns and lives better quality of life?

What about fertiliser subsidy? Is it the only panacea in the world that can ensure food security as all politicians and political parties seem to agree so much so that to be different, the President has now concocted a parallel one from her able pocket that will be championed by the endemically corrupt chiefs, thereby breeding more ground for the same? Can’t someone come up with something more creative to help the poor farmer in my village in Kasungu?

We should then ask our parties what plans they have to relieve the salaried taxpayer of the excruciating tax burden that he/she must shoulder on behalf of the unsalaried millions of brothers and sisters. Do they plan to introduce more taxes or have alternative creative ways such as cutting unnecessary waste in government expenditure and use the savings to cut the chronic deficit in the budget?

Then there is infrastructural development. Are there any plans by competing candidates and what are they? What do we need most? Is it better roads or high-roof multi-storey buildings from China which would change the skyline of our cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba? What about job creation for the hundreds of desperate young men and women that leave colleges every year?

These are among the issues on which Malawians should get answers from presidential candidates and their parties. Any other diversion is rubbish and should be treated with all the contempt it thoroughly deserves.

Malawians would appreciate to know the marital status of Peter Mutharika or the age of Atupele Muluzi, but that knowledge does nothing to them as it does not bring food on the table.

What would bring food is the knowledge of what Banda, Mutharika or Atupele Muluzi would do to their taxes if voted into office.

All other ranting is a load of rubbish and should be ignored totally. This did not need the asking of the ambassadors. We should demand it and get it at all cost for the sake of our children.