Being effective in our trade is something with less rhetoric conquest but more undeniable action

Muhammad Ali remains one of the greatest boxers to ever grace the boxing ring. He once was quoted as saying: “I hated every minute I was training, but I said: ‘Dont quit, suffer now and live the rest of your life as champion’”. He surely has lived as champion, honoured by the whole boxing fraternity. He has been every effective. The very definition of effectiveness creates a contestation. Some regard it as the measure of output regardless of the quantity of input, while others view it as capacity to produce the intended results. In all sense of the contestation, effectiveness has more to do with the outcome than the defence of it. The only measure we have to the government is not how defensively articulate it has been to its critics, but how it has delivered. 

The previous governments have been obsessively recruiting spin-doctors and media experts to cover up their mediocrity. Once the government starts hunting around for the scribes, the intellectual mass, and completely ignores and suppresses public opinion and advice, know that the writing is on the wall, we will have another mediocre government. Recent developments in Malawi, have prompted me to pick up a pen and write. The first is the killings of our friends with albinism, the second is the introduction of user fees in our public hospitals, and the third is the rumour of the appointment of a second vice president.

To begin with, the killing of our brothers and sisters born with albinism. I have been shocked at how merciless we are as a society to the plight of other people. It is bizarre that poverty can throw us to the level of dogs, who could munch on another dead dog. Two things that come to my mind is that there is no way, such merciless killings would get to this extent if the communities and government had relentlessly resisted and tackled it. The second is that the attitude of pointing fingers in this era, should be replace with an attitude of doing something about it. I will propose that the community, the police and the government do something to tract down these killers. But killing a killer is not solving the crime in this situation. We need to capture the whole syndicate. This is a network of buyers of human parts and the whole supply chain. I am of the opinion that there are some greedy, evil tycoons, financing the whole saga, and these could be within and without our boundaries. It is our responsibility as a community to supply the information to the law enforcers on these things and the law enforcers act. Where the law enforcers, Police, do not seem to be acting, then we have a very serious problem. What we need is not rhetoric what we need is action. We need to be implementing what we devise.

On the second matter of introduction of user fees in our public hospitals, I believe it is a very inhuman idea that will not improve the conditions of our country but severe it, to say the least. The Ministry of Health, should consult the National Statistical Office (NSO) first before launching the policy. The sad reality gripping our fellow Malawians and rural populations, is that they have to be cushioned, most of them can barely afford a packet of sugar. It is believed that the recent findings from the World Bank, was based on the GDP per capita, where Malawi has or had a GDP per capita of 262 US dollars. Any person who would wish to divide that GDP per capita to the number of days in a year will reach at a nerve-wrecking figure of less than a dollar a day. Truth be told on average most Malawians are living on a less than a dollar a day. The conditions in the rural areas are dire, the fact that they have just been recently hit by the natural disaster, makes them more vulnerable and poorer than before. So the government should devise another means of cushioning these rural masses, especially where the tax regime is already hitting them even harder, where the plight of their livelihood solely depends on rain-fed agriculture, where the state of hospital infrastructure is close to oblivion, where the availability of medication is not guaranteed, where the condition of roads are very bad, the distance to and from the hospital, general hospital, or even a health facility is appallingly long, and much more, where most of the sick have to walk these long  distances, and support other areas of their livelihood. Introducing a fee of MK1,500 for every sick accessing medical services at the health centre, hospital and other clinics, is as good as nipping the majority poor Malawians off the bud. I believe heads can bang at the capital hill on alternative measures to meet their medical requirements.

On the recent reports of the suggested appointment of a second vice president, I want to have myself believe that it is a mere rumour. It is an obvious means of draining the resources from an already economically weakened government. The political and economic repercussions of such a decision are unfathomable. We need to carefully place the country on an economic footing that will enable it flourish, instead of working on means of appeasing other political echelons.

In conclusion, the practice of mere talking has not throughout history yielded results beyond those who walked the talk. An example is given of a former Iraq Minister of Information during the 2003 Iraq Invasion, that he talked a lot on Iraq winning the war, when in fact they were losing it. The government must walk the talk in some of these things to improve our societies. Servant leadership is one concept that needs walking the talking. Good governance, improved security, and accessible health services and other social services are its close cousins, for effective government performance. They are hard to implement and painful at times, but the end result is a prosperous, better Malawi!

Ministerial Impunity needs serious redress!

When the Democratic Progressive Party launched their second coming into government, the inaugural speech contained the statement of promise for appointments and performance assessment based on merit. The State President made a vivid and audible proclamation that he shall not favour or support any individual on other grounds apart from merit and professionalism. The speech proceeded to state that the president shall fire any minister who has failed to perform and replace him/her with one who is ready to perform. This sentiment was welcomed by an applause of hope and aspiration. Malawi is a country that has been at the tail in development progress subject to its nepotistic and patrimonial tendencies. We have had sour grapes to reminisce in the name of non-performing appointees cushioned by the higher authority. In this blog, I will try to recall these ministers with impunity, who relished the higher authority and sustained their stay. I will also state on the current status and conclude on whether we are making progress or not.

During the UDF era, we had a couple of non-performing ministers with impunity. Whose mediocrity was outstanding and outrageous, yet had signed a more permanent contract agreement, as it sounds to me. The most notable was the late Honourable Dumbo Lemani, who had the longest stay without a trophy to glory of except personal wealth. Many were taunted and even other physically assaulted but his stay in the ministering positions was something we all could nominate to be one of the seven wonders of surprises in the world. The second of his nature was Honourable Lilian Patel who similarly served in different portfolios as a minister, and was renowned to have lambasted the Danish ambassador that he did not matter and he should not have any statement in Malawian affairs or he can pack up and go, reminiscent of the ‘persona non grata’ incident that occurred in 2009, yet she was only a minister.  The era had lots of handclappers, bootlickers, name-praisers, and very incompetent ministers serving and running the affairs of our country. The Honourable George Mtafu had his show and several other ministers took changes on the ministerial stage. The minister had his craziest moments in the parliament, even when he adamantly jested the then Speaker, Rodwell Munyenyembe, with the statement: ‘You must be stupid’! The aftermaths of which, fate knows best what caused it, but characteristic of national tragedy, yet never drilled some sense in the ‘sane but crazy’ minister.

During the DPP era, the tendency survived, subject to the fact that most ministers that had been in UDF were resurfacing in DPP. The many ministers had practically crossed the floor after unilaterally declaring themselves to belong to the ruling party. The ministerial impunity continued. We had ministers had not performed but still maintained their portfolios or were simply switched from one ministerial position to the next. We saw an exchange of brawls between ministers in parliament and a number of other uncharacteristic events in the era. The public had another episode of ministerial swordplay and caricature. The stage had slightly changed as we noted that then president demonstrated cautioned at some intervals and he was undetermined in his next course of action. But it remained to be seen if ministerial impunity and failure to address the most critical angles of our development were defiantly visible.

During the PP era the same legacy remained unabated. We seem to be making two steps forward and five steps backwards. The plausible direction we need to take is the direction where our ministers are going to be assessed on performance basis and performance ratings will determine their stay as ministers. Of late, we have seen worrisome of some ministerial performance, notably that of the Former Minister of Internal Affairs, Honourable Uladi Mussa, ‘Change Golo’ as he was famously called. The minster gave a joke of our lifetime when he stated through the media houses that he was willing to talk to those who had security concerns through his number, thereby providing the number to the public. The minister remain defiant that the nation was facing security crisis when when countless evidence were on display through the same media. It was to my surprise that the minister had stay longer than we expected. I would do myself a disfavour, if I do not talk about the former Minister of Finance, Honourable Ken Lipenga, who had to become a silent lamb for the sins of ministerial impunity at a later stage. Parliamentary hansards had recorded him to have lied to the nation to sugarcoat the Zero-deficit budget in 2011, a year earlier, before his bet met his fate. The minister paid a heavy cost through a cabinet shuffle that followed immediately after he had become a liability to the PP government which wanted to appease the donor community. There are many ministerial stories that speak the same message of ministerial impunity.

Currently, whilst the nation is building or rebuilding its trust in the current leadership, it is imperative that leadership considers walking the talk, very very seriously. The ministerial performance assessment as has been proposed by the current Public Sector Reform project is a very welcome idea and needs to be promptly implemented. The president must set new standards of accountability, where we will not only see new policies and new conditions being formulated, but new policies and conditions been seen to be implemented. The call for a shaking to our nations is a higher toll that needs no overemphasizing. The current status of public social service requires meritorious professionals, and prudent ministers and principal secretaries. The state at which the nation is in, where we still have to secure a reliable source of financial resources, leaves no room for appeasement. The state where we need to consider vision about ambition, where personal gratification is that last matter to attend to. The nation has been on its knees economically and we need to prick ourselves in the areas, that will make us reduce on fun and stand up to the call! Then we shall be remembered. I speak in consideration of the ministry of education, where teachers have had no pay since last year, and it basically is lamentable that the situation has come to this far. We may not immediately condemn the minister responsible must be seen concerned. The Ministry of Education is the most critical ministry for development, last thing we can do as a nation is to sink down our educational standards. We need to immediately draw resources to this ministry and find out what is delaying teachers’ salaries and address it once and for all! Nobody would work without pay comfortably. We are already hit by the rising costs of living standards, even prices of basic needs are souring high on the market, and if a teacher will fail to buy a packet of sugar, how shall he or she teach about economic development.

MAY GOD CONTINUE TO BLESS OUR MOTHER LAND, MALAWI, THE ONLY COUNTRY WE HAVE!

The Vulnerability of the Nation to Natural Disasters and their Aftermaths

The country has just survived a rainstorm which lasted over four days continuously from Saturday the 10^th January to Monday the 13^th January 2015. The rains and the downpour offered a litmus test to the nation’s disaster preparedness strategy, and stretched the government disaster reduction policies to their limits. What sounded odd with the natural disaster is that failure for the meteorological department to alert the masses living in low laying areas of the pending disaster. However, as it is always too difficult to predict mother nature, especially when she is about to unleash her wrath, we would be naive to cast out blame on our poorly equipped meteorological department to do a job too difficult for them. I would like to make a post-mortem analysis of the Malawi Flood and make suggestions on how we ought to have prepared for the disaster.

Firstly, let me state the gravity of the Malawi Flood. The rains had been hitting the whole country, with the worst hit districts in the Southern Region, such as Nsanje, Chikwawa, Blantyre, Mulanje, Phalombe and Zomba. Information had started flooding the social media on the volume of catastrophes these hard-hitting never-ending downpours were having on our infrastructure. Such information could be relying on or not, as social media is capable of misleading the masses. The rains persistence and tenacity had me believe it was a hurricane, or some kind of a hurricane, which are usually called cyclones in the Southern Hemisphere. Our country has had periods of heavy downpour before and we have been able to stand resilient against such natural disasters, but this time around, mother nature had a different story. I would guess that the rains caught us napping, as the trend had been in some areas and regions. We had houses collapsing, and roads blocked by an upsurge of water from the overflow of rivers. We had incidences of heavy flooding immersing houses completely and had a incidence of gushing waters trailing down a mountain, that cause untold pain and loss in Chimwankhunda. We have had the highest number of casualties from Natural Disasters after the 1992 Phalombe disaster, with over 176 people reported dead. The loss of property is incalculable and the impact of the disaster remains vivid weeks after its occurrence. Many thousand households have been condemned to homelessness unexpectedly, and it is not an easy ordeal. Some have been hospitalised and remain in hospital at the time of the publication of this blog. May the Lord grant us His mercies especially to those sick and in deep loss of property and loved ones. The social media was for a moment awash with blame game, finger-pointing politics, finding out how the government has reacted to the situation and whether the president was committed to his people. I honestly found no reason why I should reprise my reasoning on the leaders of the day, imagining the state of the situation in my neighbourhood. I found the politics of blame-game unrewarding for the situation.

What should strike us all is the reality that the nature will remain in a state of uncertainty it is. Natural disasters of this nature have been reported hitting other countries like Indonesia, (just this very same year), India (last year in December), Pakistan (2011), United States in the state of New Orleans (Hurricane Katrina) and other countries. What I know is that such natural disasters have a tendency of catching you unaware and inflicting a lot of pain on the remnants. The questions that have to prick our minds are: How prepared are we as a nation for such natural disasters? Do we have what it takes to create temporary relief to those affected without over-relying on external humanitarian and relief aid? Are we ready to combat another plague, be it an outbreak or an earthquake and bar casualties to their minimal levels? I believe that these questions are very critical to the disaster preparedness department.

Reviewing these questions, my answer is that we are not. We do not have temporary measures to offer to those inflicted by natural disasters. I presume we need to build up our capacities to the actual levels of resilience. We seem to lack tents, choppers, an alert system for the meteorological department and adequate funding for the natural disasters in place. We need to build technical capacity to observe and estimate the nature of impact and the quantity of relief needed to mitigate the pain of loss for the victims. In Japan, a country that lies along the ‘ring of fire’ makes proper precautionary measures against natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis. They conduct seismological tests regularly to predict likelihoods of earthquakes and they alert the inhabitants of low laying areas way in advance when a tsunami of an earthquake is just about to happen. Their building structures are tried and tested for earthquakes of high magnitudes. This does not suggest that they have managed to succumb their fear of earthquakes and natural disasters, nor does it suggest that they stand on top of all kinds of natural disasters, but rather that they have the technical and resource capacity to mitigate the pain of loss in the event of any natural disaster. On the contrary, the country is still on the sickbed in terms of its social services, such as the electricity and water supply remain erratic as aftermaths of the Malawi Floods. The debris from the flood had severely damaged the turbines and almost placed the national economy at a halt. We need to wake up from this situation in terms of placing in policies that will make the country more resilient to the natural disasters, such as the floods. We need to talk more about building capacities and reinforcing our infrastructures to resist destruction that comes from these disasters. We need a careful introspection as a country to move ahead, just as we realize that we are 50 years older than when we began to rule ourselves. VIVA MALAWI! VIVA THE WARM HEART OF AFRICA!

50 years down the line... the more things change, the more they remain the same...

Edwin John Dingle in his book, Across China on Foot (1911) once stated: “To travel in China is easy. To walk across China, over roads acknowledgedly worse than are met with in any civilized country in the two hemispheres, and having accommodation unequalled for crudeness and insanitation, is not easy.” In his understanding of the matter, he was crude to state the difference between rhetorical declarations and pragmatic experiences. I have noted the most cherished golden lesson missing among our politicians is the distinction between rhetorical promises and realistic declarations that can be achieved. Many a times, I feel like I have just woken up to another déjà vu experience when events unfold interestingly on the political drama stage and the old adage by a renowned editor of Le Figaro, Jean Baptiste Alphonse Farr, to which he was a frequent contributor, once wrote a satirical statement: “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" translated to be “the more things change the more they remain the same”, gives us a sort of ‘merry-go-round carrousel kind of replays’ of political dramas. I would like to take the strain of resurfacing these kind of political replays in our Malawian political drama stage. Surprisingly, we seem to pay no attention at these scenes and do not seem to notice the ‘reverberations’ on our nascent democratic dispensation. This article will highlight a few political ‘replays’ of our current regimes in light to the understanding of the statement by Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr.

First replay is seen in government’s quick acknowledgement of practising austerity measures in one scene, and yet throwing an excessively costly banquets on another side scene. During the People’s Party regime, the president surprised the nation with a historic public announcement that the state was not in a better financial positioning to usher the 48^th Anniversary Celebrations, subject to dry government coffers. Barely two weeks later, the nation got a rude awakening to the news that the former president, Joyce Banda, threw herself 100-day celebrations in different venues on different days costing an estimate MK120 million of taxpayers money, of which the state house press office rebutted that the funds originated from ‘well-wishers’. A similar déjà vu occurred just some few weeks ago surprisingly with the confidence-raising news of a presidential stay-away from the AU summit to serve funds for the nations. However, the budget of the 50^th Anniversary in Malawi pegged exorbitantly at a staggering MK158 million, defeats the purpose raised in the earlier statement. One will only hope that the current scenario does not cascade into an all rampant over-expenditure which does not serve the nation’s pride and prestige as was demonstrated in the earlier scenarios, where ‘purportedly government dry coffers’ were reserved to entertain a personal agenda of celebrating 100 days in office.

Second replay in this fantastic political film is the loudmouthed political party chatterboxes with a distorted enthusiasm to exercise liberty and challenge the political opponent with the most fiercely wrapped brawl. The current scenario in Malawi Congress Party is not novice in the Malawian political cinema, probably what would be novice about it would be the calibre of the practitioner herself. It is neither strange on the political drama stage nor unprecedented in the oldest political party itself. The MCP of old had Mayi Hilda Manjankhosi who lambasted at all political adversaries of the party to the point that they would dread with their tails in between the legs, fearing the unknown. The party that took over the reigns of power in 1994, had their own loudmouthed governor in the name of Paul Kachimbwinda, who wore an iconic mantle of ‘Ninja’ credited to his invincibility in the game of political verbal swordplay. The others who tread the same path include Davis Kapito, Patricia Kaliati, Ken Msonda and the current Jessie Kabwila. It may seemingly sound like I have branded them with the same label and I am committing a categorical fallacy of hasty generalization, but wait a minute. These loudmouthed spokespersons had their distinctive features, but one outstanding feature shared by them all is the emotive outbursts which is uncharacteristic for political development. Emotive outburst is the slander spoken in consideration of one’s standing without a weigh on the balance and without substantive evidence. It is not my desire that I should launch into the nitty-gritty of my argument, but without apology, I have noted the emotive outbursts launched without substantive evidence, or in philosophy, I would put it that I have noted three serious fallacies committed which include argumentum ad hominem (attack on the personality), argumentum ad metum (appeal to fear) and argumentum ad odium (appeal to hatred).

Third replay is the controversial appointments of radio personalities whose previous records are indicative of uncompromising legacy. I would confidently suggest that if you are a radio announcer or a news-reporter and you wish to see your way to the State House Press Office, you need to play your cards in an uncompromisingly fashion and you will immediately obtain that ‘green card’. About 2 years ago, we saw one uncompromising radio personality from Capital FM, Brian Banda, a no-nonsense brainy announcer who braved to interview political heavyweights asking them nerve-racking questions had to be rewarded with a mouth-watering post in the Press Office at the State House. The event seemed to me to be a sequel to the recent appointment of one, Pilirani Phiri, renowned to be an equal of Brian Banda of Zodiak Broadcasting Corporation when it came to asking fearless questions to the powers that be. Pilirani Phiri was given a golden ring for his bravery and a medal for his audacity in the form of another post at the State House Press Office. With the turn of events, I can do nothing but predict or prophesy that the next audacious radio personality shall have his or her castle built in the sky, in the cocoon of a State House Press Office for sure.

Fourth trailer under repeat in this Malawian Political film is the job-creation. Of course, a couple of you guys are thinking: ‘Now what’s the heck with job creation, I thought job creation is good for our economy and decreases youth unemployment rate!’. Sure but this job creation is neither good for the nation’s economy nor does it decrease youth unemployment in the country. This job creation is a way to accrue state resources to the privileged few and a demonstration of lavish waste of public funds. For instance, during the UDF regime we had various posts of Ministers without portfolio, who had barely anything to do but swindle monies in the way they liked without being accountable to anyone. During the DPP era, we were shocked to the news of the inclusion of the First Lady in the Cabinet, who had the right to draw salaries, let alone allowances and other privileges, just like any other minister. During the PP regime we experienced another return of drama in terms of strange Ministerial portfolios such as Minister of Good Governance and currently we are to have a historic post of a lifetime in Southern Africa of a Former Speaker of Parliament, whose basic salary starts from a hefty MK1.5 million. And we seem to be assured of the resources by the parliament. How I only wished I had served in Parliament as a Speaker.

Fifth and last replay is the political dilly-dallying of the wheels of justice on our nation. The political blame game has reached its summit just at the time when all our eyes were set on the wheels of justice to start rolling towards the prosecution and conviction of cashgaters. It is not a fairly tale that the infamous cashgate scandal brought untold pain to the nation, and it is not prophetic to state that the recent change in regime is a resultant effect of the scandal. However, it would be a ‘spit-on-our-faces’ to let the cashgaters slip-away from our sight unscathed. The very truth of the scandal lies on the level of impunity manifested on the perpetrators, the loss of evidence for prosecuting the perpetrators, and much more the failure to recover huge sums of money that went down the drain from the scandal. By the way, what would be idealist is not the ‘axe on the necks’ of the cashgaters, but the ‘sack on their pockets’, meaning the recovery of the lost monies and reinstallation of public and donor confidence that the government will run the affairs of men without loopholes and thievery. This is characteristic to the other long-gone court cases and scandals which only left one victim, the Malawian taxpayers. These scandals include the MK1.4 billion scam on donor money, which to date has almost lost historical trace in our political films, despite reported facts that the treasury saw actual deficit to that tune, the Fieldyork book scandal that left purported offenders laughing their way to the bank, the MK61 billion scam that has been reduced to a musical-political campaign against a particular sect of political players with an aim of shielding one’s scandalous mishaps, and the sad to come to terms, Jetgate scandal, which only makes me believe on one fact echoed by a couple of my peers that to some extent, ‘Malawians are foolish indeed’!

In conclusion, the more things change the more they repeat themselves. Mostly the trigger-happy party followers are caught in the dance without a lesson to draw from the music they dance to, only to join another of a similar dance with the same dancing skill. It is for these facts that it becomes conceivably far to me that I will ever become a politician.