In another daily newspaper someone has asked “shall Malawi ever prosper.”?
If his question were posed before two American masters of motivation whose books I loved to read I am certain how they would answer. One of them, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, author of a book — ‘You can if you think you can’ — would tell us we can make Malawi prosperous if we think we can.
Another Dr. Robert Schuller, author of a book — ‘Tough times do not last’— talks of people who visited Singapore to try and understand why the island city state had prospered against all odds. He concluded the Singaporeans were possibility thinkers. In other words they habitually think that it is possible to achieve what looks like a difficult objective.
To the maximum of these sages I would add a phrase by way of modification. We can make Malawi prosperous not only if think can we but if we act on our thoughts to achieve the possibility.
In scrutinising the national budget we should look for what is incorporated that can make Malawi prosperous. These things must be concomitant with the economic conception of the state. This is to have a state that is developmental.
We have heard many times in Malawi that the private sector is supposed to be the engine of growth. If this means that the state should sell whatever parastatals it has to the private sector and confine itself to providing security and defence services I would damn the thought.
The development of this country is primarily the responsibility of the state. Certain economic activities it can delegate to the private sector, to others it must use its own agencies. The overall overseer of both the private and public sectors of the economy is the state.
What provision has been made for institutions that would be instrumental in developing the agricultural and industrial sector of this country. It has been noted by economists of different learnings that small and medium enterprises are key factors in creating employment in any economy. Is there provision in the budget for strengthening the power of SMEs?
Years ago I used to read that in the United States there was an organisation called Small Business Administration. If it still exist what actually is it doing? Would it not be advisable to study how it operates or how similar bodies in other countries operate. Lip services to SMEs is a sure way of keeping this country’s economy stagnant or grouping at a snail’s speed.
Are we clear in our minds which part of the economy should be public and which should be private? It has become a common practice to say if a parastatal is not functioning profitably sell it to be private sector. If chief executives in the private sector uses certain management techniques which lead to success why shouldn’t the same techniques be adopted when operating government-owned businesses.
As a matter of policy certain economic entities must be identified and eliminated. Are the weaknesses due to the manner of appointing chief executives whereby cronies and party faithful are preferred to competent ones? The mere fact that an entity is owned by the state need not make it inefficient.
In developmental countries of the Far East including Chine they have state enterprises as well as private ones and they have prospered. Perhaps funds should be allocated to visit those countries for observation on how state enterprises are managed. Alternatively, also to invite some executives of state enterprises to come and hold workshops here.
After World II, the Japanese used to invite American business gurus like Deming, Juran and Drucker to go and hold workshops there on business techniques. The techniques they learned from these great minds enabled the Japanese to build all conquering export industries. Lesson — let us keep on learning from others.
Education is a key factor in the development of an economy. Education is the source of knowledge. But it must relevant knowledge. What Malawi needs now is not more universities but upgrading existing ones. During early colonial days, teachers from Malawi went to Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia to introduce the higher standards of primary education they had acquired.
Today on the league of African universities both Zambia and Zimbabwean universities score very high marks compared with Malawian universities.
Instead of building more state universities let us divert funds in transforming natural resources into sustainable income and employment generating industries. More than 50 years ago when I was working in Tanzania I learned that a certain country in the far East had produced too many graduates and was unable to employ them in jobs that corresponded to their qualifications. Some of these graduates were working as messengers. We must avoid such a situation. Disgruntled university graduates are sources of political and social instability. We do not need extra private universities either.
What provision has the budget made for the development of the writing profession? It is scholars and authors that preserve or spread knowledge and civilisation.
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