This news in Malawi is that the Public Affairs Committee (Pac) conference held at Mount Soche in Blantyre demanded the resignation of the President and his DPP government. Once again in the debate, the real issues were lost when we again focused on individuals and not systems.<\/p>\n
The economy\u2019s failure in Malawi is not a one person responsibility, it is a collective responsibility.<\/p>\n
No one party in Malawi can claim that the country had been transformed under its leadership. Malawi has been a poor country since its independence since 1964. This is an indictment of the collective failures of the parties that have had the opportunity to rule this country. Malawi Congress Party (MCP) had 30 years to transform Malawi, it failed, United Democratic Front (UDF) had 10 years to transform Malawi, it failed, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had the first 7 years and it failed, the People\u2019s Party (PP) had 2 years and it failed, now the DPP is been given another chance. The results so far do not inspire confidence that the country will indeed transform.<\/p>\n
There was nothing new that came out of this meeting. According to Malawi News of February 20, the recommendations are as follows: (i) establishment of a legalised National Economic Planning Commission (ii) President Mutharika to step down if he fails to release maize to all Admarc depots within 30 days (iii) form an interim government of National Unity comprising all political parties, CSOs and religious leaders (iv) call for early elections and many more that are not new at all like (v) change the electoral laws, (vi) government should allocate enough resources to health, agriculture and education, among others.<\/p>\n
These are the most stupid of resolutions to be honest. Let us interrogate the first recommendation, what will this new entity be? Who will appoint it? What will be its role vis a vis the Department of Economic Planning and Development? The commissioners on this body will require new vehicles, fuel allowances and salaries. How will these perks be funded?<\/p>\n
More costs for the poor and benefits to the privileged few!<\/p>\n
Here is a country that is poor and does not have money, the economy is not productive, and donors have cut down their aid.<\/p>\n
The economy is struggling.<\/p>\n
Can one tell me the number of people in this proposed GNU if it indeed will include all political parties?<\/p>\n
According to the Registrar of Political parties there are over 30 registered political parties. Add to this the major religious organisations in Malawi, the CSOs. Each one of these in the GNU will need a new car, a house, a salary and allowances.<\/p>\n
What a waste of resources will this be? So in order to solve Malawi\u2019s economic problems the solution is to increase the government expenditure through a bloated GNU. Let alone the unconstitutionality of such a government. At least political party MPs who are in parliament can claim to be there on the mandate of the people of Malawi.<\/p>\n
Who elects religious leaders and CSOs leaders, what is their constituency?<\/p>\n
Is it not contradictory that in order to enhance democratic accountability that allows Pac and others to speak their mind, the same group then proposes a non democratic entity as a solution to enhance democracy? In a country where a GNU has been constituted, normally that requires a suspension of the country\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n
The experience in Zimbabwe and Kenya where GNUs were constituted has shown that these do not deliver for the following reasons: Immediately they are in government, they begin to strategise against each other to win the next election. The GNU have always been inefficient at reviving economies.<\/p>\n
This is because GNUs are created to solve political problems and not economic problems.<\/p>\n
Secondly, GNUs are always costly and have been used to appease politicians.<\/p>\n
The problem in Malawi is not lack on institutions but the lack of creativity, accountability and transparency. The economic problems in Malawi have not also been due to lack of planning. Since 1964 there have been numerous development plans which on paper have been envied world over. The problem in Malawi is implementation. Despite numerous blueprints since 1965, we have not achieved much as a country. In fact, if we look at our social indicators today, we have actually regressed.<\/p>\n
Instead of proposing solutions that will save the economy Pac proposes solutions that will add the strain on the already fragile economy of Malawi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This news in Malawi is that the Public Affairs Committee (Pac) conference held at Mount Soche in Blantyre demanded the resignation of the President and his DPP government. Once again in the debate, the real issues were lost when we again focused on individuals and not systems. The economy\u2019s failure in Malawi is not a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19359,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19358\/revisions\/19359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}