BY: Stanicious Williams Chilemba
Malawi as a nation belongs to all of us the rich, the poor, the abled, the disabled, mentally balanced and mentally unbalanced alike. It is a basin which should at all times recognises each individual citizenry, by providing basic and social needs to all individual categories of its citizens.
In my understanding of governance it simply implies on equal treatment of nationals regardless of differences in political colours, society classes or any boundary be it physical or economical. I am a bona fide Malawian citizen as such I have never seen myself being so unequal to my fellow Malawians
When a man is born a leader then he is born to lead but when a man is elected to lead then it means that particular individual is born to serve those people who entrusted him, at times those elected to lead behave like they were born to lead which is a reality in our political circles both on party and state presidency levels. We have clear marks of this: UDF now under the leadership of former party leader’s son, AFFORD now under the leadership of a son to the former party president and so is DPP which clearly draws a picture that political parties too are dynastic in nature where leadership is passed from generation to generation just like chieftaincy. The Katsonga brothers each leads an individual political party and one wonders how brothers of the same father cannot unite to align their individual political ideologies for the better of the nation and belong to one political block I guess its greed at its best or it’s that biblical episode of Esau and Jacob repeating itself when the younger one wanted to be the elder.
Why is it that other political parties from our neighbouring countries do not struggle to change leadership without the mention of the son or nephew? Tanzania’s Chama cha mapinduzi, Mozambican FREELIMO, Zambia’s Patriotic front (PF) and South African’s ANC and these are countries progressing economically under our noises because they are proper checks and balances grass rooted from party level. The issue of Zuma and the Nkandla saga where the state President has been cornered to pay back the money he used to upgrade his private residence, it’s happening now at a time when he is the state president which so unheard of in our own country where a President is surrounded by bootlickers who will silence everyone trying to bring reason to some discontented theories of the Presidency.
Remember the Chasowa comic which is literally buried now when it resurfaced two years ago under the Amayi leadership. Malawi is a country which takes two steps forward and three steps backwards and the elites only care about those two steps forward. How on earth could one think of providing one meal a day at hospital when the President and his cohorts are busy wining and dining at Sanjika with money from state coffers?
I don’t have personal grudges with our State President and I wish him well as he is a captain of the ship now coz any mistake in his captaincy of the ship will have an impact on all of us on board, but I know this man for his love of wining and dining I remember in 2008 there was some orientation program at Malawi Institute of Management (MIM) for cabinet ministers, as usual at the end of such orientation which was presided over by the then speaker of parliament Right honourable Lewis Chimango and the then executive director of that higher learning institute the late Prof. Benson Frank Kandoole there was some get together at the end of the program I tell you his excellency the state president Prof. Peter Muthalika was left behind after all the dignitaries had left, we served him with red wine and probably he was the last cabinet minister to leave after making sure that there was no wine still available
In conclusion I urge the elites to priotize we the citizenry we deserve better, we don’t have any other home apart from here in Malawi, make this country a haven for its own citizens take out the fear in us by securing our neighbourhood, empower us economically as is done in other countries, put proper regulations on commercial banks which keep on leaping on us mercilessly, make our living at least rationed one tenth with yours. Take out this mentality in us the youth of crossing borders for want of jobs where we are faced with all sorts of abuses ranging from little pays, xenophobia among others
