Z Allan Ntata’s Uncommon Sense: FIX THE COUNTRY OR ABOLISH MATYRS DAY!

At about 80 years old, it is not surprising that Goodall Gondwe is either delusional or has completely gone senile. Both conditions are reasonable for him personally, but a total disaster to the country.

Touted as a financial expert of international stature when he broke onto the Malawian political scene when Bingu roped him into his government, he was accredited with the growth trajectory our economy enjoyed during the first term of Bingu’s government.

The narrative that never seems to see the light of day is that he did totally nothing of note. He simply was at the right time at the right place.

Bingu’s first term coincided with a windfall in the form of debt write off by the Bretton Woods institutions. There was just too much money to splash around at that time, some of which, as has since come to light, found its way into offshore accounts.

Like all his fellow geriatric peers, Gondwe is devoid of any form of fresh and original thinking. Gondwe, who claims to be an astute economist, would have you believe that our economy is poised for an upward surge.

This, our geriatric Goodall argues will be possible even against the backdrop of a shrinking production base. The reality that Goodall is failing to take into account, however, is that our tobacco is not selling and we are yet to diversify our agricultural production model.

Our service sector is in a coma with recurrent electricity blackouts which have affected both our macro and micro economic bases. There are job losses everywhere. The small to medium companies which have not closed are scaling down operations, and the donors, particularly the EU, have categorically said that they are not in a hurry to provide bilateral budgetary support into our coffers. Yet Gondwe thinks Malawi can forever rely on his antiquated fame of being an excellent economist of the 70s.

His types have all retired and simply enjoy being great grandparents. Not Goodall. He is the goffer of the Mutharikas.

His failure to correctly interpret the current economic realities is symptomatic of his primitive mind set and the general mission of the DPP. They must take Malawians for a ride for one last shot! Truth be told, Hon. Goodall Gondwe is an economic dinosaur that must go into retirement as soon as possible.

His time is up. Now, Malawi has fresh brains which must be deployed to compete with their contemporaries in the global environment.

As a matter of fact, there are far too many fresh ideas in Malawi that it is mindboggling that we allow geriatrics like Gondwe and Mutharika to hang on to power while they continue toexclude the younger generation from participating and sometimes even force some young men into early retirement from the civil service.

Goodal, Chaponda, Mutharika have passed their sell by date!

As we commemorated martyrs day this week, we did so as the world’s poorest nation! Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, Masauko Chipembere and others that suffered for this nation must be turning in their graves. Kamuzu, with all his excesses, made Malawi a proud nation.

He argued that we were not a poor nation because we have resources that others do not have. For a start we have 16 million people to tap from as a workforce. Then we have our soil and all that is underneath it. We have the water which feeds into the Indian Ocean in millions of litres each day. Fresh water if I might add.

There are countries with far less resources than we have who are doing incredibly well. It is simply a matter of how we think and the leaders we have opted for since Kamuzu.

The Malawi kwacha was at par with the South African rand in 1994. The US dollar was work K4.50. Today you buy the rand at K60 and the US dollar is nearing a thousand. A nation in decline!

And yet nothing physical about Malawi has drastically changed. We just changed people. From patriots to thieves!

It would seem almost tragic for Malawi, that the democracy that the martyrs we remember every 3rd of march, premised on the concept of majority rule, is not the contest of ideas and how we can improve ourselves. Instead, is has become a contest for the looting of resources at the level which quite simply is economic sabotage.

The attendant suppression of alternative viewpoints and the rigging of elections and even killings have become the hallmarks of our political discourse. The infamous Youth League of the MCP of the one party era, who were notorious for “nyakula” have been replaced by panga wielding thugs in full view of an inept police service.

The once detested Young Pioneers have been replaced by thugs in police uniforms who enjoy watching citizens being hacked by political hooligans. When the old MCP’s Youth League and MYP terrorised the people, they were met by a disciplined people’s army in an Operation Bwezani and sent them into oblivion.

Our political discourse has become a self-serving exercise which our founding fathers would have frowned upon.

We seem to have become preoccupied with aggressively competing for opportunities to prove each other wrong rather than consensus building; a people so inward looking, corrosive and aggressive.

Perhaps the fundamental question which we ought to be posing is: For how long will this go on if the aspiration of a prosperous Malawi is to ever be realised? When our forefathers fought for freedom, they envisioned a prosperous Malawi.

When the army took to the streets in 1993 to defend the public’s desire for an open political discourse which had been systematically stifled by the MCP, they were applauded by the public. Today, our security establishment is suffocating under the oppression of a selfish few.

It is possible to redeem ourselves through a willingness to rehabilitate ourselves but it requires persistence.

We can and must draw courage from the political consciousness found in our history.

We need to reconnect with all that gave us freedom in the first place. The sacrifice of our brothers and sisters, uncles, aunts, mothers, fathers and even close friends who fought in the struggle against white oppression, one party dictatorship and the so called democratic dispensation should but be a constant reminder of our common destiny.

Malawian Martyrs, unlike the likes of Goodall Gondwe and Peter Mutharika, were people who did not put their own personal interests above those of the nation, nor did they seek to alienate others based on their region or tribe.

Gallant fighters for our freedom came from the shores of Nkhata-Bay to the Misuku Hills. They came from Zomba, Chiradzulu, Nsanje as they did from Lilongwe, Kasungu and other districts.

A people united in their quest to forge a prosperous future for themselves and their children. Our generation seems to be characterised by that corrosive and divisive principle of “every man for himself”.

This poisonous mindset must be overthrown in our minds and replaced by a more patriotic attitude of a true willingness to suffer for the nation.

If we allow self-seeking the geriatrics like Goodall Gondwe to lead this once promising nation to doom and oblivion, what point is there in commemorating martyrs day?