By Mzati Mkolokosa
The 18-page speech was meant to give hope, so suggested the ending: “so, mark my words,” said President Lazarus Chakwera in his weekly address on Sunday. “We will win.”
But the president’s fatigue had already betrayed the conclusion. The President spoke like a man at wits’ end. His three-word sentence that closed the speech, “we will win,” which used “will” instead of the traditionally correct “shall,” was a tiny drop of hope in an ocean of hopelessness.
The speech opened with passive construction, weak, and was read by a tired man, burdened by the weight of a country on his broken shoulders.
“Today, I want us to step back and see the big picture, both in terms of the challenges we face as a nation and the steps my administration is taking to surmount them,” said Chakwera in opening his speech.
The sentence did not need the adverb “both.” The sentence has further been weakened by the misplacement of the adverb.
In correct grammar “both” comes soon before two items being referred to, for example, soon before “the challenges,” and not before “in terms.”
As if the passive construction and poor grammar in the misplacement and misuse of “both” were not enough, there was an ambiguous pronoun, “them,” at the end of the sentence.
Grammatically, pronouns are used in place of the closest noun. This means the pronoun “them” which is plural, was used instead of plural noun “steps.” Yet the writers of the speech, it is clear, intended “them” to refer to the plural noun “challenges,” which was four nouns away in the sentence. “It is beyond dispute that we are going through one of the toughest periods in our nation’s history,” said Chakwera. This is true, what we are all experiencing.
But, thereafter, he got everything wrong.
“In fact, our nation is like an old and broken ship under both heavy fire and in the middle of a storm that are causing great damage to our vessel and heavy losses of people, fuel, and food supplies. In these severe conditions, I am duty bound as your captain to keep you informed of the perils we face and lead you towards safer waters where our ship can be repaired and steered towards better shores,” said Chakwera.
Examples in a speech may not carry intended meaning, always. The ship portrayed by Chakwera can’t be saved, can’t be steered to a shore, can’t be repaired. In such a situation, a captain who knows his job commands his crew to ensure passengers put on life jackets and jump into the water to attempt to float to safety or into jump boats that sail to safety.
But captain Chakwera does not know what to do. The vice-captain is absent. The crew, the cabinet, is desperate too, busy caring about their lives, not the passengers on the ship.
Chakwera was right. We could be in the worst season of our country’s history. Prices are rising. Every shopping is shocking us with new prices. Teachers in public schools are staying away from work. We have two countries in one country, two ships in one ship: private schools are open while public schools are closed.
But Chakwera created an excuse, a blame game. “At the start of 2020, three months before the pandemic entered our borders, headline inflation was already at 11.1 percent, so you can just imagine how much worse things were when I took office three months into the pandemic,” he said.
He deliberately skipped truth on inflation when took office. He did not say that he found the highest forex reserves since independence.
He did not say that he found a stable currency. He did not say that he found K6.2 billion for Covid-19 management. He did not say that he found money to cushion the poor, in urban and rural communities, in case of a lockdown.
He did not say that he found a plan to pay teachers risk allowance in case situation demanded that schools be open before the final whistle blows on Covid-19.
He did not say that he found a plan to supply all public school teachers with necessary PPEs.
He did not say he found a capable Reserve Bank Governor Dalitso Kabambe and a capable Minister of Finance Joseph Mwanamvekha.
Chakwera appointed a minister and a governor who are failing to speak one economic policy language, leaving competent civil servants at Capital Hill puzzled.
In short, Chakwera kept truth away from us to portray himself as a victim of circumstances.
He found a stable economy after months of violent demonstrations that he supported and stealthily led with his vice Saulos Chilima.
The economy lost over K400 billion to demonstrations but there was a sense of stability, still. “Now, I wish I could tell you that the government I inherited when I was sworn in as president 245 days ago was one with the fiscal muscle to end our economic calamity overnight. I wish I could tell you that the government I inherited was one with all the tools to immediately end the economic pain you are feeling,” said Chakwera more like a child than an adult.
Yet Chakwera did not say that he inherited a government that had reduced fuel prices to cushion Malawians from effects of Covid-19 on the economy.
Public transport operators happily reduced capacity because of reduced fuel prices. The cost of doing business had come down and prices were not adjusted upwards. Transport takes 30% of the cost of doing business, according to people familiar with business expenses in Malawi.
It is clear that Chakwera thought running a government was easy. No wonder his manifesto promises an impossibility of additional 2000 MW of power in three years.
No wonder, 100 days into office, he said being a president appears simple when you are not in the office. That was from his unconscious after realising that perhaps he is not sharp enough for the office.
“I wish I could tell you that the government I inherited was the beginning of life in Canaan. But that is simply not the case,” said Chakwera.
“To be sure, my administration has ended the cruel political bondage we all suffered under the previous administration. But though we can rejoice that our political slavery has ended, we must now wisely navigate the economic wilderness we have entered if we are going to reach the promised land of a resilient and robust economy of shared prosperity.”
Chakwera called the period before he became president “cruel political bondage.” Yet in that period, he was able to lead violent demonstrations and was never arrested, not even questioned by the Police. You do not escape an arrest in a “cruel political bondage.” Never.
He went to court and won a case. An opposition leader does not win a case in a “cruel political bondage.”
Chakwera found a free media that was reporting against government every day. In a “cruel political bondage,” the media does not report freely and carelessly, as was the case in the previous administration. Chakwera has suffocated the big media houses.
All of them have become secretaries of State House and Capital Hill, taking dictation from the president and his ministers. A few journalists who attempted to be independent have been silenced by threats of job losses or have been silenced with money.
Even Nyasa Times. Take the example of the teachers’ stay away from work. The big media houses are reporting as if the stay away is not big news.
The voice of Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) president Willie Malimba is scarce. Instead, the media is reporting the voices of Mchinji teachers, saying the stay away is over; the media is reporting the voice of some TUM officials, saying the stay away is over; the media is reporting the voice of Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU), thanking TUM for ending the stay away; and the media is reporting a government notice, threatening teachers to go back to work or else face unspecified consequences.
In the administration Chakwera calls “cruel political bondage,” the media (except MBC) would have reported the voice of TUM; the civil society would have demanded government to negotiate urgently with teachers; human rights activists would have stood for learners who are loitering about the streets.
In Chakwera’s administration, the media is with the president; civil society is with the president; human rights activists are with the president; teachers are on their own. Victims. Of course with the people of Malawi, and Chakwera does not see the people power standing with teachers.
In the administration that Chakwera calls “cruel political bondage,” there were political commentators from our universities across the country, granting interviews to journalists and bashing government every day.
In Chakwera’s administration political commentators are silent. Not even those from Chancellor College. What has silenced the commentators? Is it that journalists are no longer seeking the views of commentators? Is it money? Is it fear of the MCP?
In the administration that Chakwera calls “cruel political bondage,” WhatsApp groups were a market place of ideas where issues were discussed, issues debated and politics dissected.
In the Chakwera administration, WhatsApp groups, with carefully chosen administrators, are praise singers for the Tonse Alliance. Those who question the Chakwera administration are removed from the groups.
In the administration that Chakwera calls “cruel political bondage,” there was no suspicious tampering with Internet, even when the social media was full of anti-government posts and debates.
In the Chakwera administration, there is suspicious Internet outage every time there is an issue of national importance. It started in June/July last year when Chakwera appointed his cabinet and there was a backlash. There was Internet outage.
There have been outages at strategic moments since Chakwera became president. The last of such outages was on Sunday, when teachers were going into the second week of staying away from work. It was suspicious. Why Sunday? Perhaps because the Chakwera administration did not want teachers to discuss the week ahead in WhatsApp groups.
It was the day that the Ministry of Education released a statement requesting all teachers to go back to work. It was the day that voices speaking on behalf of the Chakwera administration suggested that the stay away was over. It was the day Internet Service Providers gave lame excuses for the outage.
The following day, the big media houses continued to suggest that some teachers were ready to go back to work. The Internet outages seem to be following some script. Suspicious script.
In the administration Chakwera calls “cruel political bondage,” we did not have reports of abuse of over K6 billion Covid-19 funding.
In the Chakwera administration, Covid-19 funds have gone missing, strategically so. Sadly, it is those who got K7000 allowance that were arrested while there is no word on K5 billion that was spent by Capital Hill. In the administration that Chakwera calls “cruel political bondage,” anti-government activists, journalists and commentators were never bought with money.
In the Chakwera administration, huge sums are being spent on silencing alternative voices. In the administration that Chakwera calls “cruel political bondage,” the Leader of Opposition was respected and the opposition was provided space to function as an alternative government.
In the Chakwera administration, the Leader of Opposition is suspiciously fighting the opposition he is supposed to be leading. We lost the track. The country missed the way. Somewhere, and as Chakwera put it, we are in the wilderness.
“The wilderness we entered 245 days ago is a government presiding over an economy of falling revenues,” he said.
He should have said “the wilderness my administration created 245 days ago.” But he was right, anyway.
Chakwera took Malawi from a road, however rough, to a wilderness. In the administration before Chakwera’s, we had neighbours; we belonged to a region.
In the Chakwera administration, we are on our own because the president has messed up our relations with neighbours, most notably South Africa, where his visit is linked to the bail breaking of Shepherd Bushiri. The result is that South Africans are silently imposing economic sanctions on Malawians, forcing thousands to return home.
Hundreds others are being deported from the Rainbow Nation. Yet Chakwera in his talks with President Cyril Ramaphosa, asked that Malawians living illegally in South Africa be accorded legal status. The response is in Malawians being sent back home in unprecedented large numbers.
“The wilderness we entered 245 days ago was a government presiding over an economy of severe job losses and depreciating incomes,” said Chakwera.
He was right. Before he led us into the wilderness, jobs were protected by measures that cushioned industries from the pangs of Covid-19. It was Chakwera’s administration that initiated job losses in two ways: one, by raising the minimum wage to K50,000 and, two, by raising the PAYE free band to K100,000. Economics says that jobs are lost when minimum wage is raised. Simple.
Chakwera led us into a wilderness of lies that he would raise minimum wage, increase tax-free band and create a million jobs. Equals impossible. Before Chakwera took us into the wilderness, government was constructing community technical colleges for youths to acquire skills that would help them employ themselves and, possibly, others.
The technical college project has been abandoned. Instead, youths without any skills, not even entrepreneurial skills, are getting loans to do business. Wilderness thinking indeed. Logic says you give skills first, thereafter capital.
Weeks ago, in his Sunday address, Chakwera said we should not be obsessed with campaign promises. They would not be realised because of Covid-19. Now, in this week’s speech, he was obsessed with campaign promises, saying his administration is geared towards turning campaign poetry into prose, into realities, for all to enjoy.
Chakwera appeared like a confused man. He confused those who follow his speeches as well. How could a man who weeks ago said we should forget campaign promises say he is ready to realise the promises?
The two opposing speeches separated by weeks, revealed a troubled president, one being weighed down by a heavy load. He was like a young man about to tell his girlfriend, “it is over” in a WhatsApp text, yet afraid of saying the words.
After typing and deleting the words “it is over” several times, the young man, with hands shaking, types “I love you. Good night.” And the young woman types, “I love you more. Nite.” And so the love affair continues, going nowhere really, the young man knowing that he is with a lady he does not want.
On TV on Sunday, I saw a troubled president, struggling to say the reality in his mind. Instead, he said, “In summary, we will never give in to despair and we will never give in to negativity.” He did not pause enough to let the message sink into his listeners.
He was rushing to finish the speech, signaling that it came from his mouth, not his heart. “So mark my words: we will win!” But the reality on the ground, Mr. President, shows we shall not win.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are that of the author not necessarily of the Maravi Post or Editor