Analysis By Alexander Kamangira Banda:
September 16 will forever be carved into the history of Malawi politics as monumental. It is the day Malawians decided to reclaim their future by entrusting a tried and tested administration after a five-year hiatus (2020 – 2025).
The landmark decision to bring back Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika with a clear electoral victory was largely a statement of intent to normalize economic and political governance, two aspects that had been heavily watered down by the Lazarus Chakwera administration.
The five years of Chakwera rule had been a tough cycle for Malawians due to high levels of food insecurity, runaway inflation, economic mismanagement, chronic fuel and forex shortages and political intolerance among others.
It is at the backdrop of this punishing experience that the Mutharika administration had no luxury to relax after winning the people’s trust at the ballot.
Immediately they intervened to normalize the cost of living to alleviate existing problems. Prices of food were lowered for every citizen to manage.
For instance, the country’s staple food, maize, whose prices had hovered around K2000 per kilogram were within a week brought down to around K500 per kilogram, to the relief of millions across the country.
And in no time, the Mutharika administration negotiated a deal with the World Bank and Zambia for the importation of 200,000 metric tonnes which was distributed to vulnerable households.
Another yawning contrast between the Chakwera and Mutharika administrations was how the economy was managed. By voting day in 2025, Malawians had been through two if not three years of runaway inflation following a 44% devaluation which was carelessly effected in 2023.
Such an unpopular decision saw prices of goods rising on daily or weekly basis nonstop. Cries of Malawians fell on deaf ears as the Malawi Congress Party technocrats backed their leadership saying they knew what they doing.
The first assignment for the Democratic Progressive Party was, therefore, to bring sanity to a ravaged economy by first dealing away with wayward inflation. The past year has seen Malawi’s inflation decrease from 28.7 percent to 20.8 percent. Consumers now have relief as they can easily plan their expenses in proportion with their purchasing power.
The economic mismanagement of the previous regime heavily impacted on the availability of forex. The reserves were heavily depleted to an extent that government repeatedly failed to purchase key commodities such as fuel, farm inputs, medicinal drugs among others.
For months on end, Malawians were subjected to long queues at the fuel pump right up to September 16 when they were voting for their leaders. Despite adopting such a dire situation, Mutharika only spent few weeks before putting things to order. For over ten months now fuel supply has been normalized and long queues are just history.
Amidst all the social and economic problems during the Chakwera rule, the political environment had also been adulterated with intolerance and political violence championed by ruling party cadres popularly known as ‘Zikwanje Boys’.
Everyone who dared speak evil against the leadership was met with the panga treatment even worse.
Civil society activists such as Sylvester Namiwa, retired civil servants and peaceful protestors all encountered violence when they organized themselves to petition the leadership about their concerns on governance and administrative issues. Spilling blood was a routine hobby for MCP roughnecks, a situation that instilled fear among Malawians.
It was, therefore, incumbent upon the Mutharika administration to end the prevailing impunity forthwith. The new dawn has encourage a sane political environment with no party cadres taking power into own hands to threaten or hurt innocent citizens. This comes with political will not mere coincidence.
As Malawians take stock of the first year of Professor Mutharika’s second coming, indicators are in abundance on why the choice they made on September 16 last year was not only an important but wise decision as well.
