By Karen Iron Msiska:
Something is profoundly unsettling with Malawi disintegrating while leaders claim everything is under control. One needs not come from Mars to notice that the country on an undesirable course.
If you look at the past and connect it to the present, the question will not be about whether the country is deteriorating. It will be about who cares about Malawi?
How did we begin launching projects and maintaining none of the existing ones? How did we begin to condone drum holes on roads? How did we abandon infrastructure that catered for both crops and animals? How did the railway system, air and water transport crumble? How did we start constructing infrastructure that cannot outlive the ones they found?
We seem to have mistaken talk for reality and promises for action.
There was a time when Malawi had all that was needed for every country thinking about tangible development to thrive on and progress.
Factories manufactured all manner of goods—from transport and agriculture equipment to textile, shoes and beverages. Industrial areas rumbled with activities. Multitudes earned a living from the industries that turned raw materials into finished products. There was a complementary transport system comprising the railway, roads and water.
All that disappeared. We became a consuming nation. We began to import even second hand clothes and the brand Robin Bridge lost trace. Suddenly, we started flocking to shops loaded with foreign goods because factories that could have been manufacturing them closed. Goods that include agriculture produce that can be handled here.
We stopped seeing authors brandishing their academic credentials after their names because we got just too many of them. Universities graduate multitudes into an economy that cannot accommodate them.
Enter the main character. The politicians.
Since the return to democracy in 1994, the promise has been the same. We will build industries and transform the economy. We will create employment opportunities. We will deliver new and better roads. We are ending electricity blackouts. We will improve the health sector. We know where to get fertiliser that would sell cheaply here. We will revive the railway system.
When they assume office, you quickly start asking whether there is a certain level of wisdom outside the governing system that suddenly pales away whenever one gets inside.
Instead of delivering on the promises, everyone embraces the blame game.
The previous government did this. The global economy is tearing ours. The climate has changed. We do not have foreign exchange. Yet, while all this is happening, thieving booms and the aging powerful stock riches as if they will live forever. They invest in trucks. They build hotels or mansions that almost resemble national palaces. They get into almost everything profitable.
Excuses will never turn this country around; not even keeping a steady one afloat. Action would.
A steady transport system drives the economy. Roads must not be death zones. Trains should take over from trucks which all but reduce the road lifespan. Manufacturing should be a priority. Leaders must embrace responsibility, not selfishness.
Instead of the blame game and lies, start building.
Maintain existing infrastructure and explore new corridors. Roads such as Lirangwe-Chingale, Tsangano-Neno-Mwanza, Chikwawa-Chapananga-Mwanza, and Rumphi-Nyika-Chitipa should not just be campaign tools. Focus on rural roads as well, including those running East-West, including crucially from Kasitu in Nkhotakota to Jenda in Mzimba.
Those who want to travel from Nkhata Bay to Jenda or Kasungu should not be doing so via Mzuzu which is longer. There should be a shorter route, and Kasitu to Jenda is the most feasible.
Reinstate manufacturing as the backbone of the economy. New electricity avenues, including renewable energy, should be embraced to support the manufacturing sector. Harness the powerful Mwera winds to power windmills. Eventually, production will create wealth.
The railway system should be resuscitated and extended to full potential. Its efficiency will reduce the cost of doing business as well as save the roads from heavy, damaging traffic.
Corruption should be buried. Delayed projects, inflated contracts or stolen resources must be thoroughly investigated and culprits mercilessly punished. Leaders should focus on serving the people and not themselves and their cronies. Crooks and thieves should not be exonerated.
Above all, citizens must reject mediocrity. Politics of patronage, nepotism or cronyism must subject to performance. Leaders should earn their mandate through performance, and not out of tribalism.
When bad leaders are elevated to positions on account of regionalism and tribalism and mess up, everyone—including the regionalists and tribalists that helped them to power—suffer with equal measure. Their underperformance becomes every countryman’s shame.
Malawi is endowed with plenty of resources that should make her a model of development. Countries that lagged behind Malawi are now outsmarting her in all worthwhile metrics. As owners of this country, let us stop settling for less. Let us demand more. This is our country and we must all care.
