Having Malawi “opposition” calling for president Bingu wa Mutharika to resign for the dire political and economic situation in Malawi is just as ridiculous as it can be. It is natural in politics that parties in opposition take opportunity to gain political ground when a ruling party is not performing well. Yet the opposition in Malawi have nothing to offer.
In his call for Mutharika’s resignation, Fahad Assani mentioned everything conceivably wrong with Mutharika’s administration but he did not say a single word of what he would do get the country out of the current mess were he to be in power. With lack of fuel, scanty electricity supply, lack of forex, declining democratic freedoms and deteriorating international relations with some of Malawi’s traditional donors, occurring simultaneously, this is the lowest Malawi has ever been. It is a difficult time for the majority of the population. This, understandably make people angry. Anger makes people irrational and the danger of irrationality is that most people are likely to accept any available alternative. Viable or not, so long as it is not DPP, Mutharika’s party.
Assani seem to be aware of this and he wants to capitalise on it. I have argued before that the current problems facing Malawi are systematic as they are systemic. Power is too centralised in Malawi; the president calls all the shots, institutions around the executive are not empowered to keep checks and balances on the president. This has played a key role into what Malawi has become. The system has given Mutharika total impunity. These are systemic problems that wont go even if Mutharika was to resign today. So before people start jumping on Assani’s bandwagon, we need to analyse what has gone wrong first and correct those mistakes so we may repeat them.
Assani reportedly said:
Malawians are suffering more now because of what President Bingu wa Mutharika is doing in this country as his government is worsening the poverty levels of the people… Maize mills in villages and engine fishing boats are not working because there is no diesel… We put money in the budget for boreholes, but we can’t see them on the ground… There are no drugs in hospitals… tobacco sales are the worst… Bingu’s Government has introduced heavy taxes on the poor.
This is sort of rhetoric that will definitely resonate with a lot of Malawians, including some of those in the ruling party. Yet we must remember that there is no trusted politician – opposition or incumbent. They are all friendly when they want your help (votes), they forget all this once in power. Let us not forget that all the MPs disregarded the massive problems Malawi is currently going through and tabled a bill to double their own salaries. The best way to deal with it is to restructure the system in order to make elected officials more accountable.
Written By : Jimmy Kainja
Source : http://jimmykainja.co.uk/
