I have never conversed with President Wa Muthalika let alone been any 10m closer to him at any public gathering. Yet I firmly know that he has not enjoyed his presidency right from the presentation of his inaugural speech in May 2004. The man has never been short of foes. Critics have come out of all intents and even in contrasting shapes. Some critics have been propelled by something bordering on vengeance that it has been tricky for both the president and most Malawians to draw a borderline between well-meant criticism and that at the service of personal hatred. Whatever the case there are some fundamental realities that whether we like their taste, doubt their articulators or like them do not alter the content of their truth.
From the very beginning Bingu’s presidency was characteristic of a change in the doing or happening of things on our political landscape. Change whether positive or not or a compound of both. During the first half of his first year in office almost everybody was wondering from where the critics of the president would get the weaponry for criticising him with as it seemed then that almost the entire population was with him. That is the unique part with African politics. Very few leaders score less than distinctions in their first year. People praised Bingu. Who could not when you were for once assured of no brutal and heartless beatings of opponents by strange people who were ironically both ‘young’ and ‘democrats’? Who could not when the cabinet size was almost half of the one of his predecessors? I don’t know how any decent and dignified Malawian could not be happy when he saw promise of no mudslinging and uncivil language saturating the waves of the national broadcasters. There was anticipation that at last heed would be granted to common sense over the (ab)use of state institutions for party agenda. The promises both in word and action were sweet and many, and hence promising.
Then came the generally successful first implementation of the fertilizer subsidy, the debt cancellation and the resurgence of the fight against corruption though it ended in an unpleasant ‘indirect truce’ brokered by political convenience. Then the president’s ratings in people’s minds started shrinking. Criticisms were made against his over-bloated cabinet to which the president responded with a new meaning of bloated, yes different from his inaugural speech one. Then there were constitutional requirements the executive was supposed to comply with but it chose not to abide by.
Soon the pundits and think tanks and those in the world of academia reached a common agreement irrespective of their formulas in their assessment of Mutharika’s presidency: he has done well on the economic front but miserably on the political front. The jury was out.
My contention in this article is that Muthalika’s performance on the economic front has been fairly good. This is pleasing news for a country like Malawi that for almost the entire days of Muluzi’s reign pitched up tent in the economic doldrums and the situation was worsening and noticeable even without the technical spectacles of an economist. In normal circumstances Bingu’s performance should be an re-ignition of a faltering flame in the tangible darkness of despair that had characterised Malawi for a long time, a period where almost everything not only seemed not to work but everything was depressingly failing. But has Bingu brought the hope we need to build on for a prospering and moving Malawi say for the next twenty years?
For Bingu's success to make meaning to the future of Malawi we have to see his achievements and shortfalls not only in the confines of the present. Whenever people have acted without a sense of forward-looking robust achievements have failed to alter the future. Bingu and for sure any next leader of Malawi if he is to bring promise to Malawi we have to work out on the foundations of our success. Building up a nation cannot be a task of a single man no matter how wise and prudent. Neither can it be a task done only during one’s tenure. It is as it is a task that must interlink with the next successor friend or fiend.
Why are many praising Bingu? He for sure has done something new. Not is wrong to praise Bingu. Not that he has done nothing significant praiseworthy. He sure has. But if you are to take notice the troubling thing that threatens a prospering post-Bingu Malawi is the fact that everything is built on a personality – Bingu Wa Mutharika. Nothing inherently bad with this. It is good for a community and nation to prosper and for one individual to spearhead the prosperity. However in the interest of sustaining prevailing prosperity it is safe to consider it dangerous and uncomfortable for designing, determining, and driving national change to be the sole responsibility of one man no matter how brilliant. This is the point that separates achieving leaders and wise leaders who build enduring establishments that outlive the person and generations.
What Bingu and any Malawian leader must do now as a matter of urgency is to build a culture for the prosperity. I strongly believe that lasting change for good or for bad is never independent of a foundational culture. What is this culture? For sure it has nothing to do with dances, and rites of passages. It instead has everything to do with establishing a revolution mindset in institutions. It is about entrenching a spirit that will inevitably either lead to success and prosperity or will severely undermine and incapacitate the re-known obstacles that stand in the way of development. Bingu should set up lasting establishments of anti-corruption, transparency and accountability regardless of one’s prowess, sensitivity to merit and unquestionable integrity in positions of authority. All this ultimately ends up in empowerment of the ordinary people. They should be confident that there is no way they should mistrust the many government workers for they know once they are exposed to be corrupt, the entire system is ready to rid itself of such contamination. It ought not to be as it is that it is the prerogative of a prudent leader to determine when a corrupt officer should face the law. This is the only ground that is conducive for sustainable development. As things are now, I am afraid I can sound as the pessimist that no one is no longer afraid of committing corruption in Malawi. They know for sure that as long as you belong to the right side of the political chasm or you are independent you are beyond the indicting touch of justice. Woe to you if you antagonise the ruling side!
We are all aware of cabinet ministers who have been strongly accused of engaging in corruption since we condemned poor Mwawa to the cooler for the similar crimes. Nothing has happened to them and they have defied calls for resignation claiming they would do so only when their employer the president (only him since the rest of us have no value) tells her to do so. The president has never commented on such allegations and we might not be able to hear what he said but our common sense serves us without fail and difficulty with the realization that their continued holding of office that implies he has not ‘told’ them it is yet time to resign. This is why I am now not seeing Malawi in the next twenty years moving beyond from the present if this is how we build our nation. The task in short is too huge to be rested even in hands of the most prudent and most intelligent human being walking on the planet earth.
For Malawi to take a leap forward and start walking along the path to prosperity we need a legacy that will be greater than one individual. Beyond one president. Something that goes beyond a personality. Through Okonkwo Chinua Achebe notes that no man no matter how great is greater than his people. There is the greatest thing Bingu can give Malawi which I reckon is greater in value than what he can personally deliver in ten years (assuming in 2014 we don’t demand a third term amendment in the constitution). It is laying down a spirit of making things work on their own even in his absence. Such is invaluable treasure that even the next hard core dictator would not be able to suffocate and trample under feet. It is the spirit of letting no one be above somebody. Letting transparency and merit define our structures and institutions of power and authority.
As things are we should always be waiting for a prudent man to come and build what his predecessor plundered. This is if we only count on the prudence of the leader. We need empowerment of the masses and autonomous operation of the various systems of the state. Then we will imagine a prosperous and excelling Malawi even after none of us who is alive today would no longer be determining the tide of the nation.
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