Don't Dare undermine Muluzi's Legacy!

Kwasfrim is my African buddy in these distant lands far from the continent. Usually I am with him in the computer labs doing our assignments. He is the guy who introduced me to Linköpings’ Baptist Church. He is typical of what I like in those that are my close friends - talking and never in want of fun and laughing stuff. The boy also has a liking for African politics and keenly follows the happenings on the political landscape of the land of his fathers, Ghana. Hardly a day passes before we laugh at some political madness that is never short of display on this our continent we both so much love. Whenever Kwasfrim finds me in one of the university computer labs working on my computer the first and usual question he raises after extending his greeting is “Is there any news from Malawi?” He knows we are having elections in May. Due to his inquisitiveness I have often times narrated to him almost the legacy and record of every of Malawi’s politicians. In the same manner I have learnt a lot about Ghana’s politics, politicians, and history from Kwasfrim of course even though it might be biased but who said there is unbiased information?

So with Muluzi making news in Malawi I have always shared with him that the former president is seeking a comeback. But instead of letting the due process of the law take its course Kwasfrim immediately started lambasting me and Malawians as to how we can allow a man to come back into office. I told him that it is not our fault but that we are all waiting either for Malawi Electoral Commission or the courts to interpret the constitution for us. I told him that Muluzi is counting on the linguistic ambiguity of one of the constitution’s sections about term limits which other than just stating that no president shall rule the country for more than two terms the writers complicated things by stating that “no president shall be allowed to run for office after serving a maximum of two consecutive terms.” Now, Kwasfrim never delays in lambasting African politicians. That day when I explained to him this linguistic source of the controversy he immediately took to lambasting the framers of the constitution. “Why do Africans make things sound complicated? Why didn’t they just put it in simple and straightforward words? Look, now they are giving loopholes to Maluzi to come back”.
“Muluzi.” I said to correct him. He didn’t give a damn.
“No one should rule for more than two terms. That is unacceptable.” He lambasted. His passion and conviction were unmistakable.
“Now that man will come again. He will rule you again because of your unnecessary piling of words in the constitution”. He was firm. That for him was the cost we should pay for trying to impress with our language. But I told him the man would fail at one stage or the other.

Since then it became a norm for him whenever he finds me in the computer lab to ask “What is Mazzulini saying today?”
“Oh Muluzi?” I would correct him the African way of not boldly telling him that that was not his name. “No news from Muluzi” I would respond.

This week though when he asked the routine question I had a different answer.
“What is Maluzu saying today?” At least now he was gradually zeroing in on the correct pronunciation of the man’s name.
“Oh Muluzi? He is hiring some 2 British QC lawyers and also another prominent South African lawyer together with dozens of other local Malawi lawyers to make his case in court about his eligibility upon being rejected by the electoral commission to contest”
“Eh!” He went into his usual screams of immense suprise. “That man won’t win. If he is hiring all those powerful and expensive lawyers then it means he is in doubt himself. But still the ambiguity of the constitution gives him some room” He betrayed some hesitance.

Now, recently I have been reading that Muluzi is being called Obama by his supporters. I followed Obama’s campaign. He was named Obama throughout. But whether Muluzi can rightly fit in Obama’s unprecedented garments is one question. The fact however is that the people have seen something greater in Obama that at least is not in Muluzi or at least to which he is aspiring to achieve and has still some way to go. In short for them Obama is greater than Muluzi. In other words Muluzi is not as great as Obama. In other words Obama is an inspiration to Muluzi. In other words Muluzi is not as inspirational on the international scene as is Obama.

But if you believe this may you please prepare to change your outlook. Muluzi is inspiring people out there in the international world. As long as Kwasfrim is Ghanaian and not Malawian and therefore international then there is a story you must hear, a story I will tell.

Kwasfrim has just been among the un-noted whom the Muluzi inspiration is catching out there in the world beyond the Malawi borders. You see, Kwasfrim had an assignment for his coursework to do. Three days ago he told me it was due today Friday 27th March 2009. So today he was so tied up and very quiet on his computer working on his assignment which yesterday he told me was due at 12pm today. There he was. Working. But he had confessed more than thrice that the assignment was quite difficult and that yesterday he had lost much time as he had to do his round of work at the place he works. The pressure was on him. He finally confessed that given the context he had resigned to submitting it after the stipulated time. He said he would risk having some marks deducted as a penalty.

I was also quietly working on my thesis when suddenly I heard him shout at me asking, “What is the date today?”
“27th ” I responded without looking at him.
“Oh!?” He was puzzled.
“What’s up?” I took my eyes off the computer and looked at him.
He was looking at me with a brighter face.
“Look at this! In class the lecturer told us that this assignment is due on Friday. But on the assignment question that he sent us it is written that the assignment is due for submission on Friday, 28th March 2009!” He screamed pointing to the page bearing the said information on his computer monitor, inviting me to read it. Now today Friday the date is 27th March 2009 and not 28th March which will be the Saturday, tomorrow.

I then saw Kwasfrim’s face brighten up and the pressure he bore before vanished. He sprung out of his chair in relief and started pacing around triumphantly as he who has just solved an age-long bothering puzzle. I laughed out loud and was puzzled by what he said next as he walked around in relief.

“Yeah now I will be like Muluzi. I will submit it tomorrow [Saturday] by 12 mid day. If they ask me I will say that the written instruction on the assignment states that it must be submitted on 28th March [which is a Saturday]”. He said counting on the mistake ignorantly committed by their lecturer.
“Muluzi needs three QCs to defend his case. My case won’t need any QCs. I will say it myself.”
However he stated that he was sure that the lecturer had intended to write Friday 27th 2009 which is the only correct day-date match unlike the wrong and incongruent Friday 28th March 2009.
“I will be like Muluzi! I will capitalize on that mistake” He repeated with smiles.
Such is the legacy of Muluzi. You must never undermine his influence henceforth. Shall you?

African Puzzles

The African puzzle is one which is very mutative. Recent mutations seem to be competing with the HIV virus as far as tracking and pinning down are concerned. I have been shocked at how on this continent of ours we cannot prioritise on core issues. I must confess that the happenings on this our dear continent are increasingly escaping the reach of comprehension.
I hold two countries responsible for my increased failure in understanding the happenings on the continent - Malawi and Madagascar.

It is no other date other than 10th March 2009. This is the day the International Monetary Fund was not at its seat in Washington but in Tanzania making scary forecasts about the African economy, that the world is facing its 'greatest recession' and that Africa will feel its full force. Gloomy pictures. Leaders of the world's economies which always determine Africa's economies are up and down trying to make sense of or put sense into this economic crisis. Gordon Brown has just been meeting Obama over the economy. The EU has been in countless meetings over the economy. These are the economies which when they sneeze Africa's catch a serious cold.

While a few African countries and citizens are concerned about how to sail through the economic turmoil's water, at least the people in Malawi and Madagascar have some other things more urgent and that demand priority over the economy.

Today the army chief in Madagascar has issued an ultimatum to the struggling sides to either concentrate on holding the nation together or risk a military take-over. The capital's mayor has had his supporters staging bloody protests demanding an exist of the president. About 100 people have been killed in such protests in the past two months. Some sections of the army have vowed to side with the renegade mayor. They think the future for whatever the ills they can see about the present government can only be cured and good governance secured not by reformation of systems and structures but only through the installation of the mayor as the next president. This is looking not into the future, looking not beyond now, not beyond the capabilities of the individuals in the present, but just what is subjectively convenient now. This is a big problem in Africa. Even if the president might be the problem, his removal at least by following the due process of the law is a first step towards the right solution. Even if everybody wants him gone by yesterday, still the future is not insured by just swapping responsibilities to another 'nice' man. It lies in the reformation of systems and institutions. The people of Madagascar should by now know that the current president is facing his fall in the same fashion he rose up. They should have learnt by now that their style of change of leadership which always costs human lives is not among even the least efficient ways of changing government and making progress. May be they know better. May be they should be left alone.

Now to the Warm Heart of Africa. Elections are around the corner, 20th May2009 to be exact. Instead of focusing on how they will handle the economy in light of the global economic crisis my dear Malawi politicians with the current state of the economy are conducting themselves as though this were the period the world economy registered an unprecedented growth. John Tembo was out on Monday at a rally. His theme of the rally: the numbered days of the tenant of the state house. His message is one of the party forming government this year. That there will be universal fertiliser subsidies. But when thousands of tax-paying citizens of the donor countries are losing jobs, the tax which finances Malawi's (40%) budgetary support is it prudent to continue with making promises as usual when things are not that promising? When the citizens of the donor countries are being given of coming days of perseverance and collective effort in overcoming the economic difficulty is it not surprising to see Tembo promising free fertilizers as his friend Muluzi promises free secondary school education without any tuition fees? So you have leaders in donor countries urging their citizens to tighten their belts even harder in order to sail through, whereas on the receiving end the cunning Malawian politician is promising his citizens and counting on the money the squeezed citizens of donor countries will give that they should expect relaxation of contribution to the state coffers and that this is not a moment that demands extra commitment in our whatever enterprises. Instead as they put it this is the moment of receiving for free.

This is how it goes on my dear continent I love so much. I love it the more irrespective of such paradoxes that she is never short of.

Herbert of Batumeyo Village

365 days ago the world lost one of those that it had hosted for 58 yrs. This is not to say the man himself was lost. He only departed. He departed because this was not his destination. He was only passing through. He was a sojourner. 365days ago he left. Usually pomp and trumpets and a gathering of society's important people characterize the death of those that ere famous, powerful, re-known and sometimes even the wise and great. Human nature being frail and undiscerning as it is, easily removes the barriers that lie between the famous, powerful, rich, and influential on the one hand and the great or wise on the other.

I have had the privilege of at least once escaping from this common trap. I did when 365days ago on a Thursday like today 12th March 2009 one the great men and wise men of my lifetime left this life for the other. There was no pomp and publicity to mark his departure which nobody wanted it took place so soon. His name did not even grace the pages of the cheapest newspaper in Malawi on that 13th of March 2008. Yet I remain convinced that one the greatest men in my lifetime fell that day.

I am writing this piece in a room which has been my abode for the past six months whose address Bjornkarrsgatan 8A23, Linkoping 584 36, Sweden. Exactly at this time last year I was approaching Salima from Zomba to mourn and 48hrs later bury this great man Herbert Manthalu in Batumeyo Village, T/ A Mavwere, Mchinji. For most people getting where I have is one of those things that happen. For me it is the grace of God. Yet this man called Herbert who was my father ensured that the tender lives under his custody as his children manage to get the opportunities of life. What amazes me is the great wisdom this man had. For this reason I have called him a great man. The man was wise. The man saw for his children of which I am the second born among the six. Not only did he see ahead of the moment but he managed to see beyond what some men of letters cannot see for their kids.

The man had no greater education qualification than a Malawi School Leaving Certificate and some other Human resource management certificate or diploma which he got almost twenty years in public service. In simple terms his education was not any attractive. It was not great. This inevitably affected the shape and quality of life we led in the family. We were just kids of a government clerk whose wife was a mere primary school teacher. That is how it was, that simple and real. We spent a lot of time in Kasungu and were staying in by then a medium density location. Most of the neighbours were men of relatively big positions at their respective places of work. Generally, with an exception of a household or two, we were the most unenviable household as regards economic status in the neighbourhood. The man however did not submit to fate. He had failed to get a diploma in his life. His wife is only a primary school teacher with a Junior Certificate qualification. He had every justification to source hope for us from other things, elsewhere except in education. How could he prioritise this realm of education as though he or his wife were an inspiration and models to us? This is where traces of his greatness start to emerge.

Growing up in our home of four boys and two girls in that order of birth was interesting. We might have been poor but were rich in laughter. The home was always noisy. Noise of laughter and happiness of course. But this happiness would suddenly disappear once we had our dinner. The man would command everybody to get his books and be on the dinner table for studies. Were it to end there then it would be a very pale reason not enough to dismiss happiness in the home. It was thicker than this. A sizeable rod would always stand in the corner waiting for use. It could be called to duty once one of us was caught dozing. Mercilessly (but now I know hopefully and lovingly) the whippings would awaken you into reality. Sometimes powerful slaps would follow. Or if there is persistence in dozing, cupfuls of water even during the coldest month of June would do the trick. They would be poured out on your head till your clothes got drenched. No chance to go and change clothes. They should dry while on the body. I do not remember anybody who ever dozed over his book when it reached this far. This was when we were in primary school. Once you got o standard four you always knew moments of happiness were being shortened.

The moment you got to standard 8 where you sit for national Primary school leaving certificate examinations and get selected to secondary school it was much hotter and demanding. No more going out to play even on weekends. There was a timetable for studies not drafted by us but by him. It had breaks of no more than one hour. There was just no freedom but study. To make sure you are not just staying idle in the bedroom, he would administer a test may be fortnightly. Your grades in that test would tell whether you had been studying or not. Not only would the grades tell but a very strong whipping would follow to testify that you were not studying as seen by your failure in the test he gave us. There was as such no choice. You just had to get the good grades if you love living in peace. You just had to study. The results were overwhelming as I now see in retrospect. I can safely say that almost throughout our primary school the average position for each of the six children of us was position three. On very rare occasions was a child of Hebert Manthalu below position five. You knew the reward for such poor positions. I remember that when about three of us were in primary school attending the same school people would envy us. During the pupils' assembly on the closing day there was a public announcement of each class' results and the positions for everyone. Manthalus in their respective class would almost always be on position 1 or 2 or 3. That was it. Then the other folks would admire us and claim that we were an intelligent family. May be they were right. But I do not think that had they ever peeped into the routine of the rigorous study life in our home they would still firmly hold their claims. End of school terms were usually the best times for we could at last get praises from our father. Soon we would sleep and the happiness return unrestrained. But it would not stay long. Few weeks before opening gradually the 'normal' order would return.

Failing an exam or scoring an average grade was always a frightening thing. You always knew that there would be no peace at home. There were no other choices except to study and pass. Not just pass with average grades. But passing with brilliance.

When we got to secondary school the demands were the same. Aim high. Whenever the man met or had some new young graduate bosses whom he had to respect at his work place he would take it wisely. He respected them all. This is usually a problem in a culture where the young must always look up to and respect elders. But he did not let it end there. He would come home and motivate and counsel us to aim at going to university, whose only door was to have nice grades in the national examinations. He always said hard work is the key even for the most poorest of the poor. He emphasized hard work and personal commitment (uyikilako mtima – in his exact vernacular). About 80,000 post-secondary school students then fought for the only 3,000 university places. Your grades had to be good and better. The elder brother did it. Then I did it. My immediate younger brother did it. His younger brother did it too. He had barely finished a semester in his freshman year when the man who had sighted the success for him and forced him to walk in its way slept.

I had thought that now that I had had a bachelor’s degree then I should be contented and much more so should be my dad who had not even a diploma anyway be contented. I was amazed. He called us when my elder brother was about to start work. We needn’t be contented so he said. We should aim at getting a Masters degree. “The world is competitive these days." He would say. Such words? From one who has no tertiary education? I am amazed every time I look back at this. Soon my elder brother went to do a masters degree in the UK. He was always encouraging me to get the opportunity when I find it and that I should continuously be searching. I was searching. There was a time I was shortlisted for an MA in political science in our national university in 2007. I was not successful. My younger brother later told me that the man was very concerned that I had not been picked. He was always raising the issue when they were at home. I had been working though at the time, teaching at Mulunguzi Secondary School. The next year the same opportunity availed itself again to me. I did all I could in preparation. Again I was not successful. This time what made me bitter was not just that I had failed again. But even importantly that I had made the man my dad be even more worried and concerned. I had once told him the previous year that I was in the process of applying for MA studies in Sweden. I had talked about it with him only once. My mother later told me he had been earnestly praying for me to succeed on this one. When I received the news that I had been offered the scholarship I called my mother and broke it to her. After talking with her I hung up the phone. But this was not normal. I would not hang up after talking with her only. I had to talk with her husband, my dad as had been the norm. Not on this day though. Not over this news that I am too sure would have pleased him more than it did please me. I could not talk with him. I wished I had told him the news. But no! How could I? Do you talk with one whose body you have just buried a month before on a 15th of March 2008?

Today I have about two months to finish my MA studies. How I wish that man was there to see it all! But his absence does not make me bitter and bad. It makes me celebrate. It challenges on how to focus and live life. Seriously considering others. Today I am not engaged. Not even do I have a girlfriend. I have no wife and as such I am not a head of a family. Yet this does not prevent me from knowing what it takes to be a great father. I know though a distance away from the institution of marriage of how to be a great father. I have learnt it. I have seen it all in Herbert. Herbert Manthalu of Batumeyo Village, T/A Mavwere Mchinji.

No More Pleas Please!

I am constantly being puzzled by the politics of Africa. It seems to me that contrary to all expectation we are regressing away from maturity and stability by the day. The political analyst struggling to pose in un-matching optimism would respond that what we are going through is part of maturity that our democracy is being tested and we are making progress. How I wish I had such hope and optimism for Africa and Malawi.

Why I am desperate for such optimism which I nevertheless cannot afford to have is the fact that we are failing tests whose skills ought to have mastered. I am so concerned with elections in Africa. One of the urgent things I would seek to understand than how a NASA space shuttle docks at the international space station is why is conducting an election in Africa is so troubling a problem that there is always the threat of or indeed the actual loss of human life as the ultimate cost?

But part of the reason as I have discovered this week is that the African society is still stuck in the unrewarding tendencies of not asserting itself. Leadership in our society is given unnecessary power. In the end we do not entrust the leaders with our power but we transfer and give them power over us. In the end these leaders become our deities. We adore them. We always hear from them. We cannot make them listen to us. We are at their mercy. One would think that in a democracy such tendencies would diminish but alas!

There will be presidential and parliamentary elections in Malawi on the 20th of May this year. The centre of attention, for usually the wrong reasons, is on Bakili Muluzi and Bingu Wa Muthalika. This is not to suggest that these are the only favourites. Actually when you factor in J.Z.U. Tembo of MCP, the question of a favourite becomes more indeterminate. It is the relationship of the two aforementioned men that is part of news everyday. Muluzi a former head of state ruled Malawi for 10 years until 5years ago. To the disappointment of the inner circle of the party he picked Mutharika who was a complete outsider of the party for the presidency after (Muluzi’s) failing to secure amendment of the constitution to cater for at first an open term and then later on a third term limit for the presidency. However upon assuming power the two became enemies and Muthalika finally ditched the party and formed his own. Muluzi became furious and vowed to wrestle back the presidency from Muthalika. His candidature though counts on a linguistic ambiguity of a constitutional phrase that semantically would also accommodate a former president to come back yet morally and as per intention of the section according to the constitution conference that arrived at it there was an unequivocal spirit of putting a sealed limit on the number of years one can rule in one’s lifetime.

The contest between Muluzi and Muthalika has led into a sour relationship between the two that defies the monumental natural hatred cats and mice passionately love to have against each other. They have castigated each other. They have accused and counter-accused each other. They have abused the media to bedevil each other. There has been debate as to whether the country is currently under some political tension or not. Some say there is none. Others claim there is clearly more than it.

As for the clergy this is not a contentious matter. They are very clear: There is tension in the country. Political commentators and the civil society organizations too have repeated the same tune of possible violence. The electoral violence alarm has been sounded and resounded. On 25th and 26th February 2009leadership of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), the Malawi Council of Churches (MCC), the Muslim Association of Malawi (MAM) , the Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM), the Quadria Muslim Association of Malawi (QMAM), and the Hindu Council, came together to deliberate about the pending election. Whatever they deliberated they communicated the cream of their deliberations through a press statement. The theme of their statement was worry about the electoral process. They in the end urged the major leaders to avoid violence.

Now, in Malawi the influence of religious leaders is not like it is in America or Sweden. Actually each of the candidates belongs to some church or religion and the influence of one’s religion is no small matter. This is where I find everything wrong with Malawian leaders (the clergy, the media, Civil Society organizations, and political commentators). The best these people have done (assuming there is tension) in Malawi is issue statements of appeal and press the violence scare. So too have the media, Civil society organizations and political commentators. Sounding the alarm for whom?

It is high time we realized that the least we can do to these politicians is plead with them. It is very clear that almost the major contenders in this race have personal scores against each other. This is no secret to everyone. Malawi however is more than Muluzi, Bingu, and Tembo. Malawi is greater than MCP, than UDF. She is greater than DPP. There are more Malawians than there are DPP members. Surely we have more Malawians than MCP members. Malawians outnumber UDF members. Malawi is greater than any individualistic ambitions embodied in whosoever’s personage. This plain reality seems to have eluded our civil society, the media, political commentators, as well as the clergy leadership. On the fundamental background of Malawi’s greatness over strife-breeding personal egos these contestants should be told by the clergy, the media, civil organizations, and political commentators of what to do and how not to conduct themselves pertaining to the elections and stability of the country. We should not engage in the shallow waters of pleading for what rightfully belongs to us. What I am saying is that there are 13 millions. Less than 500,000 of us are party radicals who have nothing to lose and are eager to unleash violence (don’t question my intuition basis for this figure). Why should the 12 or 10 million of the rest of the others kneel down to a mistaken few and plead for an election that is fair and violence free? Why should we press the panic button? For whom? Surely it is not for these leaders who are deliberately piling up the tension.

If there is tension in our country, we are its creators. We are to bear its blunt. We should pay with some of our women’s dignity and children’s blood. Still it will be us who will be responsible to finding a solution later on. In every respect the whole spectacle is all ours. We should therefore not hesitate to highlight each of the contenders’ specific contribution and what they are obliged to do to in order to leave the country’s stability intact. No pleas please. As long as we agree Malawi is greater than these people we should not mince words to them. How on earth can we afford such passivity? It is in this that we find the current violence scares unnecessary and a default of our responsibility for the moment.

Our Poverty of Patriotism

Change is what Malawi and Malawians need. This is not a luxurious change. It is that change that will ensure transformation of the state of life in Malawi and of course Africa. Now than ever before everybody seems to have realised that it is outside the normal to be in such deep levels of poverty we are currently in; that every year scores of people should succumb to such preventable diseases as cholera. Most people now than ever before believe our lives need to change for the better where going without food or having a meal a day will be due to the dictates of loss of appetite other than scarcity of food.

It is hence unsurprising to see everybody up to politicians rising and moving in the swing of the moment. The international community has equally realised the timing and is also widely involved in assisting Malawi so that the life of the Malawian should be uplifted. It should however not escape our minds that the duty of lifting up Malawi from the ashes of poverty entirely depends on the Malawians. What the donors and their team offer to us is only support. Support is meant to sustain that which is already set and established, that which is already curved, built, or established. This is where the Malawian vision (assuming there is any) appears to me to face some huge challenges. These are challenges if not reflected upon with sincerity and purpose will falter the vision. They will suffocate the dream’s realization. These are problems of Patriotism. There is no patriotism in Malawi.

At no other moment in the history of Malawi have people become increasingly occupied and influenced by their ethnic identities than now. Yet this is the time we should collectively gather all our ethnic diversity into the bag of common purpose and with the propulsion of unity energise ourselves for the marathon of the Malawi dream. Poor as the timing might be, we are a nation that lacks even the very concept of a national dream. May be it is only for Americans and Californians to dream. Nay. Even the poorest of the poor dream. It is a free gift of nature that awakens one from the slumber of self-pity and limitations. A dream places your attention in the direction of potentials which apart from being ignored, taken for granted, and undermined are henceforth understood as rich deposits rich of promise. This is why a nation that aspires to progress must aspire to carve a dream for itself.

Many Malawians have had dreams which they are magnificently realizing in style and in an enviable manner. Today Malawians are all over the world. You can trace their footmarks on the corridors of the world’s universities of repute, in giant global transnational corporations. More than many Malawians now realise that that which was once labelled an impediment, an obstruction wall, that stood between the possible and the much desired life on the opposite side of the ‘impossible’ is now demolished. An army of accomplished Malawian achievers witnesses are there to spear to death any doubts about progressive change. Nevertheless this hope has not been traceable at the national level. As a result of an absence of a national pursuit we have seen the many of us searching for ultimate goals in our respective ethnic identity. Today to many, Malawi is smaller in worth than are ethnic identities.

Sadly enough those that are supposed to lead have chosen to cement these identities and they have honoured them above the nation. Politicians and political analysts all seem to have resigned to the unrewarding fact that we are to esteem our ethnic tags first before we value our national identity. They have told us that these are permanent and natural that they will defy any departure from them. This is why parties are defined by ethnic identity. It is hard to tell today what it is to be Malawian. We all claim this is inevitable. We say it is normal. Whether it is right and proper we shun from addressing. Political commentators have offered little critique to make us all realise that we only start to see the faint and cloudy sight of a prosperous Malawi on the edges of the horizon once we have departed from tribalism. It is only when we are Malawians first.

The days of Kamuzu Banda the first head of state after independence are interpreted variously by many people as regards patriotism. Most are usually quick to point out that the dictatorship then forced us to be loyal to the nation without our consent. As such so it is said we cannot call that patriotism. This is the time when there were the four corner stones of Malawi (though promoted through the only party then) of Unity, Loyalty, Discipline, and Obedience. This is the time when there was a deliberate state initiative of Best Buy Malawian products where it seemed then that almost everything was Malawian. Today in our assessment and dismissal of that time’s dictatorship we fully imitate the proverbial mother who in her dislike of dirt threw away the dirty bathwater together with the baby. We seem to fail to realise that the fact that forced ‘patriotism and unity’ are immoral and unjust, is different from another independent fact that patriotism and unity are very rewarding. The evidence to this distinction is the very past of oppression. Despite the unity then being forced on people, we were still able to realise the fruits of unity and ‘patriotism’. Our task today should not be to discard the project of nationalism but consolidate it in the current political environment.

Today most Malawians do not even imagine making sacrifices for the nation. Nurses, teachers, doctors, engineers, clerks, police officers and their popular traffic officers, and immigration officers just among a host of others are no longer motivated by the nation interest in their execution of duties. No wonder monstrous inefficiency and flying levels of corruption now characterise our public service. What on paper is an obligation for a public officer to fulfil and a right for the common person to benefit from has mutated into a privilege owing to the upsetting nature of entrenched corruption. The ordinary person today only has the right in his hands for that is the much he can get since discretion of who is to benefit from the right is with only those that on top of having the right have money with which to bribe public officials.

Without pin-pointing them as the worst offender the powers that determine who should have a driving licence or not in Malawi seem to have a lot of house ordering to do. I know of people who have the license without ever following the procedures. Some other guy actually had to learn how to drive after he already had his driver’s licence. Another fellow confidently told me that instead of renewing his licence that expired 5 years before he would just ‘find’ another one ‘very easily’. Then there was this accident in the Northern region where this teenager was driving a lorry carrying some church members off to a conference and along the way the vehicle overturned instantly killing some 19 plus people, some of whom were families. The drunken teenager driver was only injured. It was discovered that the guy was as far as his age was concerned not supposed to have been issued with a driver’s licence, at least not the type he had. But there he had it! The most shocking thing here should not be the sudden end of such lives in an accident; rather it should be how we remain indifferent to the system responsible for driving licences that was a catalyst to such tragedies. In the absence of patriotism all we would do is condole the bereaved families and express our shock as we return to our ‘business as usual’, maintaining (if not jealously guarding) the immoral status quo.

I have no space this time to talk of the political leadership most of which falls far below the patriotic standard. They have encouraged the decay in our society. Most of them have no principles which they would defend at whatever cost. They have frustrated the civil service and hence promoted the grounds for corruption. How does one take the requirement placed by a legislature to base their emoluments on the regional standard of other countries when you are the poorest of them all? How then does one understand that the Southern African region standard in terms of emoluments should be restricted to members of parliament only and not teachers, nurses, police officers and every public service worker? Why in the first place should a legislature set its own working conditions and wantonly change them when they feel like doing so? These are the things we should depart from if we are to rise up as a nation. We need to change if we are to be changed. Change does not happen to us though. It is something we consciously and effort-fully make to happen. Its foundation however is patriotism. That which we are desperately poor of now. Change is what Malawi and Malawians need. This is not a luxurious change. It is that change that will ensure transformation of the state of life in Malawi and of course Africa. Now than ever before everybody seems to have realised that it is outside the normal to be in such deep levels of poverty we are currently in; that every year scores of people should succumb to such preventable diseases as cholera. Most people now than ever before believe our lives need to change for the better where going without food or having a meal a day will be due to the dictates of loss of appetite other than scarcity of food.

It is hence unsurprising to see everybody up to politicians rising and moving in the swing of the moment. The international community has equally realised the timing and is also widely involved in assisting Malawi so that the life of the Malawian should be uplifted. It should however not escape our minds that the duty of lifting up Malawi from the ashes of poverty entirely depends on the Malawians. What the donors and their team offer to us is only support. Support is meant to sustain that which is already set and established, that which is already curved, built, or established. This is where the Malawian vision (assuming there is any) appears to me to face some huge challenges. These are challenges if not reflected upon with sincerity and purpose will falter the vision. They will suffocate the dream’s realization. These are problems of Patriotism. There is no patriotism in Malawi.

At no other moment in the history of Malawi have people become increasingly occupied and influenced by their ethnic identities than now. Yet this is the time we should collectively gather all our ethnic diversity into the bag of common purpose and with the propulsion of unity energise ourselves for the marathon of the Malawi dream. Poor as the timing might be, we are a nation that lacks even the very concept of a national dream. May be it is only for Americans and Californians to dream. Nay. Even the poorest of the poor dream. It is a free gift of nature that awakens one from the slumber of self-pity and limitations. A dream places your attention in the direction of potentials which apart from being ignored, taken for granted, and undermined are henceforth understood as rich deposits rich of promise. This is why a nation that aspires to progress must aspire to carve a dream for itself.

Many Malawians have had dreams which they are magnificently realizing in style and in an enviable manner. Today Malawians are all over the world. You can trace their footmarks on the corridors of the world’s universities of repute, in giant global transnational corporations. More than many Malawians now realise that that which was once labelled an impediment, an obstruction wall, that stood between the possible and the much desired life on the opposite side of the ‘impossible’ is now demolished. An army of accomplished Malawian achievers witnesses are there to spear to death any doubts about progressive change. Nevertheless this hope has not been traceable at the national level. As a result of an absence of a national pursuit we have seen the many of us searching for ultimate goals in our respective ethnic identity. Today to many, Malawi is smaller in worth than are ethnic identities.

Sadly enough those that are supposed to lead have chosen to cement these identities and they have honoured them above the nation. Politicians and political analysts all seem to have resigned to the unrewarding fact that we are to esteem our ethnic tags first before we value our national identity. They have told us that these are permanent and natural that they will defy any departure from them. This is why parties are defined by ethnic identity. It is hard to tell today what it is to be Malawian. We all claim this is inevitable. We say it is normal. Whether it is right and proper we shun from addressing. Political commentators have offered little critique to make us all realise that we only start to see the faint and cloudy sight of a prosperous Malawi on the edges of the horizon once we have departed from tribalism. It is only when we are Malawians first.

The days of Kamuzu Banda the first head of state after independence are interpreted variously by many people as regards patriotism. Most are usually quick to point out that the dictatorship then forced us to be loyal to the nation without our consent. As such so it is said we cannot call that patriotism. This is the time when there were the four corner stones of Malawi (though promoted through the only party then) of Unity, Loyalty, Discipline, and Obedience. This is the time when there was a deliberate state initiative of Best Buy Malawian products where it seemed then that almost everything was Malawian. Today in our assessment and dismissal of that time’s dictatorship we fully imitate the proverbial mother who in her dislike of dirt threw away the dirty bathwater together with the baby. We seem to fail to realise that the fact that forced ‘patriotism and unity’ are immoral and unjust, is different from another independent fact that patriotism and unity are very rewarding. The evidence to this distinction is the very past of oppression. Despite the unity then being forced on people, we were still able to realise the fruits of unity and ‘patriotism’. Our task today should not be to discard the project of nationalism but consolidate it in the current political environment.

Today most Malawians do not even imagine making sacrifices for the nation. Nurses, teachers, doctors, engineers, clerks, police officers and their popular traffic officers, and immigration officers just among a host of others are no longer motivated by the nation interest in their execution of duties. No wonder monstrous inefficiency and flying levels of corruption now characterise our public service. What on paper is an obligation for a public officer to fulfil and a right for the common person to benefit from has mutated into a privilege owing to the upsetting nature of entrenched corruption. The ordinary person today only has the right in his hands for that is the much he can get since discretion of who is to benefit from the right is with only those that on top of having the right have money with which to bribe public officials.

Without pin-pointing them as the worst offender the powers that determine who should have a driving licence or not in Malawi seem to have a lot of house ordering to do. I know of people who have the license without ever following the procedures. Some other guy actually had to learn how to drive after he already had his driver’s licence. Another fellow confidently told me that instead of renewing his licence that expired 5 years before he would just ‘find’ another one ‘very easily’. Then there was this accident in the Northern region where this teenager was driving a lorry carrying some church members off to a conference and along the way the vehicle overturned instantly killing some 19 plus people, some of whom were families. The drunken teenager driver was only injured. It was discovered that the guy was as far as his age was concerned not supposed to have been issued with a driver’s licence, at least not the type he had. But there he had it! The most shocking thing here should not be the sudden end of such lives in an accident; rather it should be how we remain indifferent to the system responsible for driving licences that was a catalyst to such tragedies. In the absence of patriotism all we would do is condole the bereaved families and express our shock as we return to our ‘business as usual’, maintaining (if not jealously guarding) the immoral status quo.

I have no space this time to talk of the political leadership most of which falls far below the patriotic standard. They have encouraged the decay in our society. Most of them have no principles which they would defend at whatever cost. They have frustrated the civil service and hence promoted the grounds for corruption. How does one take the requirement placed by a legislature to base their emoluments on the regional standard of other countries when you are the poorest of them all? How then does one understand that the Southern African region standard in terms of emoluments should be restricted to members of parliament only and not teachers, nurses, police officers and every public service worker? Why in the first place should a legislature set its own working conditions and wantonly change them when they feel like doing so? These are the things we should depart from if we are to rise up as a nation. We need to change if we are to be changed. Change does not happen to us though. It is something we consciously and effort-fully make to happen. Its foundation however is patriotism. That which we are desperately poor of now.

Radical Musings

It is not common to expect updated news on Malawi news websites. It is for this reason that I usually feel I deserve a pardon for my over-excitement whenever any of such perennial updates as rare as an eclipse of the sun occur. I was in the same mood today. I was very glad upon discovery that it had pleased the powers that be at The Sunday Times of Malawi to timely update their site. Immediately I dived into the news items to explore what is happening and not happening back home. There is this Muckracking on Sunday column, one of the major reasons I always bought this paper back home no matter how dry my pockets would be. I read him today. Soon my excitement translated into anxiety due to what I read. He wrote nothing new. It is the recurrence of what he wrote that has set me thinking, wondering, and asking. I have been asking recurrent and (at least to me) familiar questions. These are questions about the African and her political behaviour. These are radical yet unanswered questions we must explore with all bravery, sincerity, if we are to make progress.

Briefly, the Muckraker column was about the suspense the Muluzi candidacy has created in Malawi, that it is no tell of ingenuity to see the possibility of Muluzi’s candidature causing legal complications that might even disrupt the electoral calendar and its delicately interwoven events. However this would be the least trouble the candidacy row would bring. It has the huge potential of turning violent. Hence the columnist upon paying homage to the rule of law still asks if leaving the Muluzi candidacy unresolved and waiting till we get closer to the election is besides being legally sound is practically prudent. The fear that is resonating is about the candidacy of Bakili Muluzi should he be rejected or should any side of the coin contest it in court. This is what most thinkers and organizations have feared. It is not a new fear. It is well understood in Africa. It is common in Africa. It was there in Kenya where matters electoral turned neighbour into a foe as macabre murder of the new foe was not only the right thing to do but a duty to fulfil. This was after such acts also had also taken place in Nigeria. Kenya took the same path. The rest of the world watched. Fellow African countries watched. Not that there was anything pleasant and amusing to any rational and sane being (whatever this implies), but still Africa full of the surprises that she has she watched. Did they watch in shock? May be not. Or else the Zimbabweans would have learnt that that was no way of running elections. For sure nature’s instinct and common sense would have had them realize that spearing an opponent and brutal killings followed with house torching do not constitute part of the electoral process. So Zimbabweans practised the same brutality as the Kenyans.

It is nearer to the norm therefore that every time there are elections in an African country except (Botswana, Ghana, and Zambia who are models at least to me), the major fear of people and the international community is whether the election will go peacefully. Whereas in the northern hemisphere and most other countries outside Africa people fear elections because they produce a candidate whose policies they do not like, on my dear continent elections always carry with them the pregnancy of violence. The troubling and begging question is, WHY is it so? Until when shall Africans realise that an election and violence are not one and the same thing? Why of all other relevant things should matters of peace be the major fear among people? In the rest of the world elections go on with worries placed elsewhere except on peace. Peace is the elementary requirement for the establishment of any community and society. Indeed talk of fairness and law without peace is impossible. To be candid and straightforward, peace is the condition for civilization. The haunting question is, ‘Being central to the sustenance of society and civilization why don’t we Africans dread violence? Why is it very easy for us to resort to killings and murders because of elections?’

Upon courting the wrath of most African ‘patriots’ the response they give is that it is inappropriate to compare Africa with the rest of the (‘developed’) world. It is claimed this is because their democracy and political systems have also been through such stages before they attained the ‘maturity’ characteristic of them today. We should give Africa more TIME. Time. Time. Time.

Time? I am not satisfied with this for an answer to the ‘whys’ that bother me. It is like saying that because Thomas Edson discovered the right way of making a light bulb after a thousand or so attempts then any one interested in learning how to make bulbs should also try that much. If this is not re-inventing the wheel then I am yet to know what is. We cannot cry and demand for more time just as the others had for us to know how not to conduct elections and transfer of power. We should by now know that there is something within that we must confront to appreciate the fact that Africa is not synonymous with violence. The indifference of African states to the suffering of fellow Africans in Darfur, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe coupled with African hostility and resentment to any ‘external’ non-African voice to save humanity from the man-made injustices is equally appalling. This is not to vindicate the motives of the ‘external’ voice dismissively labelled as imperialist. However at the end of the day suffering people need salvation. From whom it comes is least important in circumstances where the human life is on the borders of death. No. No. No. We do not have to wait as long as it took those who are now ‘democratic’ to be there. If our task is only to learn, then we should learn from their failures and successes. If at all we are learning we should by now have known the rightful place of violence in elections and politics. Again I am not endorsing western democracies to be a kingdom of saints. They too have an own share of domestic as well as international injustices. The degree however is what matters.

I find the ‘give us time’ excuse unconvincing. It is an excuse to the painful but rewarding exercise of self-examination. The desirable change we need in Africa will not happen to us in the process of time. In time we have to identify areas that are deprived of it and confront them. We have to work for it. And it starts with us. The ‘time excuse’ is an implicit acceptance to the fact that Africa will always trail and follow others. That she cannot be innovative on her own on how best to handle elections and power transfer and its use. If we are always trailing the rest in our ‘learning’ we should not at any moment be deceived that those ahead of us will stagnate and halt in their self-improvement or development. The leaders of the way whom we are learning from are also progressing. They will hence always lead us if we accept this time argument. This is why we know it is not the appropriate answer. Neither is it a true one. We do not have to take eternity to learn that violence is not a way resolve matters or that only one side must win an election. The longer it is taking for us to learn does not imply complexity of the discipline or the lessons themselves. Instead it is a sign that we probably might be bad learners. Recognizing this is a better and promising step of not only learning but absorbing the knowledge. It is called self-assessment.

There is a certain stock of Africans that denigrate the continent. Acts of some if not most African leaders are ammunition to the fallacious assertions by others that Africans cannot properly manage themselves. They are mistakenly led by the acts of such men as Mugabe whom African leadership either dreads or adores. Yet despite one’s previous trophies how one treats human life should be a cause of concern that is weightier than the glories heaped on you yesterday. Whether Mugabe was a hero yesterday does not immunize him from reprimand of how not to treat human life. Whether he is fighting ‘imperialism’ or not does not give him a license and passport to mishandle the sanctity of human life, even if it is a single life. Whether the man has a noble cause or not he should either know or be told that he has out stepped his borders and that we cannot watch or better we cannot watch anymore. African leadership however manages to watch. Is the suffering and undignified deaths of poor but noble citizens something worth watching?

I am still hunting for answers to my question: Why violence on Africa by Africa? I am at times trying to reframe the question but still there has been no answer.

May May Come Please!!

Already we have eaten a good part of January. The Malawian political clock is ticking towards May 19th this year. How, many of us wish time accelerated its speed the closer it got to this date of General Elections.

The election charm and compulsion have spared no one. I’m worried though that still we are not making the progress we are required to make. Still the politics is not about political parties. It is not about what these parties stand for and cherish. In all fairness if ever I met some curious guy outside Malawi and they ask me to describe the major distinctive values of our thirty plus parties (pardon me for underestimating the number) the boldest and sincere answer I will give him will be, “the names, cant you see?”. Beyond that there is little I can both say and comprehend about our parties.

This is not a question I alone cannot answer. Imagine you have been accorded the rare privilege of engaging the MCP secretary general into a sincere conversation somewhere in private. Imagine you innocently ask him what is it that MCP is that UDF and DPP are not? I am dead sure he will go on a pilgrimage in search for answers. Answers in this context do not accommodate something like “Oh you know we will bring development, roads, and hospitals. We will respect the constitution etc.” These could be the anticipated answers of course. But they are not answers of the type that expresses a sincere commitment and an authentic vision. They show failure of independently looking at the challenges ahead and coming up with relevant and authentic solutions. Instead you look at the problems ahead through the spectacles of the performance (or lack of it) the current Other players.

Again were one to engage the DPP or UDF senior officials and ask them why I should vote for them, there would be little differences in their answers may be except in the tone of their voices. “Oh we will promote small scale businesses. We will drill holes. We will committed to ensuring high quality education. Oh, I’m telling you my dear friend, if we are voted into power we will promote agriculture” Cute answers may be. But then if you still want to be in talking terms with them you better avoid asking a logically necessary question about what strategies they have in place to realise those colourful dreams. What is it they have laid down specifically in their post-election strategies to ensure education standards are at least raised to anywhere close to the fair level where they once were? Again in uniformity they will all go blank.

This is our Malawi, my Malawi. We need not despair though. Life is about not submitting to the failures of the present. What keeps us going is the hope that somewhere ahead of us things will turn different. Somewhere somehow it will get right. This is why we want May 19th to come and then go so that we continue with our journey for a better Malawi which is attainable only when we dump some of these political leaders one of which though somehow amusing and jovial is part of the forces that slow our progress. It will be interesting in the next posts to have either a general or thorough look at him to appreciate how we don’t need him as long as we are destined for a different, and even much more, a better Malawi. This is irrespective of whether the majority of uninformed people liking and voting him into power again. Have I already indicted someone?