Random Thoughts on Change

The blame game
I have been doing a lot of Facebooking recently. Pretty expected for a guy who is not on a full time job, right? It's not bad in fact. You get to see the same old things you thought that people stopped doing. People complaining about what others are doing in their inbox. Others complaining about the government and people trying to hide on neutral political ground online while throwing partisan jabs at others and campaigning in the background. Tikuziona ndithu and those are normal trends. Zathu zomwe.

Of late, however, there has risen a generation of facebookers who have given themselves the mission of holding the government accountable. I need to put the word government in perspective here. In Malawi when we talk of government, we may mean two things. The first one is the technical government which resides in Capitol Hill. Always has. The other government is the political one which may be in Mtunthama, Kapoloma, Goliati or Malosa depending on the people running it. These "accountants" in question have put themselves in the position of sorting out the political gaffment by questioning and blaming.

Blaming the gaffment is no new issue. I have done it before in the Joyce Banda era. That was probably because I was irritated with her globetrotting and unceasing local travel; ng'ombe here, mwala wamadziko there. Those complaints, however had no basis. She had not campaigned to me and told me in the face that she will cut spending by not moving around a lot. The "accountants" however, are ripping off pages from the nice DPP 2014 manifesto and pasting them in the open. Now that is some perfection there. "You told us you will fix energy and mining, but why do we still have rampant blackouts?" You just got to love the modern Malawian young person. Good, there.

While others are busy with the manifesto and all, some have still not perfected their blame game and are still calling the President names and everything else. Silly, right? He probably isn't on Facebook and the people who report to him lie to him, anyway. So whether you call him names (a thing the Bible which I subscribe to doesn't approve), it probably won't have an impact. Interestingly, the perfect thing of trying to hold the government of the day accountable by waving their manifesto in the public doesn't work either. At least not in the short term. The reason is the same that they don't see it but in case you think you are going to send the your complaints with the manifesto as your reference to some big shot (in either the government or the gaffment) and get a positive response, you need a high five to your face to wake up from the slumber which is giving you those sweet dreams.

What's the point of all that? Am I taking a swipe at politicians? Obviously not. I have done that for a long time, openily or otherwise but have seen little benefit. The point there is just that whether we complain or not or whether we try contact and dialogue things will hardly change. One person once complained about how things are handed to the youth (on a rare ocassion, anyway) by the Ministry responsible without the youth having a say on what they want. Some big shot at Capitol Hill probably saw that and just said, "so what?"

The reality of the ground is that our complaints and big fat black blaming fingers to the government may help relieve us of the heat of anger but they will do nothing to change anything in the government systems. Are they still worth it? Your answer is as good as mine.

The point I have today is that of telling you what you already know. This country is not in the best of conditions and it needs fixing. Fact, right there. Undeniable fact. What you may not know is that it will not be the government that will fix that so instead of fixing the government system like Allan Ntata is, I guess we have to focus directly on fixing the country.

Ambitious? Yes. Possible? Yes. Easy? NO!

While we all have thought about how "governments" can change the countryfor the better, we also have ideas on what things can have an immediate positive change on the people who are around us, be it at family or community level. Some of us work in parastatals and in the private sector and have innovative ideas that can transform this state of ours. High time we got in pursuit of the things we think are necessary and feasible.

While things may not be the same for those in the public sector, I think the civil service still leaves some room for small improvements. I believe that all these things are possible and can make a difference, however little in the state of things in this country.

We have a reasonable fraction of humans that think mindset change is the way to go for Malawi. It is only fair that those of us who believe in it begin to change the mindset of those around us and beyond. Some do believe that it is entrepreneurship and job creation that will see this country through the abject poverty that we are in. Well, there you go then. Train people in the ways of entrepreneurship and help them secure the loans for the thing. Release them and let them do the necessary.

Malawi is a blessed nation and it has what it takes to move forward. What it needs the most are agents of change who can convert the potential we have into something tangible. Mind you, we do not need people who know about how not to run the government and how to post about it in the social media and online publications. We need people who realize that the government is but one institution through which change can be effected and that while it is the main player, there is something however little that we can do to see a better Malawi.

Will people still complain and blame the government? Obviously. You do not have to join the bandwagon, though. Let's think of ways and act. Start where you are with what you have.

Random Thoughts on Fundraising

Today is a Tuesday.

Honestly I did not want to write today and I only did it because I want to maintain my reputation as "a man of his word".

So, what do we have on a Tuesday evening? More fault finding, unfortunately. Don't worry, though because if is not about politicians. Some of you here have labelled me a budding politician. Ndakukanani.

Ideally, I wanted to write something about making a difference and all that. Productive stuff, but just as I was to start drafting ESCOM did their thing and that (believe it or not) disturbed my line of thought. It brought me to the memories of the not so perfect country we live in and switched me back to the fault finding mode. Or witch hunting mode if you like.

On Saturday I happened to be in Limbe. I was actually waiting for my friend from the Lower States who was in town and wanted a meet up. I was waiting for him at the Post Office (ndipamene anthu timakumanirana mu Limbe) and was lost in scouting for nice cars in the one way Churchill Road when an uninvited guest aroused me from my important activity.

Here was some middle aged man, fairly dressed (was a relief, the dressing). Kind man. He greeted me nicely. Towards the end of the greeting he produced an envelope out of nowhere and began to introduce himself as someone who works for some 'ministry' that does charity works in some areas around what Vincent Wandale would call the Traditionalist Republic. We all know where this went, right? Yeah. Asking for money.

As I said, the guy was moving with some documents. They had some official (District Commissioner's, I think) stamp and they were some sort of authorization for soliciting of funds from random people. There was one catchy thing about this authorization, though. It was written "Chakuti Chakuti" International Ministries. The word international got me wondering whether this was just a scam or whether it was just another grouping abusing the word "international" (mukudziwa ma international churches tili nawo mmagandafuta mmenemu). My mind raced and I got myself matching the word international with the standard of the mode of fundraising that was at play and the scope of the work the money was supposedly going to help in (I think there was a mention of 12 orphanages). Something wasn't right about this, because if I was to help, I wouldn't have contributed anything beyond an aloe vera. Sadly for this man I only had K600 in my pocket; K400 forbmy transport to Lunzu and K200 contingency in case I stepped on somebody's tomatoes (we all need that, plus I got really big feet that could misbehave anytime). I unfortunately didn't help and one unanswered question that keeps coming is that of what I would have done if I had the money.

This was just one of the stories about what we could call second generation solicitors. These are not the "ndikuchokera kuchipatala" type, but they do come in with stamped papers coming for help. Cancer patients looking for money for chemo, teens looking for fees, choirs looking for equipment and people looking for money for orphanages. While I agree that these are good causes, I have every reason to disagree with this mode of fundraising. Why? Firstly it is inefficient and secondly it is suspicious. I wouldn't have to explain the second point but I think I should for the first.

I do not have experience with running an orphanage, but my assumption is that it would be an expensive activity. It would involve providing food and possibly clothing to a reasonable  number of children and personally I do not see how a form in town, where people would mostly contribute change would suffice. I might be wrong. Choir looking for a PA system? After a number of rounds with a 20 member team, maybe. Not an efficient and dignified means, in my view.

On this being suspicious, well, it always is suspicious, isn't it? How sure would you be that the money is indeed going to the supposed cause? Someone could be coming and telling you they need chemotherapy in Tanzania and truly so, but how sure are you that someone hasn't yet covered the bill and the guy is only using the papers to dupe you? Difficult to know, right? Fundraiser for a local church? You may sign your name against the amount you gave, but how sure are you that the money and your signatures will head the right direction without diversion? Suspicious.

Having said that, I do not mean to dismiss everyone who is out there asking for money. My point is that there is a need for a reasonable approach to some of these things and while they may work, it is important to realize that there are better options elsewhere.

Most of us are people who like to make a positive change and that is something to be hailed. Some of us are in desperate need for financial help and that is something that can happen to anyone. It is good to realize that there are individuals and organizations who are willing to help in such areas. I have been helped by some of those. Draft a nice proposal and put it in an envelope. Drop it in person at the company and convince the Public Relations Officers of Marketing Managers or whoever it is. Go to that Overseer at that church and approach that rich and nice individual in your area and pitch the need, otherwise izi zoyenda ndi mapepalazi is just not fit for a Richie Online reader. At least organize a big walk and write the big companies to support. If this works, it is cool. Very efficient and doesn't make you sweat more than you are suppose to. If it doesn't, on the other hand, it spares you a bit of negative emotion.

Ndiye wina ndimuone akupanga zomwezi. Ndimumenya khofi ndithu.

Friday Sobriety

As an avid reader of this extremely esteemed online pulpit, it is an honour  to finally have a chance and paste something. A chance that wouldn't have been there had our antiquated electricity company was functioning according to the needs of this Lunzu exotic herbalist who happens to count this blog as among things on the list of his fledgling personal will. Many have lamented how their plans have been devilishly vexed by the myopic water-reliant statutory organization, and aplenty have stories ranging from abstinence of bathing, prolonged rate of buying new KVs, stale pork in fridges, unreliable village-of-the-art battery gadgets, and the emergence of know it all electricity generation experts roaming around privately owned media houses, of course. It won't be long when we will exhaust every possible tirade of the immoral dictionary, we will get tired then make it a highlight on our DNA.. but to quote one good headless executive from the parastatal, 'we should brace ourselves for more pains in the coming months.'

Listening to some quarters, the problems that this 52 year old dependent nation has been tailing reflect the calibre of citizenry we have groomed over the years. One Western economic assessment has rightly put us rock bottom of the worst in terms of income levels per capita, in short the poorest country in the solar system. Having electricity woes, therefore, shouldn't be our major concern because according to the tax-eating NSO, only 9 souls out of 100 citizens sleep under the lights. Bluntly, only a fraction working class are the ones making noise that blackouts are their new nightmares. The rest of the peasant folk are still on the cutting-edge of empty stomachs, nor do they have adequate sanitation facilities. Well, electricity isn't our daily meal.

The president we have should continue using private jets on his projected month-long sojourn to the UN General Assembly. Let's hope he hasn't taken the whole Ngolongoliwa chiefdom on board. That's the problem... lack of imaginative leadership. We wouldn't be sober on Fridays had our so-called politicians had the zeal to put policies in place for long term economic growth. We are crying that the lake and its major tributary where we generate the entire magetsi has become obsolete. But we should've known by now that that was a possibility bearing in mind the climate change. We plan for per annum instead of planning  for entire life. The population has been increasing yet we still have the same ancient zitsulo for propelling kinetic energy into electricity, the zitsulo that old Kamunkhwala of Kasungu installed on Shire. I guess this calls for a new paragraph....

Well, the original 'Ngwazi' must have lain a foundation for both social and economic prosperity because whenever we would like to bask in the glory of being unfortunate holders of Nyasaland citizenship we always tend to regurgitate those days MCP was the only officially recognized party. There has never been anything worth celebrating in the last 2 decades plus half a dozen years... maybe bar the obvious netball triumphs, a sport played in less than 40 countries a cross  the universe. I hear that you can literally pay 0 tambala just to watch the cream of the country's netball at BYC, pity. It was during Kamuzu's reign that even the smouldering soot we fondly call the Flames tasted football glory. Over the years we have tried every mtsitsi including kuviika mu nsupa the FIFA donated synthetic grass at the mortally dilapidated soccer Mecca, to no avail. The spasmodic wins over minnows like Swaziland are mentioned in political campaigns as gaff'ment achievements. Maybe that's why even the Pope,  St John Paul II, chose to grace his holy feet at the dustier than sahara Njamba  Freedom Park during those days. Perhaps the value of 'cha m’mbale' today will embarrass the Vatican than it would have done in the good bounty 80s, after all we are now blessed with more holier major and minor prophets alike roaming in all unreachable places including buses- they too need cha m’mbale for spiritual survival (MRA should put VAT on all temple offerings tione ngati sikukhala kusala zakudya in retaliation). After all the value of the Kwacha has nosedived wickedly towards matching the previously worthless Zim Dollar. This is partly due to the uncertainties in prices over our major forex earner, the green gold that people smoke. We are blinded by its smoke that we can't realize it's high time we get rid of tobacco and explore other viable cash-crops that the 80% strong agricultural workforce can manage. No more cigarettes, we need industrial hemp to satisfy the lung quenching of Rastas.

We pride ourselves as being a god-fearing nation, alright, God with capital G, but its clear the fake 'Ngwazi' wasn't lying at all. To quote in verbatim (as required by the blogger's choice of lingua-franca), he said 'the devil is sitting on our backs... '

We know how our useful but grammar-stunted media analysed that locution, ergo, I won't play punditry lest I may be taken as the departed Kahuna's staunchest zealot. What is certain, however,  is that the system we have has been contaminated by the devil. Talking of which,  the financial system with a spine of the so-called account no. 1, alias, IFMS, was tampered by the same long-fingered god-fearing fellows. Blessed is this two year partying party with orange keys to hell that we now have a new marcopolo at the indefinite closed Luanar, library burners Mzuni, and that Chinese manufactured University which has promised to introduce 'Bachelor of Science in Herbal Medicine (BSchem).' We can't think of weaning ourselves from donors when we let a few misguided Malawians go without a leash after stealing, what!! billions. Our courts don't bite the rich.

There is a good chance that the one Atcheya will start a forced medical retirement after seeing a previously tight case be wasted by greed, there is no case they say... he will walk again on water....  It will matter very little had we (of course not me) put Ntcheu-based self-styled Abusa Hellen Singh on the Kamuzu Palace throne, nor that pumped up medical professor who nowadays whisper in the same political artery as the so-called DziPPani, adalandira chisikono a dotolo.... we keep repeating same things expecting miracles, as if magetsi will suddenly become available. Let's get rid of this presidential democracy where power is concentrated at Capital Hill. The system we have does make almost all institutions that ensure transparency and accountability mere passengers, toothless to the core. We concentrate on trivial things than on real issues...

Issues like hearing our good president being celebrated by one questionably reputable international organization with an award for outstanding leadership and development consciousness. We wonder what kind of leadership has he offered that can call for champagne, perhaps for admitting that we experiencing hunger. It's  trivial when you consider I have heard about his latest Manhattan triumph while the candle is in its twilight. Would have wanted rather to be reading a new post from the budding MD had we had visionary leaders, had the populace been overly critical of what mediocre policies they bring. Lucifer enjoys our backs....


NOTE
This article was written by one of the readers of Richie Online who contributed on condition of anonymity. Sounds like a learned person, though.

Share your thoughts on the Richie Online Facebook Page.

Random Thoughts on Development

It's a hot Saturday on the serving.

This week, the whole is of Malawi’s poverty gold medal resurfaced. Our GDP turned out to be less than that of all the war-torn and disaster (and pretty much any other country that is disadvantaged, really) on the globe. We are leading the line when it comes to the inverse of prosperity and the realization of this fact has ignited a whole lot of reactions, just like any other time.

The biggest and scariest blaming and demeaning finger has of course pointed to those at the helm of the government. The president and his henchmen have had an unusually high dose of insults in the recent days following the release of this World Bank report of whatever on Earth they call it. That is usual and not interesting, but the reason I am talking about this is one reaction which I saw from a couple of esteemed cyber-friends of mine.

As I said, the response of these friends of mine was pretty interesting. It was so interesting to the extent of pointing the blaming finger within the country they decided to fault the World Bank of not being objective in deciding who to honor with the global poverty crown, an argument I found to be a bit faulty for two reasons. The first reason was the mere fact that the World Bank did not say that we are poor. We said that ourselves when we saw our name being first from the bottom when the GDPs were listed. We may have been right for some reason, anyway, but we shouldn’t put it on the World Bank, I think. Weak argument. Even I agree with you.

The other reason for which I do not agree with the way people responded to this thing was that people were saying the World Bank did not include the likes of the peace we have (Peace Index) and the natural resources that we have before labeling us poor. Well, if you think of it, my other argument still suffices and on a more solid note, those things cannot be used as an objective measure of a country’s prosperity. I am not trying to say that I would rather stay in Alleppo Syria in the midst of the bombing, so long as their GDP is higher than ours. My main point is just that the peace and natural resources we have are what we can call the potential for prosperity and not prosperity, per se. So long as they are not used to their fullest, let us let them be and exclude them when we are counting our blessings. What is a resource if it cannot add value life, anyway? We might as well consider our continuous power outages when calculating how rich or poor we are.

While I do not like talking ill about my country for the fear of being called a pessimist (and of course because I see some potential in it), I think it is good to call a spade a spade when it comes to some issues. I would just like to bring some issues to light to those who are questioning the objectivity of those of us who maintain that the country is poor, and this will be based purely on the living conditions of the wandu of this country, or at least a majority of them.

There is no single day that passes without seeing someone posting about how ESCOM has frustrated their plans by taking out power  when they had things to do with is or rather how someone is scared just because the guys have not adhered to their  blackout schedule and have left the power on for too long. Some areas have stayed for years without running water and they will probably be scared to death when they see water run in their taps. Our road network in townships is very poor and the feeder roads in our rural areas hardly get maintained. In other words, our country runs on systems that were designed in 1980 when the population was less than a third of what it is in the present day. People have sat in offices and strategic meetings at Sunbird Nkopola in the name of improving the systems the country is run on only to come out with different wordings for the very same excuses they feed us with.
The agri-based economy called Malawi is struggling to produce enough to feed its own and ending up sending an SOS to donors for donation in the face of hunger. The solution is ending up being importing tones of food from neighboring countries when we could find a lasting solution through other means that are ironically written in some policy book that is gathering dust at Capitol Hill. I will leave it there for the reader to add their own complaints, but in summary, the country is just messed up.

Someone will probably text me and tell me that I do not need to focus on what the country is supposed to give to me, but rather what I can give to the country. If you were planning on doing that, please don’t. Ungandiyankhulitse molakwika. Everybody who sees things with the objective eye knows that the situation in the country is counter-productive and this thing of giving to the country is pretty impossible to a greater extent.

Giving back to the nation depends on what you have. If others are preaching the gospel of entrepreneurship and think that they can give to the nation through that, well, so be it. I was trained for 6 years at the College of Medicine to be a doctor and to me the primary definition of giving back means going into some hospital named after a British Queen and sticking needles into sick people to make them better. The very government of the country you are saying I should give back to is denying me the opportunity to do so just as it has done with teachers, nurses and many other professionals in the country. Counter-productive!

What saddens me is that we have nicely laid out policy documents sitting in the offices of those who are supposed to be fixing this country. Munaiona Vision 2020 inu? We have heard people admitting that there is corruption in the country. There is probably a whole act in our legal circus on how to curb corruption, but someone is failing to adhere to that for reasons we all know. There are good policies governing fair trade, agriculture, tourism, energy and pretty much every other thing we are struggling with today. That convinces me that people who need to know these things know them and they just do not want to use them. That is how tricky the situation is.

You have probably heard some people saying that Malawi will never develop. The only point at which I agree with them is the point at which we say Malawi is an underdeveloped (and not developing, you people) nation, but in case you were wondering why they say that, the people who are custodians of development in this country do not care about both the present and future of this country. My opinion? Malawi may yet have a chance, but do not expect it to get a face-lifting from within the gafment. It will take a reasonable number working from without to improve the livelihoods of the people… Otherwise some of things are deliberate.

Whether we will join those who are stagnating development is for us to decide, but I think it is time we became a part of the solution as opposed to being part of the problem, which most of us are, anyway.

I am drafting plans for a Solar Field in Lunzu. Zinachitika dzulo zija sizoona.

25th Birthday Things

Two days ago I happened to be at the College of Medicine in my fancy dressing in the name of making a presentation at the Colllege’s Silver Jubileee. Yes. My college celebrates 25 years of existence. Actually, students took a one week break from their classes and clinical allocations for the celebrations. I mean, how could they be learning when everyone who is supposed to teach is on the grounds dancing or busy making a presentation to impress some Minister somewhere? Anyway, I am not hating. I love the whole idea of celebrating. I will actually be there for the alumni parade from Kamuzu Stadium tomorrow (stand somewhere on the Highway if you want to see yours truly in a jovial mood tomorrow).

Brief history lecture.

You cannot talk about the College of Medicine without talking about Dr John Chiphangwi, the Obscetrician (or Gynecologist) who pioneered its foundation. This was the one gentleman who had a
bug heart and a big vision. He saw the possibility of having a medical college in Malawi when everyone else thought it was impossible. From Prof Adamson Muula and Dr Wakisa Mulwafu’s book on the history
of the College of Medicine (ndaiwala title and I didn’t read the whole thing anyway) one can smell the sort of resistance that the good doctor had to face. 25 years down the line the college has produced more than 600 doctors (I’m told), a number of pharmacists (achina Aggrey Phiri, Ernest Matambo ndi
Thembi Sibande. Random examples, eti?), physiotherapists and lab scientists (Brian Chumbi ndi alongo ache). Great achievement, right? Maybe. Maybe not.

In the early days for a Malawian to become a doctor we had to export a layman to the UK so that he could come back a doctor. That obviously brought in the issue of costs and there was only so much the
government (that was before it came to be called gaf’ment) could invest in the training of medical personnel. Obviously there were also some who got distracted and forgot who had sent them there. I wouldn’t blame them because I cannot guarantee you that I would come back here for work if you sent
me to the UK to do some gynecology specialist studies or anything of the sort.
The coming in of the College of Medicine sorted the problem as it meant that doctors could be trained locally. This meant that the costs were reduced and we had bit of a guarantee for maximum retention of the brains that we trained to be doctors (I mean, Dr Joram Nyirongo sangathawire kunja. Ayambira pati?) The passing of years saw the introduction of other programs like pharmacy, lab science and physiotheraphy. We have also seen COM start to offer masters and PhD programs and that is something to be proud of.

To be frank, I think the College of Medicine has done its part in producing the much needed health professionals, but the way the nation has responded to the situation leaves a lot to be desired especially
in the recent days. Some of you might be aware of the fact that our laboratory scientists are going around without jobs and are yet to be absorbed into our health system as the government claims that
there is no gap for them. The ironic part is that those who work in our hospitals would tell you otherwise when it comes to the same subject on the need for such personnel.

Last year around this very same time the issue in the air was that of the “51 doctors” and we might be heading towards a similar situation; getting into a tale of some “60 doctors” who graduated from the College of Medicine on the 27th of June this year.

There are probably some excuses to do with the lack funds from the higher offices. One would wonder why the meager salaries our doctors get are enough to deny the people the better health services they could get if the 60 or so are absorbed into the system. I am just hoping that we will not have a mass exodus of these brilliant minds to some kingdom down south where people stormed to last year, and are happily practicing and are on more than double the home salary. Pharmacists and physiotherapists have not yet been employed too and so are the lab scientists. So much uncertainity among the people at the moment.

To avoid ruining the celebrations, we will cut the complaints right there. 25 years of the existence of the College of Medicine has seen Malawi produce a lot of brilliant minds who have improved the provision of health services through practice and research. It is in every Malawian’s interest that the college continues to be the center of excellence it is.

May the Silver Jubilee be a point of reflection for those running and those who have been through the
college.

May it bring us in synchrony of thought with those who fought hard for its inception…

May the college bring the dreams of better health service provision as the visionaries saw it more than 25 years ago.

Long live the College of Medicine. Long live Malawi.

The President has made a surprise appearance at the "Zokonda Amayi" chat thing. I hope he makes a surprise appearance at the grand finale of our celebrations too.

Something Called a "Political Party"

The beginning of the end of the third quarter of the year is here. We just had to mark that with a nice eclipse on the first day of September. I hope I won’t receive more reports of painful or swollen eyes due from staring at the eclipse.

This week has been eventful which has somehow made me write on a subject I usually try to run away from. Yes. This Friday we will talk politics.

We all heard how somebody who some have made us believe has been marked for the top post in the ruling party got chased away from an area he was supposed to conduct a development rally. We have also heard how people who were critical of the leader in the main opposition party have been kicked out and stuff. The indefinite postponement of the Mchinji Whatever constituency by-elections (by the DPP according to the MCP publicist); you probably know all that. The idea is that in a country where some people eat, sleep, tweet and think politics, it is good to share some views on the matters and to bring in a little sanity to the mess on the ground now.

A couple of years ago, a prominent figure in the Malawi social media (I can’t remember who it was) wrote that it was us non-partisan idiots who destroy the country (forget the Umodzi Party jokes; I do not belong to any party) and not the gurus who are either in the ruling or opposition parties. I was tempted to believe him for a moment, but after scrutinizing his statement, I decided that a greater part of me did not agree with his statement which was based on strong opinions with little supporting evidence. The reason is simple. There isn’t much of a difference between a person who belongs to a political party and one who doesn’t in our country, probably due to the fact that our political parties do not have (or do not stick to) strict ideologies  and values that define them as is the case elsewhere. The result is that parties can do and say a good thing that can be praised by everyone (openly or otherwise) regardless of party membership; apart from the hateful few of course. That is those who never appreciate a good thing thanks to their loyalty to their own party cloth. It is pretty much the same phenomenon when a party goofs big time.

A reflection on two scenarios kept me wondering as to what a political party really is in our setting. I posted the question on Facebook without getting a response and that was probably because people did not know why I asked the question.

Scenario 1.

I happened to be chatting with a friend and for some reason the issue of the minister who got stoned in Mulanje popped up (musamagende nduna koma. Mwatani kodi Amalawi?) We got to agree that there were a couple of things the ruling party is not doing wrong then got to wondering why some people who are smart in the party are not doing anything about in the name of providing counsel to the biggies. That conversation reminded me of a conversation I once had with a member of parliament for the ruling party when the issue of the 51 doctors was the hot topic of the day. The learned man told me that there are times that people try to provide solutions to the issues at party caucuses, but there is only so much of s suggestion that the party leaders can take before they pain you with the “rebel” or “opposition” brush.

You could also roughly throw these MCP issues into the same bowl when it comes to issues of intraparty democracy and how freely people can express their views. Might be different in extents, but again, roughly the same.

Then you can take a look at the intersection between the government machinery and politics, and that is a dangerous thing (tayambapo scenario 2). The highest jobs in the government machinery are of the “it has pleased His Excellency to appoint you…” type and that, for some reason creates a problem of bias. This needs no explaining for someone who is in Malawi and has at least two functional senses. Everybody knows the primary result of this. Competent people are left out with priority going to political party affiliates, sometimes as compensation for losing a parliamentary seat. What we fail to realize is that this creates a spirit of “blind following” for our political parties.

We are left in a position where even mid-ranking members of political parties can neither voice their views nor offer suggestions on issues that directly affect them in a bid to protect their positions and the benefits that come with them. Maybe what is happening is not blind following at all, as a majority knows and looks on while we are being led into total chaos. I tend to wonder whether belonging to a party makes a difference beyond vote count for 90 percent of Malawians, and that is why I asked what a political party is and who makes a political party when high ranking people cannot be involved in making decisions.

Like I said, someone once said that it is non-partisan people who destroy the country. I maintain my disagreement with the statement. The closest that he could get to the truth is to say it is people who do not vote who destroy the country, but that would not be true either considering that we vote for people who make us expect one thing while they deliver the classical opposite. This is probably why some liberally say that our democracy is pointless; too many pointless political parties.

Solution? What do I do? Register another political party, something whose definition I am failing to figure out? No. I will let this one pass.

At the end of the day we have people who are willingly leading us into chaos in the name of leading our parties and they are not willing to listen even to their own kind. Let that sink in before you begin criticizing parties, be it ruling or opposition.