One on Professionalism

 It is yet another Friday. These days are supposed to be fun days with the social media frenzy starting on Thursday night with the “quarter to Friday” posts. This, however, is January and people do not have the financial muscle Friday. Adding to that, it is 2021 and Covid-19 is raging on. The new Covid-19 measures mean that a modern-day Friday is just another glorified Thursday but we at Richie Online have committed to maintaining the tradition of bringing some random thoughts through these articles.

It is hard to talk about anything without dragging the coronavirus into it nowadays so I will start with the President’s latest speech on the Covid-19 pandemic. Do not worry, though. I am not about to start punching holes into it although I must admit that I have a pathological itching for doing that to speeches to the man who constantly called APM’s speeches “empty” in his tenure as the Leader of Opposition. What I want to comment on, however is what he said after directing the Treasury to release funds to those who are responsible for managing the Covid-19 situation in the country. In his words, he pointed out how he did not expect any excuses from the Treasury as the disbursement of the funds was a matter of urgency. The mention of excuses had me wondering whether the excuses are some sort of default setting which the President was expecting to get had he not cautioned against such.

Those of you that have worked in or had interaction with the civil service would agree with me that processes are generally slow in the government machinery. For one reason or the other, things like processing a transfer, changing a pay point, getting information and many other seemingly simple tasks seem to take forever by the simple fact that they are happening in the civil service. I have tried to explore the reasons as to why that is the case and while I think some of the information is inaccurate, I feel like I may have some of the answers.

The first reason that one can think of when it comes to the talk of why things move at a three-toed sloth’s pace in the civil service is the issue of resistance to change. The core of the civil service is manned by some old guards who have developed complacency and the habit of postponing and delaying things that do not directly affect them. When young and innovative minds join, they are first filled with enthusiasm before they slowly get infected with the business as usual virus and begin to walk in the footsteps of their seniors.

Then there is this sense of pathological entitlement to money and things. People simply want extra money for doing things that were part of their job description in the first place. I once was told a story of someone who wanted to transfer from Zomba to Blantyre in the same ministry and department of the gaffment. After paying several visits to the Capitol Hill, one person on that end offered to help expedite the process upon being given “a little something”. That is the government machinery we have right now and before you start blaming politicians for messing this country up (and you should), you need to think of the people who are running the show. By the way, the person in question had to go to the Capitol several times because on multiple occasions the Human Resources people responsible were out for meetings. There you go, then. People want meetings with allowances as they best serve their personal interests. Have you ever tried to ask for information or materials from the government? These are things that people give for free at the completion of a formal request or click of a button. Here? People would ask you to give them money for data on how many primary schools there are in Chiradzulu district. Infuriating.

I would be unfair if I were to come here full of emotion to write about how the civil service has been filled with professionalism if I do not talk about the other areas where professionalism is lacking. The media comes to mind first. Over time, we have seen the deterioration in journalism standards. I, in particular like online publications and the Malawian online news leaves a lot to be desired. Day in and day out we see a lot of non-news items making it to the pages of our most visited online publications. As if that is not enough, these pieces of 21^st century, social media oriented, click-bait reports are plagued with grammatical errors and typos that the most basic editing should be able to sort out. One tends to wonder whether these so-called media houses even have editors or at least someone who checks whether an article is fit for consumption. I mean… Even at Richie Online we at least make sure that someone has a quick read and corrects some of the inaccuracies and the typos before an article gets published. Turns out our friends from the media do not care.

Then there are our television stations and their polarization towards the government. Back then when Malawi was being governed by APM and his blue army, this was the problem we had with the state broadcaster. For the private stations, however, it was hard to distinguish as to whether they were inclusive or anti-DPP/pro-opposition taking it from the fact that they used to cover opposition activities. All in all, the playfield was leveled owing to the visibility of the opposition on public television stations. At the dawn of the new regime, we saw the President and his Minister of (mis)Information pledging that the state television was going to be a station for all. They categorically stated that MBC was going to be inclusive and that they had directed the institution to stop being the ruling elite’s mouthpiece but right from the start those of us who were observing saw something wrong. Before the final result of the June 2020 election were announced, MBC was already broadcasting a Lazarus Chakwera documentary. One would wonder as to when this footage was filmed and edited, but somehow the state broadcaster had been working in the background covering all the possibilities. I would not be surprised if they have documentaries of Mr Peter Dominico Sinosi Driver Kuwani in their archives at this rate but that is not the point. The later day has seen most of the main local TV stations turn their microphones and cameras to the president and his (insert adjective of choice) cabinet. Are our television stations professional? I will leave that to you.

Then there is you and me. We sign contracts with our respective employers agreeing that we will be working from 7:30 to 4:30 with an hour-long lunch break. Did you show up at a good time at work today? I bet only half the people reading this can claim to have done so and some of them would be lying. Perhaps some of us are the kind that demand to get extra money for performing our duties or to undress ladies before employing or promoting them. Maybe some of us are not employed but running our own businesses and we are the kind who commit to obligations with no intentions whatsoever of honoring our pledges. If you are one of these, you are what is wrong with this country and could use some exorcism from the spirits of complacency and unprofessionalism, if there is such a word.

Last year was what we could happily call a year of interesting court cases. Remember the young lady who died under controversial circumstances? I remember reading many sworn affidavits from that case which got me wondering if those documents were supposed to be in free circulation on social media while the case was ongoing. I may not be a law professional, but my thoughts were that I was not supposed to see some of those things. While I may be wrong on the issue of legal documents, one thing that was disappointing was the fact that the social media was awash with memos that were supposed to be circulating within very tight circles. At some point, I remember seeing a memo from a government office to a private health facility. When I asked people from the office in question, they sadly told me that the memo was leaked before it got to its destination. That is the age we are in now. The age in which people’s pathological urge to unnecessarily share information supersedes their professionalism and ethics.

I have said a lot in this article and do not have to pick out the specific lessons. I am not sure about how to fix the civil service but I am sure someone up there knows. Maybe one day the reforms will begin to work on the ground and sanity will trickle down from Capitol Hill to the least of offices. Maybe. Just maybe when that happens then the wave of sanity will spread to the private and corporate sectors and our politicians will follow suit. I still look forward to the day when our service providers and businesspeople will act in a professional manner and honor their obligations. Yes! The day I will walk into an office and ask for data for my research without having to pay anyone.

Have a great weekend and remember that the fight against the coronavirus pandemic starts with you.