MPs’ MK10milion Demands: Street Democracy at its best!

Never has President Joyce Banda been pushed in a corner of governance uncertainty than she has been with the recent ‘Kids Revolution’. It is interesting to note that every Janet and Jack, every Haroon and Halima is busy flexing muscles with the intention of making president Banda’s days darker and ever more darker ever since the Kids Revolution. 

Given that, it is little wonder that the honorable Members of Parliament are the latest Jacks and Haroons busy stretching their muscles demanding a whopping MK10million each. 

As a matter of clarification, democracy is not necessarily about speaking out but knowing what to speak out. By extension, it is about speaking out about national issues with objectivity and not personal tissues. That is democracy as conceptualized by the old intelligent folks.

But when one peddles an issue solely guided by prejudice, contempt, and sheer desire to deliberately make an environment unfriendly for the other, that’s street democracy. Sadly, street democracy seems to be the whole, and arguably the only business in parliament this session.

 It be made clear from the onset that the author is no fan of president Banda, but is here compelled to state the fact as it is; which is that MPs have it planned to make Malawi ungovernable to president Banda.

While it is tenable that the MPs’ demands might be justifiable somehow, it is wholly unthinkable, honestly speaking, that the MPs’ demands can be met at this time that Malawi is at the pinnacle of economic and political turmoil.

You may argue to the contrary, but, truth be told here, even the best of economists and technocrats of Adam Smith caliber, or locally, of the Matthews Chikaonda type, will surely fail to glide out of the economic mess with a MK10million payout (or handout?) to the 193 MPS. 

It does not require an Economics genius to see that the payout defies economic sense. Almost everyone—from intelligentsias and ignoramuses, from kids to adults, from anarchists to patriots—thinks, and of course rightly so, that such a payout is a needless drain on the government pulse.

And here now you happen to get to sobering surprises; what is it then that is making the MPs insist on this pay out? Is the MK10milion demand all there is in the current sitting? Are there no alternative ways of sorting the MK10 million pay out?

It is at this point the critical mind begins to see the MPs hidden agenda. Interestingly, here one rushes into opining that the MPs in the current sitting are up to no good; that they are hell bent towards frustrating government business. The current session might be the grand opportunity for the MPs to come back at president Banda, but, coincidentally or other, it is no doubt a sad repayment to the voters. 

It is perhaps at this point that the wiser readership would agree with the author that, if indeed opposition parties are governments-in-waiting, the current economic crisis characterizing the Joyce Banda administration would have been a perfect opportunity for them to manifest their leadership prowess. 

Otherwise, judging by what is happening in parliament, one is tempted to conclude, with no regret whatsoever, that the larger part of the opposition benches is occupied by people who think very little, if any at all, about offering solutions to government and being welfaristic to the people who voted them into power—the local masses.

You would be on the right side of the argument if you stated that the MPs are playing hide-and-seek with government as they knowingly or unknowingly playing seesaw with the precious lives of the 14-plus million citizens. Such games are typical of street democracy where nothing matters to the powers that be (MPs in this case) other than getting what one wants, get this right, what the MPs want, and always at the expense of the needs of the voters.

If the honorable MPs are serious about serving the people in their constituencies, then let them let the government go this time. Let them give the Banda administration some breathing space hoping that they can pull some economic miracles and be able to pay the recently raised salaries, and more importantly, recover the economy.

At this juncture, the article rests its case but is quick to point out that the honorable MPs’ MK10million demands is both ludicrous and selfish, and at worst, unMalawian. Most sadly, the demand smacks of street democracy at its best.

Bemoaning Pres. JB’s Response to CSTU’s Eco-pocalyptic Stay-away

Whosoever said that escapism is a fail-safe principle in the running of government might have made the perfect sense to President Joyce Banda.  It is little wonder then that statements from government or its agents on the Civil Servants Trade Union’s (CSTU) stay-away are all characterized by streaks of not-that- way-not-today principles typical of escapist philosophy.

Joyce Banda might have started as some vicar of an angel president; but surely, the January 17^th mass demonstrations must have tipped her of  her leadership’s  increasing ‘angellessness’. More importantly, the on-going CSTU stay-away is one latest example of the irrelevance of the ideologies guiding her leadership.

Perhaps most importantly is the fact that president Banda’s response to the CSTU stay-away has been, and, regrettably is, uninspiring, clueless, and every inch unpresidential.

Firstly, the Joyce Banda government is, in all fairness, uninspiring in that the government seems to have left the stay-away to fate by projecting an its-not-a-big-deal mentality.

You may agree with the author that the CSTU stay-away is an historic eco-pocalyse as billions and billions of money is lost in its wake. In a nutshell, the stay-away has caused, and if not immediately solved, will continue to cause untold economic crisis at the time Malawi economy needs proactive leadership to recover it.

It is here that one would rightly make sense in arguing that the stay-away is needlessly milking the dying economy thus spelling trouble for an already troubled economy. It is therefore at this point that one would expect an actively listening and proactively responsive government to show concern mirroring the weightiness and uncertainty of the situation on the ground.

Unfortunately, the Joyce Banda government is stuck in the gone days of one party state where threats and issuance of directives was the order of the day. The JB government is consciously forgetting, for reasons the wiser leadership can guess, that Malawi now finds itself in the democratic multiparty dispensation where issues of rights and activism are enshrined in the very same constitution every government is sworn-in to protect and defend.

Secondly, the JB administration seems to have no laid-out strategy for dealing with CSTU stay-away hence clueless in that respect.

It is to this thinking that one expects the JB government to trash triviality in its approach to the CSTU stay-away. The government and its wayward Government Negotiating Team (GNT) have got to inspire confidence and trust in the way they reach out to the CSTU leadership otherwise Malawi will be heading for an economic and political turmoil.

It is therefore discouraging to note that the press statement from GNT to the CSTU is one that truly mocks the intelligence of its authors. Reading it, one would come across the innumerable half-baked truths and hidden clauses masquerading as genuine offers. And, one tends to wonder it at all the GNT and its mother—the JB government—are any serious about resolving the CSTU concerns.

The sad side of the matter is that the JB government and the GNT have all had their stances on the stay-away been informed by self-importance and superiority complex making it almost impossible for a negotiated settlement as government and GNT comes with a position prior to negotiations. 

Finally, President Joyce Banda’s covert and overt statements on the stay-away are, in all imaginable standards, unpresidential. Here is a president, who upon, receiving the CSTU concerns, chose to ignore the concerns only to come to them later when the president sensed that CSTU was not paying games. But that was too late. 

As is true of negotiations, the first meeting yielded no fruits, and days were fast approaching the scheduled day of stay-away. If president JB was indeed president to the true sense of the word ‘president’ she would know that CSTU was not kidding; and she would have given the concerns the timely attention they deserved thus averting the unnecessary socio-economic and political apocalypse.

As the article sums up the issues, it is only hoped that Joyce Banda and her administration will relook at the CSTU stay-away with the importance and urgency it deserves and that a resolution is reached fast enough to avoid any more loss economically, socially, and politically.

As the nation expects such a selfless and positive response from government, it is compelling that one bemoans the uninspiring, clueless, and unpresidential response of the Joyce Banda government to the CSTU stay-away.  

A Modest Proposal For Recovering Malawi Economy

The events of 17^th January and the vociferous pronouncements of its organizers are surely causing, and will continue to cause, uneasiness in government circles. 
 

You might argue, as some have, that the January 17 mass demonstrations has succeeded in telling Malawians that peaceful demonstrations are possible only if Malawians see disagreements in viewpoints as strength, though most sadly, the demonstrations will most likely fail to achieve its keys goals as  the petition seems to have been pushed into oblivion by the government.

Whatever the January 17 goals were, and whatever it is the Joyce Banda administration is doing to recover the economy (if at all it was made in the first place), one thing is for sure: the Joyce Banda administration does not have a more modest proposal for economic recovery than the author’s.

To this end, the author seeks to offer his own modest proposal, like did Jonathan Swift in olden Ireland, for economic recovery that is not only practical but also feasible for a country with a struggling economy like Malawi.

It is imperative for government to sell the presidential jet and share the money amongst the top government officials. Once that is done, make sure that a little sum of the money be used to silence critical journalists, otherwise these guys seem not to get a life whenever they sense ill-gotten money. Make sure all middle men get a share for fear of becoming loose-mouthed should another party dislodge from power in 2014 and form a new government.

The money shared is needed for our honourable cabinet members and party loyalists are fast slimming to due to the Kwacha devaluation and floatation. We need that money for them to grow potbellies and belch when talking to our aid agencies and their representatives so that they do not look pathetic. We need that to beg more money and thus grow, ohh, recover our economy.

Again, there is need for the government to reconsider its position on Malawi Rural Development Fund (MARDEF). Thanks to good thinking of the Peoples Party (PP) strategists’ antics, the reconsideration has already been done. K1.6 billion of the K3 billion of Youth Enterprise Development Fund (Yedef) money should not be, and of course has not been, distributed on the basis of citizenship, No! but on the basis of cronyism and party allegiance. The need to make public the beneficiaries of the same should be, and has been quashed in the name of cost-cutting measure, Ooops!.  No need to publish the names because the money we will use to have the names appear in the local print can be used to buy medicine for our medicine-dry hospitals and referrals.

Medicine-dry hospitals? 

That reminds me. Since it is the poor, the lazy mothers and fathers and their children in the villages who invite us the scorn associated with lack of medicine in our hospitals, it will do the government economic justice if it is thought as follows: stagnant salaries and wages for the parents and cheap labor for the children.

The Joyce Banda government should not raise the salaries and wages of poor working majority for two economically sensible reasons; firstly, to make them work more and thus making more returns for government either directly or through taxes, and lastly to save enough money for stocking drugs in our local hospitals.

As for the children, ooh  nothing much from them. Since their parents’ salaries are stagnant and school fees is ever more increasing with increase in inflation, it follows that their parents will not afford to pay school fees and will thus drop school. They will start looking for jobs, and as less qualified as they are, they will end up being employment in tobacco and sugarcane estates and sometimes in building contractors as ‘mud guys’.

That way, our tobacco and sugarcane will get the utmost attention and our buildings will be built within schedule and cheaply. The end result of this is never-ending run of projects and initiatives that add value and credence to our economy, thereby recovering it from the mess it was left, so the thinking goes, by the late Bingu wa Mutharika and his money-hungry friends now coaxed into the governing Orange camp.

Whosoever said that a government

Youth Political Activism In Malawi: Where We Are…And What Next

                 Without molding the youth for the desired  politics, Malawi runs the risk of molding political destruction. 

Empowerment seems to be the common theme among Malawian politicians when it comes to talking about the need for the complete involvement of the youth in politics. However, looking at the youth empowerment discourse critically convinces one that the theme is nothing but a grand talk shop oozing the air of a genuine agenda when actually it is a self-serving ideology having all the hallmarks of youth political cannibalism.

Being politically adventurous as he is, the author has participated in many a political gatherings and institutions. The author, himself once a political party prostitute, has served almost all big political parties in Malawi in different ranks during his studentship days.

The first case of youth political party cannibalism the author experienced was with United Democratic Front (UDF) where, with time, he served almost in all big positions. Rosy promises were made; invitation to national party meetings, movement from the Wing to the nation party, and all that jazz. But, sadly, all was offered was a platform to sing and dance at party rallies. That's all.

Then favors for UDF waned. Then came Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). It promised a change in the way Malawi politics looks at the youth--the disempowered majority. Joining DPP especially during the controversial Quota System debate made politics more real; nocturnal meetings, grand internal disagreements etc. Things seemed okay. No wonder, joining Prodeyom seemed to be the best decision then. What started as a health relationship soon became sour as no change was seen coming. The author later dumped DPP during its infamous days and joined University Students for New Agenda for Change (UniSAC).

UniSAC was a University students movement garnering political support for you-know-who. It was a vibrant and visionary organization for the man for whom the organization was formed seemed equally visionary. Unfortunately, things hit a snag when the man joined the Orange camp, openly announcing that all he ever wanted was a change in leadership and not presidency.

Later on, perhaps the only choice at the time, joining the Orange camp seemed plausible. It came to be known later in one meeting that the Predoyom Chair was also the chair of the Orange youth camp--the Orange Partners (OP). Mere curiosity gave way to dedication. 

He attended the nocturnal meetings at lodges mostly around Blantyre. There we talked. We talked how the youth are abused and dumped and how the Orange camp will put an end to that. And we all clapped hands in unison. Those were the days. Now the story is the same as during the Yellow camp, and Blue camp. And, such seems to be youth empowerment politics in Malawi.

As brink as the future for meaningful youth empowerment was then, the author fallen in love with the then-vibrant-now-dormant youth organization--the Youth Association for Democracy in Malawi (YADEMA). Wapona Kita and Leon Matanda were the guys. The guys talked the youth, ate the youth, and laughed the youth. 

Meeting the two for the first time (since communication had been only through the phone) at Chanco's Room K was a time well-spent. It is at this meeting that youth political activism was maddeningly live. 

Today, some months on, it feels tenable to argue that the Malawi youth have the potential to reclaim the political glory long lost and perhaps forgotten. Today, one year on, it looks like the future have the perfect chances to revive the true youth political spirit by organizing themselves through inclusively participative youth groups like YADEMA and Walking With The Youth.

Unlike Walking With The Youth, YADEMA has tested Malawi's political uncertainities at the time the late wa Mutharika was increasingly fiercely autocratic, and it emerged ever stronger and stronger. Again, YADEMA has the formal links necessary for an explosive nation-building youth agenda though its largest membership and voice is more virtual than it is human--perhaps a critical are to look into.

Fruitful youth political engagement is possible in Malawi only the youth reshape their articulation of vision and relinquish their heavy reliance on the 'old guards' to voluntarily leave the political space for them--something they old guards for sure cannot do. This engagement is possible in two fronts; first, there is need to re-organize the mental space and redefine politics in their own terms though with strong leaning to current political events--local or international, and second, to de-link youth groups from political parties by establishing an independently solid source of funds.

This is cause worth the support of the government, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), human rights organizations, and the corporate world because without molding the youth for the desired politics, the Malawi nation runs the risk of molding political destruction.

Unless there is re-focusing on the part of the youth and their groups should there be real escape from the chains of political party youth cannibalism characterizing Malawi political parties. It is hoped that amongst the youth there will rise strong-willed and value-driven youths who will lead the youth--the abused majority--in their calculated action towards reclaiming Malawi's long-lost political space for the youth and for the nation, and so smoothly with extensive external non-political support.