It is inevitable that there should be contending views about whether or not Malawi should celebrate or commemorate Independence Day which is July 6. Those in favour of commemorating the day argue that although poverty levels are still high, Malawi has transformed in many ways.
But the detractors argue that despite receiving over $30 billion (over K30 trillion) from development partners, since 1964, the country still remains the fourth-poorest in the world, the same position it was at Independence from Britain 60 years ago. This is according to Gregg Mills in his book Expensive Poverty. Both lines of thinking are not completely off the mark. Here, I argue that Malawians have every reason to commemorate Independence Day because attaining sovereign status alone is a milestone worth recognising. How the country has used the independence or freedom so gained is a different kettle of fish altogether.
Malawi’s founding president Kamuzu Banda never ended a speech without boasting that under his leadership: “Malawi has transformed beyond recognition”. He often stated that at Independence in 1964 he found people in some districts such as Mwanza-Neno and Ntchisi or Vitsanza “literally naked”. But under his rule that was no longer the case. For him freedom meant people having food, shelter and clothing. He claimed people had attained these things.
Save for the issue of human rights it is also fair to argue that under Kamuzu’s 31-year rule, Malawi witnessed considerable socio-economic transformation in various sectors. The education sector witnessed notable change. From not having a single university at independence, the post-colonial Malawi saw the establishment of the University of Malawi (Unima) with four constituent colleges. And from only Unima before 1994, there are now six public universities and many other public and private institutions of higher learning.
The country has also registered great strides in the health, water supply, transport infrastructure sectors, and in the promotion of human, political and gender rights.
There are also more women in political and administrative positions today than was the case during early days of independence. Great strides have also been made in the justice delivery system.
The second multiparty president, the late Bingu wa Mutharika agreed with Kamuzu that independent Malawi had transformed beyond recognition. He also bragged that he had been part of that transformation. To reflect this change, in 2000, he changed the elements of the national flag. Bingu also flattered himself or flirted with the title Ngwazi—an accolade that had hitherto been a preserve of Kamuzu, also to reflect the fact that he had contributed towards transforming Malawi.
In short, all the presidents, from Kamuzu to Lazarus Chakwera have invariably left a mark on the country’s social economic development. But what cannot be disputed is that there has been a huge mismatch between the prosperity and development that both pre-and post-independence political leaders promised and what has actually been attained.
As Douglous Nyirenda (The Nation, July 6 2023) rightly argues, people had huge expectations from their political leaders which have not been met. He argues, for example, that when Kamuzu promised to break the stupid federation of Rhodesias and Nyasaland, to win back independence and self-rule and to unite the country for prosperity and development, Malawians were being prepared for socio-economic and political redemption from the pangs of colonial rule. ‘‘The hope that sustained popular quest for independence, therefore, was that once Nyasaland was independent, there would be sustained provision of quality education, healthcare, gainful employment, food security, decent transport infrastructure. Some of these promises were fulfilled but many have not been done to people’s expectations.
The trend has been the same in the second multiparty era where in their desperate bid to win votes, political leaders have been setting unachievable targets for themselves. After failing to deliver as promised, the leaders have left the people more frustrated than before.
So where did the country lose the plot? Nyirenda and Chikondi Chidzanja (The Nation July 6 2023) are on point about where the country went off the deep end? First and foremost the problem is that the second multiparty dispensation has been dogged by the leaderships’ failure to clearly define the concept of democracy and its corresponding responsibility to Malawians.
From the word go, in 1993, the opposition leadership which wanted and fought for change was too obsessed with just dislodging the single party leadership and gaining freedom. The newly-attained freedom thus birthed a free-for-all and irresponsible mindset of entitlement, corruption and greed.
Sixty years on the heads of these triplets are now rearing their ugly faces. Only Malawians can save Malawi. But we are stuck with the beggar mentality. There is still lack of agency in our leaders to initiate change without relying on Western benevolence. Each successive government blames either the previous administration or other factors for its failure to fix the economy.
We should stop living the lies of fairy tales. It is only in fairy-tales where endings are happy with magical spells and magic wands fixing things. Leaders have to reflect deeply on their responsibilities. We have to put fuel in vehicles that move and not whip dead horses.
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