SEARCHING FOR HOPE

When faced with problems, it is a natural instinct to hope that things will get better. And indeed they must. When we hope, we should also work towards making the problems better. 

Things don’t just work out of the blues. The same applies to Malawi whether we want it or not.

Political commentary is one of the most frustrating things to do in the world. It even becomes much worse when you do it in countries like Malawi.

In this country, which others call the Warm Heart of Africa, hoping is a daunting task. Hoping on a personal level might be less stressful. But when I hope for Malawi as a whole, I usually ask myself where our hope is.

Unlike in other countries where people come with an agenda for wanting power to lead the country, here the motivation is usually peer pressure! And I can repeat it in bold.

The few people who are indeed thinking of leading, are usually the ones at the bottom of the race. Any man can lead because nature tells us that we are equal and such being the case, we must not look down on each other.

• Where is our hope?

I am amazed with the things we do in this country. Talk of presidential powers has been high on the agenda of most Civil Society Organizations and the opposition. But although such might be the case, I don’t think the president in Malawi has powers to hold the whole country at ransom.

The only problem we have is that we have organizations that are supposed to offer checks and balances that are simply clueless about their job.

I will take a small dig at the opposition, what happens if the leader of opposition continues to remind us that Peter Mutharika has failed us? So what? What happens if Kamlepo Kalua continues to tell us that he has names of corrupt ministers? So what? 

For all there is, these are things that everybody knows. 

Where is our hope then when these legislators know exactly what is wrong but can’t come up with solutions on the same?

According to my own measure, the DPP has been tested and it has failed. Why should we then place our hope on an opposition party that can’t solve its own mini problems? If we look at the problems facing Malawi, you will agree with me that these problems don’t require the casualness that we treat them with.

The mistake we usually make is we think government business is easy business. Far from it. And I am compelled to think the opposition parties think the same. That is why they are busy joining forces with the government in being absent for parliamentary duties and yet pocket allowances for the same.

And then there is this obsession with things that add little value to our well-being as a nation. Things like elevating chiefs, things like controlling MBC, things like celebrating technical colleges, things like celebrating bus depots and things like parading chiefs on our “state” broadcaster.

What would I do then if I were president today? Things take time. And the time we are wasting in Malawi is all it would take. But it’s going.

For plundering public resources, I would lobby for a minimum of 100 years in prison. These people are responsible for various crimes such as involuntary murder, obstruction of justice, denying others their right to education, acts likely to cause breach of peace and many more.

If I became president today as well, I would use the excess revenue collected by the MRA after convincing parliament on the same to buy a minimum of 10 farms country wide. Prisoners don’t just have to get congested in prisons. Especially those that stole public funds.

They stole from us, and they should be eating our free food as well? That’s injustice of the highest order. If you know what I mean.

If I became president tomorrow, I would ban so many schools operating in houses and shacks in our locations under the auspices of private education? These schools harbor youths that simply don’t want to work in life. Youths that just want to smoke marijuana and drink midoli. To be able to enroll into accredited private schools at secondary level, one must pass a benchmark of the primary school exam.

I would not necessarily do the above things, what I wanted to say is I would deal with corruption with an iron fist and do away with mediocrity, aren’t these our Delilah’s?