‘Govt, opposition, CSOs swallow your pride’

Comedian Michael Usi has urged government, opposition and the civil society to swallow their pride and come together to strategise on a formula to provide solutions to the crises the country is experiencing.

Speaking as a concerned citizen during a news conference in Blantyre on Tuesday evening , Usi , who is also known as Manganya in the entertainment circles, said the three stakeholders represent people.

“Opposition has experienced people who have been in Malawi Congress Party, United Democratic Front. The civil society also has people with expertise. They should stop pointing fingers at government and be part of the formula to provide solutions. Again government has to swallow its pride for these people to play that role,” said Usi.

“It is time of disaster. Let us all come together and help ourselves out. Let us have unity of purpose. Some parties are busy holding rallies instead of giving Malawians what they need. The parties have

followers who are suffering. Those parties should be part of the formula to bail this country out of disaster,” said Usi.

He took a swipe at the civil society organisations which he said, rush to organise national wide demonstrations without explaining to Malawians what is failing in the dialogue process.

“The civil society should give Malawians the nitty-gritty details of the dialogue with government. They should be telling us where the problems are in the course of their discussions instead of giving deadlines,” he said.

He called on government to swallow its pride and listen to other views.

“Malawi has a cancer which has to be removed. It is not time for winning arguments but winning souls. Some of those people in government should not think the President belongs to them only. He is President for everybody,” said Usi.

One of the activists who is in the dialogue team between government and civil society organisations, Benedicto Kondowe, agreed with Usi on the need for collective reasoning to provide solutions to the country’s problems.

But Kondowe differed with Usi on the assertion that the opposition and civil society are distancing themselves from the problems.

“We have a government that does not listen. The private sector, civil society organisations and others have urged government to implement certain issues but government on the other hand despises stakeholders. The way forward is that government should appreciate that we are all Malawians and unless they do that, they will be compelled to involve others.”

During the launch of national tree planting season, President Bingu wa Mutharika called on the opposition and civil society organisations to complement government .

Mutharika said the opposition and civil society should not distance themselves from national programmes.