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Development in leaders’ word

Writing in the Law and Society Review of March 2004 (USA), James Gibson points out that a human rights culture cannot prosper without universal respect for the rule of the law. A nation that holds complete respect for the rule of the law without unnecessary exceptions is a prosperous nation.

Leaders and people in high offices ought to analyse what they speak to the public cautiously looking at the implication their utterances have on the masses. US President Barack Obama is one world leader who delivers on his promises. His speech is one of his own kind in the 21st century. He is a leader who establishes credibility in his word. Despite facing several challenges prior to his re-election, Obama out edged a determined opponent Mitt Romney. The big question is, do we have leaders who establish credibility in what they say? No….a credible leader does not contradict what he/she says over and over again. He/she means what he/she says and implements policies rather than experimenting with policies.

To be a leader and a politician are two different things our government has failed to differentiate. A leader is one who comes in when his/her subjects need him/her the most. In simple terms, a leader has a following which he/she has to protect and show the way forward. The Joyce Banda administration has not demonstrated any of these attributes. Our country has embarked on a journey whose destination is yet to be established. The most unpleasant situation is where our leaders are acting as a representative body for the IMF and other so-called donors.

Have we forgotten UDF which was rudderless at some point in time? Did it not demonstrate that for any grouping to progress, there must be internal organisation? We are currently in a bus with no driver.

When Joyce Banda took the oath of office, she swore to safeguard the rule of law. Does the rule of law stipulate that a president will squander taxpayers’ money when the payers are dying in hospitals? Does the constitution have a clause that states that the taxpayers will travel on bumpy roads to their locations when the President travels on standard roads to nest?

Does People’s Party (PP) really remember that it will need the same people it is disregarding in 2014? I do not think that PP will campaign for re-election. The country will just have to vote for them for the ineptness they have already shown. How on earth will a leader keep quiet on matters of national interest instead goes around speaking about safe motherhood? Is it that important for a leader to go about distributing maize that costs less than their travel? Surely not.

The more we change the more we become worse than our past, it seems. Do our leaders realise that time has no exceptional list? It will be a sad sight in the coming years for Malawi to become one of the poorest countries in the world when we were fast becoming an ‘economy’ just two years ago. Most of PP supporters are the same people who messed up the late Bingu wa Mutharika. The bottom line is that donors like good boys and girls of the “yes boss” calibre. Objection and foresighting is what an administration has to possess. For instance, before allowing the devaluation of the kwacha, our leader had to analyse the situation carefully. President Banda opted for goodness instead of objection.

What we hear from our President nowadays is what she has been told by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and donors. Time is up for the government to keep on blaming late Mutharika as we know that the policies that are affecting us now were adopted by the PP administration not the DPP government. What we faced during the DPP government was scarcity of goods and commodities which at the end of the day we still got and managed to pay for. Is it not better than having those same goods and commodities in plenty now which we cannot afford to buy?

In conclusion, I feel that the accuracy and adequacy of what we are told depends on the already vivid results. It is time we, as Malawians, stood for a common cause. Are we not inspired by the events in Tunisia, people fighting for a common cause? A people’s voice is better than a trumpet blown on a mountain top. Having experienced this leadership, can we, as Malawians, trust what we are told?

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