Malawi’s problem is leadership—Chakwera
Opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) presidential candidate Lazarus Chakwera told a rally in Blantyre yesterday that Malawi is a nation full of opportunities but the problem is leadership.
Chakwera, addressing his first campaign rally at Njamba Freedom Park since the launch of the official campaign for the May 20 Tripartite Elections, said Malawi has had the kind of leadership that has believed in self-enrichment first and Malawians second.
The MCP leader, who is to face his first election after joining mainstream politics last year from the pulpit, blamed huge appetite for borrowing by Malawi’s leaders, warning the burden to repay such huge loans rests on “our children and grandchildren in many years to come”.
He said when voted into power, his government will embark on programmes beneficial to Malawians, and not mere distribution of cattle when villagers have no structures to take care of them, an apparent direct attack on incumbent President Joyce Banda’s programme.
He also hit at the President’s Mudzi Transformation Trust where she is building houses for underprivileged villagers, arguing such people need empowerment because a house may not be their priority.
Chakwera said MCP is prepared to open technical colleges that were closed and build more to make sure that students, especially girls, pursue different programmes after completing secondary education.
Said Chakwera: “We will also make sure that teachers are paid on time. Today, end of the month comes, but we still see our teachers remain unpaid. MCP will deal with that.”
The MCP leader said if Malawians want a leader who can plant a smile on their faces, they have one in him. He asked a not-so-impressive crowd to give him their votes.
Chakwera, whose party’s stronghold is regarded to be the Central Region, said the health sector was a pathetic area his government will revamp.
He said nurses and doctors are not handsomely paid, yet they are overworked and operate with limited resources.
The problem in Malawi is the Constitutional Systems which allow a President to have to much power to appoint and dismiss Executive Officers. A President should only appoint Ministers, and Ambassadors because they report directly to him. All other executive officers, CEOs of statutory corporations etc should undergo proper interviews at the appropriate service commissions and should be accountable to those commissions only. That will curtail tribalism, etc and only qualified people will get the job without the fear of executive decisions
I don’t think constitution is the problem. The problem is mentality of the leaders and rust for money. Our leaders are more interested in money and obsessed with political survival regardless of the means even if it means exploiting the illiterates. Worse still, the so called educated are preoccupied with rank seeking than serving the nation. With these conditions we cannot develop, infact, failure in bringing new government on 20 May signaled acceptance of poverty and underdeveloped as reality of Malawi. Thus, solution is never constitutional reform and pruning of presidential powers.
Downsized presidential powers would brought delays and complexity in policy making and implementation. This inevitably will proliferate more problems bearing in mind nature and quality of leaders in control now. Constitutional reform coupled with diminished presidential power will not address poor leadership Malawi is facing presently. It will not breed quality leadership. Moreover, in practice, diffusion of power, a key tenet of democracy, has no correlation with development. With these, all what Malawi needs is good leadership with capacity to taking painstaking decisions regardless their unpopularity provided they take us one step out of poor tag. This calls for strong capacity of president rather weakened presidential powers. Malawi must address real problems. So called problem of excess Presidential power is artificial. Poor leadership together with misuse of power plus nepotism needs adequate attention than constitutional reforms. Constitution is not an end it is means and presently it is very clearly than laws are useless if leaders and people don’t embrace them. Cashgate trial is an illustration.