D.D Phiri

The basic problem of Malawi

 

The basic problem of Malawi is the smallness of its economy compared with the size of its population. The economy is like a piece of cake. If the cake is enough for three children to eat and feel satisfied and yet in the family there are six or nine children, then even if you shared it equally none of the children would get enough.

Why is the economic or the national economy not bigger? What can be done to make it big enough for the population of 15 or 16 million people?

The first question is easier to answer than the second. The economy is not bigger because the country’s natural and human resources are not developed to their full potential. How can we develop the economy to its full potential?

There is no shortage of ideas or suggestions floating in the air. Those in charge of the economy should adopt the brain-storming technique used by managing directors of big corporations who want the corporation to introduce new products or modify the existing one. These managing directors hold meetings. Every head of department or section is invited to make a suggestion or two for every new product or for innovations.

At the meeting where such ideas are being made, the chairperson never shouts down any one who makes what seems a silly suggestion. Instead the suggestion is recorded. There comes a time when a committee sifts through these ideas and picks those which seem to be most promising.

Among those entrusted with managing the economy, some should be appointed to a committee that collects ideas which are made through the media. This committee should study these ideas. The first people who imagined flying in the air were not scientists but wizards, witches or magicians. When scientists picked up the idea and applied their physics to it, they laid the foundation for the aviation industry that we know today.

Ideas expressed by men and women who have achieved a lot in business and technology as well as scholars who have studied the lives and methods of great achievers deserve special attention. Such people are less likely to engage in mere wishful thinking. I like to reproduce ideas of one great American business magnate whose writing I admire. His name is W. Clement Stone.

At the age of about 20 he entered the insurance business with a capital of $100. He became a multi-millionaire and published a magazine called Success Unlimited to which I subscribed for at least five years and stopped when obtaining the necessary reserves became a major problem.

Stone also wrote a semi autobiography motivational book entitled The Success System that Never Fails. In one of the chapters of this book he muses on the wealth of the nations and says inter alia “wealth is created through positive mental attitudes, education, labour knowhow and moral characters of people under a government that guarantees freedom of private enterprise and respects and protects the life and property rights of each individual. The important ingredients for its acquisition are thought, labour, raw materials, good credit and fair taxes, money or the medium of exchange must have a recognised and acceptable value”.

From this we get the impression that there is no single formula for generating the wealth of a nation which is the sum total of the wealth accumulated by individual members of the nation.

There are allegations that Malawi is the poorest country in the world and that while its neighbours are growing at breakneck speed, Malawi is virtually stagnant. There is need not to implant in us inferiority complexes and defeatism. In 1924, there came here Phelps Stokes Commission on African Education in Eastern Africa. Its findings can be gleaned out of the book History of Malawi Volume 2. The commission stated, among other things, that Nyasas (Malawians) were in intelligence equal to the best in Africa only that they were helping to develop other countries due to lack of opportunities in their own country.

If our neighbours are doing better economically than we are, it is not because they are superior breed. Possibly they are better organised and motivated.

The Cashgate scandal has revealed that those who were making appointments and promotions had not been much concerned about merit. They put some men and women in positions which the appointees did not deserve. How else did the scandal remain so long undetected?

Despite the current position, Malawi has the potential in its natural and human resources to bounce back, only let us do things differently. Let us try new ideas. We have no other country apart from Malawi. What we have let us hold and serve.

 

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2 Comments

  1. I agree with you DD Phiri. Malawians are the most intelligent people in the world. In one of my history books I read that by 1900, the northern region was the most advanced educationally in the central Africa.They have helped build countries like Zambia , South Africa and Zimbabwe.

    The major problem is lack opportunities. Now the problem is compounded by lack poor political leadership which is promoting tribalism, nepotism and mediocrity.

    1. The southern region was also very advanced educationally. Number 1 was the south and seconded by the northern region

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