The obscene cost of presidential pride in Malawi

May 31 2014; a new President by the name of Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika is sworn in Malawi. In this small southern African country, every new president restarts a new circus that is public spending.

In Malawi, every presidency is a premonition of promotions, demotions, new business magnates, marriages and cash cows. There is indeed time for everything and a new presidency heralds new millionaires and fresh contracts.

But first things must always come first. Very soon and probably this is in the process, despite acknowledging that the public purse is in doldrums, Malawi will be spending millions in presidential portraits. This is the custom and there is no way the new president will be an exceptional case.

The presidential portraits will have to be couriered to each and every government office and of course the universe wherever Malawi has diplomatic offices. For whatever reason, the president in Africa is an omnipresent figure and these portraits will be hung up staring at public and private figures in offices.

Multi-million kwacha contracts will be awarded to suppliers and if there is no change, the cost that the taxpayer will have to bear for these portraits will be concealed from public scrutiny. Malawians are respectful; there will never be questions about this.

A fleet of new gas guzzlers will be ordered from a supplier who understands the new government vision. There will be more new cars to be bought, for whoever will be appointed to any political position; will get their own expensive new car, the latest smartphone on top of a bundle of other privileges on the bill of state coffers.

Some government jobs and positions will be lost. Jobs in the public service are jobs until an officer reaches a certain level where positions are but political. These political jobs come at the pleasure of the incumbent president. A new president has his cronies who worked and fought with him. So their payday has come.

This will be called a routine exercise in the skulduggery political gobbledygook. In essence, it is part of the political ostracism served to those that belonged to the previous regime.

Some senior government officials will have their jobs knifed. These are people who are appointed by the president and have signed hefty contracts that are running. These will rush to the industrial relations courts demanding huge payouts. The new president will not pay this from his pride; Malawians will pay for his decisions. A record millions of Kwachas will be milked from this already emaciated cow called Malawi in the trite: “It has pleased His Excellency the President”.

The process of getting these homeboys and party zealots into public positions has a euphemism called presidential prerogative, which is unquestionable. While politicians represent the people, the presidential prerogative states that the president does as he or she pleases and are accountable to no one except their pride.

The new Malawi President, fondly called APM has promised meritocracy- that is appointees will have to exude experience, professional track record among others to deserve his anointing. This will be but yet to be seen if APM can walk the talk.

Noteworthy, though, is that the president is a politician who makes political choices.

Civil servants suffer gravely with regime change. The lazy joke on the streets defines a senior civil servant as a brand of underwear that is changed at the change of the presidency. Every change in political administration means loss in institutional memory within the public service hierarchy, but politicians seem never bothered.

In fact, there are bound to be surprises with the new presidency in place. For starters, whenever the presidency makes their appointments, there is a simple test of loyalty.

People who have been making noise on various forums will drive in expensive cars on the basis of their loud mouthing. Loyalty is not just an ascription; it can as well be merit. When loyalty is rewarded, what do Malawians get? The answer to this is in the number of presidential praise singers, who will as much as possible suck the truth out of every word before it reaches the presidency.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

There will be new talking heads on the national television. News content will change and if nothing is done, blue- the colour of the new ruling party- will be the colour of the TV screen every time one tunes in to watch the news bulletin at 8PM. In the same way, presidential escapades will displace paid up programmes to the frustration of sponsors. New ministers will take over the newshole on the dummies of the public broadcasters and the nation will watch parrots sing party homages. MBCTv will keep on holding its begging bowl that leaks.

Without a national strategy inspired leadership, new posts will be created to serve the pride of the presidency. There will be new programmes without national-inspired policy framework. Before May 30 2014, in the Joyce Banda regime, there was the Mudzi Transformation Trust, which was a presidential dream for decent housing to all Malawians. Mudzi was a presidential dream inspired by a national nightmare.

With Joyce Banda gone, Mudzi will be in ruins when in reality millions of the taxpayer’s money have been spent on this noble venture. Who knows what the new president will dream about; what presidential initiative or foundation shall it be? And what will stop him from initiating something with a stamp of his name in the interest of Malawians.

The cost of the presidential prerogatives in Malawi is obscene. When the presidential prerogatives are not tamed, Malawians get less than what they pay for the presidency. Five years later, ifnot checked, presidential pride will move the country two-steps forward and three steps backward. Presidential prerogatives are extremely parasitic to the health and wealth of Malawi.