One
of the new land laws enacted by Parliament last year is the Customary Land Act,
2016. Among other things, the Act states that there shall be a traditional land
management area under each traditional authority in this country. Under each traditional
land management area, there shall be a customary land committee which shall
oversee the administration and management of customary land in the traditional
land management area. A customary land committee shall be served by a land
clerk as its secretary. The Act states as follows about the land clerk: The
clerk shall, among other things, possess a Malawi School Leaving Certificate or
its equivalent.
This
got me thinking about who is eligible to become a councillor, a Member of
Parliament or the President under Malawi’s political system. For our discussion
today, we note that in relation to eligibility of councillors, the Local
Government (Elections) Act state that a person must be able to speak and to
read the English language well enough to take an active part in the proceedings
of the Council; in the case of eligibility of Members of Parliament, the
Constitution states that a person must be able to speak and to read the English
language well enough to take an active part in the proceedings of Parliament;
and for the eligibility of President, neither the Constitution nor any law of
this country state anything about the presidential candidate’s capability to
speak and read the English or other language in the discharge of his duty as a
President. While the English language
test is an eligibility factor for a potential councillor or a Member of
Parliament, it is not a requirement for a potential President.
The
language test is a relic of Malawi’s colonial past under British rule. English
was the language for conducting Government business. The norm has remained
post-1964. The Constitutions of 1964 and 1966 respectively provided for the
language test. And English remains the language of conducting Government
business in this country. The matter of the language test, certainly for
parliamentarians, exercised the minds of the special Law Commission on the review
of the Constitution in its report of 2007. The Commission conceded that the
available statistics indicated that very few people have formal educational
qualifications in Malawi. [The figures were as low as 16 per cent for men and 8
per cent for women.] However, the Commission still recommended that formal educational
qualification of a Malawi School Leaving Certificate or its equivalent must be
introduced to the relevant constitutional provision on eligibility of a person
to stand as a Member of Parliament in an election. The Commission also
recommended the formal educational qualification of a first degree from a
recognised institution in the case of the eligibility of a candidate to stand as
a presidential candidate. As it happens, the Commission’s recommendations have
not been passed into law. 10 years and counting.
A
minimum level of formal educational qualification is important for entry into
our political system. A formal educational qualification, in my view, gives
others a sneak peek – an assumption – of one’s level of competence and
comprehension of issues. And indeed, whether they will be fit to fill an
available position. It has been stated here before that the discharge of
(political) public office must bear in mind the interests of the people of
Malawi; their trust; and the requirement to uphold an open, accountable and
transparent government. In recent years, a practice has emerged where
parliamentary committees have been tasked with vetting ambassadorial
appointments; inquiring into possible infractions by the Executive; conducting
interviews to fill vacancies in such important offices as the Clerk of
Parliament. Indeed, the full House of our Parliament vets such positions as the
Chief Justice and the Inspector General of Police.
It
makes a mockery of the system that an interviewer should be demanding the
production a formal educational qualification from an interviewee when it is
possible that the interviewer has no formal educational qualification
whatsoever. It is unfathomable that the serious business of Parliament must be
left with folks who I cannot confidently assume their competence or
comprehension of matters before them.
We now live in a
highly technical global village. The reports and memoranda that flow from the
offices of our technocrats in Government are highly specialised and technical.
A Member of Parliament who merely speaks and reads the English language well is
not – surely – good enough. And when it comes to the Presidency: Well; all our
four Presidents have had formal educational qualifications. Woe the day when a
President shall be elected who does not have a formal educational qualification
and cannot speak and read the English language well enough. Remember, chingerezi is not a requirement to
become a presidential candidate. In the 21st century, as a country,
we must be demanding formal educational qualifications for assumption of
political public office to – at the very least – possibly enhance the quality
of our political system. If we demand formal educational qualifications for our
land clerks, what more with our politicians seeking public office.
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