On
30 December, 2017, this column published my piece entitled ‘The religion of
nsima’. The piece was re-published on 27 January, 2018. The piece is, at once,
a frustrated tirade, and, at the same time, a call to action. The frustrated
tirade side of it highlights the nation–wide self–hypnosis afflicting the
motherland. The call to action stressed that, in 2018, we must get back to
work. And harder. I further stated that the State ‘expects’ each citizen as an
individual to be responsible.
Similarly, the exercise of the legal and political authority of the State must
be done responsibly. The ‘exerciser’ is to
be responsible to the citizen as an individual and as a collective. I
further stated that the challenge in Malawi has been that the strategy of
holding the ‘exerciser’ of State authority to account happens at the collective
and not the individual level of citizenship.
2018
draws to a close in two days’ time. It seems to me that some of us did go to
work in the year. And worked harder. But unfortunately, it was never in
advancing the agenda of the country. Throughout the year, we have had one disheartening
story after the other.
The
electricity sector in this country continues to disappoint the citizenry. We
have been reduced to ‘proudly boasting’ about an hour’s power ‘ON’. The other
day, we even went to that border town, clad in specially made golf shirts and zirundu, to jump and prance about some
20 megawatts from ba-Lungu. All this has happened in the wake of the pomp surrounding
the arrival of majeneleta. All this
has happened in the aftermath of the story of alonda who ‘drunk’ themselves silly on 3 million litres of mafuta.
Various
pieces of this column have proffered critiques, opinions and what not on a
plethora of subjects: The 50+1 debate on the determination of the presidential
vote rages on. All parties seem unanimous in their preference for the
first-past-the-post system. We shall, therefore, one day have a President Elect
with as little as 10 per cent of the national vote. (What with 50+ political
parties registered under our law.)
The
quality of governance can be better. True to form, the State President and the
State Vice President have fallen out. (The State Vice President is now the
leader of the Muv’menti.) The
constant fall out of the State President and the State Vice President points to
the failure of our podium–politics to recognise and embrace the constitutional
conventions that must complement the text and practice contained in the
Constitution of the Republic. Our podium–politics can be super–petty at the
expense of the national good.
The
intraparty democracy in this country remains a challenge. Our main political
parties have a story or two they wish never found the light of day. ‘Primaries’
for the election of ma-shadow have
not been drama-free. The 50:50 campaign for the empowerment of women
politicians seems to have been sabotaged by entrenched patriarchal tendencies.
Women are even at the wrong end of insults from members of Cabinet. (Sorry; it
is not all women. It is two women.)
Our
political public officers continue to take the citizenry for fools. The
purported explanation of the K4 billion bounty in Parliament; The 145; Kaloshwe;
and them. All of these leave a lot to be desired. Za-Esikomu sitinena. Not only are our political public officers
taking us for granted, they have gone a notch up and are now re-writing the
country’s history of the nationalist, independence struggle. Public finance
mismanagement continues like nobody’s business. Sometimes, one has to ask:
Where is our umunthu?
…
In
this column, I have previously contended that a good education implies
attainment of knowledge. An uneducated
general population lack knowledge. Knowledge is a resource of power. A ‘knowledgeless’ society is powerless. A lack
of ‘power–knowledge’ shall imply that a whole general population is incapable
to critique. Critique is an integral part of governing. Political yobism, in
this country, has arisen out of paucity for critique among the citizenry.
Critique shall be important as the political campaigning gets fierce in the New
Year.
…
My
mother, like most folks of her generation, is extremely religious. This
generation has passed on their fierce belief in a Supreme Being to their
offspring. So; every 5.30 am, it is morning devotion; at 9 am, women’s choir
meeting; at 2pm, church projects committee meeting; at 5pm, evening devotion;
and at the weekend, Christian warriors meeting. Week in. Week out. I think my
mother and her friends at her church have already negotiated the narrow path to
Heaven.
My
mother and her friends symbolise the typical Malawian. (You can substitute the
reference to Christianity for any other faith.) The belief in God in this
country is palpable. There is no prize for guessing that in 2019 there shall be
a national day of prayers for free and fair elections.
It
is okay to pray. It is actually cool if you are that inclined. But God gave us
a brain. After all the praying; speaking in tongues or whatever it is, is done,
let us remember to use our brains.
The
stones must cry out.
Paja–nso Nsima–yi tisiye.
Wawa.
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