National IDs Should not Expire

The Malawi government has been running adverts in the local press announcing its pilot phase for national identity cards. This is a plausible move given that without IDs; one can’t justify that they’re indeed Malawian. Birth certificates are not yet universal – those who want one have to pay for it, but most of the citizenry don’t have it.

A small percentage of Malawians with national passports and driver’s licenses depend on these for an ID. Increasingly, Malawians have been using voter certificate cards as ID for services like opening bank accounts. Yet, to get a voting certificate, they also need an ID. Given that most Malawians don’t have one – people need a second person as a witness to register as a voter and earn the voting card.

During a voter registration exercise for the country’s 2014 tripartite elections, there were numerous stories, some verified, some not, that people were registering to get the voting card for their ID. This stresses the need for national IDs; people need them, and the country needs them even more.

Rumours of foreigners, mostly Mozambicans and Zambians, coming to vote in Malawian elections are always there. This only happens because the registration exercise is prone to abuse. After all, Malawians have no means of really identifying themselves. In fledging democracies like Malawi, such rumours can bring chaos and disorder since almost every election is disputed one way or the other. All of this emphasises the importance of the national IDs.

Yet, as currently proposed, the national IDs have severe shortfalls. The government has decided to impose an expiration date on this critical document. These will come with a fee, perhaps a fine if the payment is a one-off. If one has to pay a fee whenever they need to renew their IDs, this will inevitably price out a majority of Malawians, many of whom are already struggling to make a living.

As crucial as these IDs are, they cannot be a priority for most of the population. According to The Hunger Project: “Though Malawi’s economy is steadily improving, the country still faces extreme poverty, with more than 50% of the population currently living below the poverty line.” Almost half of the country’s estimated 17 million people are facing food shortages. Others have equated hunger to a “war silently killing Malawi.”

The economic situation in Malawi makes the national IDs issue an economic issue. The country’s economic situation needs to be factored in to be effective. Malawi is a country of rich and poor. Both classes ought to benefit from national programmes somewhat.
One way to achieve this is to make the national IDs a one-off payment scheme without expiration dates – it is not a government fundraising scheme, after all. Having an expiration date on these IDs defeats the whole point of the project because those who need it most, poor Malawians, will inevitably be priced out and priced out not only of access to the IDs but also out of essential services such as bank loans, health services and possibly other national such as farming subsidies and receiving foodstuffs like those currently facing hunger. Malawi cannot be a country for rich people only.

Condemning Corruption While Ignoring Corruption

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”  – Friedrich Nietzsche.

Not that our political leaders are monsters but Nietzsche’s argument is similar to the argument that people, especially those in positions of leadership and power must always practice what they preach if they are to be taken seriously.

About a week ago Malawi’s state president, Peter Mutharika presided over anti-corruption day where he gave a resounding speech in which he identified corruption as “a deadly enemy we must fight in an all-out war!” “Corruption denies medicine from those suffering in our hospitals; it denies learning resources from our children to frustrate our future; and it drains resources for building roads and bridges to frustrate development of this country,” He said.

Mutharika asked Malawians to embody the spirit of hard work, honesty and integrity and accountability. President Peter Mutharika – Photo Credit: NyasatimesI fully agree with the president, and I am sure no well meaning Malawian could disagree with these observations. In fact, if we are to look around we will see Malawians crying for a corrupt-free nation – a country with accountable leadership where basic necessities are provided for; a country with servant leadership where bounties of the land are meant for all Malawians not for the privileged few; a country where patriotism means supporting the government when it deserves it and defending one’s country unconditionally.

It is however unfortunate that throughout 51 years of independence, these issues have been frustrated by the people Malawians have entrusted with power. Corruption is everywhere in Malawi and it is safe to say that it trickles from the echelons of power to the lowest denominator. It is the corruption of cashgate proportions that “denies medicine from our hospitals” – it is this kind of corruption that “denies learning resources from our children” – it is this kind of corruption that “frustrates development of [Malawi]”.

After two decades of democracy and Malawians pushing for accountable government and leadership, Malawi government has only just establish the office of assets declaration, which is still being frustrated by inadequate funding and no one is exactly sure what will come out of it. Here president Mutharika has an opportunity to make good of his desire for an accountable state.

Talking about accountability, why is that we have a democracy where political parties are not legally obliged to declare their assets and source of funding? Is this not fertile ground for corruption? Have we, as a nation, ever had an honest discussion why is it that it is only the ruling party that always has election campaigning resources? During his BBC HARDtalk interview, President Mutharika insinuated that Joyce Banda used the proceeds from the sale of presidential jet for her campaigning, shouldn’t this be a cause of concern that we need a law in place to regulate electoral funding?

President Mutharika has opportunity to make good of his desire by passing access to information bill, which successive governments have frustrated since the year 2000. His own government has added to frustration on this issue. One minute there is a commitment to passing to the bill, the following minute the same government is backtracking. Talk is cheap and Mutharika’s anti-corruption speech comes to nothing if his government does nothing to address issues fostering corruption – Mutharika should heed Nietzsche’s observations: “… if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”

Calling Malawians ‘lazy’ for their plight is misguided and self-Defeating

“The realities of the modern global economy require government to play a substantial role in ensuring the national and economic security of the people.” ~ Matthew Continetti

One the advantages of publishing online are instant responses and feedback you get from a wider audience – albeit a similar demographic. Some comments are abusive, mostly attacking the author. Not engaging with the content. Yet, there are also critical and engaging comments. I pay attention to the latter and I learn from it.

I mainly write on socioeconomic, development and political issues. I do not hide from the fact that Malawi is a very poor country, with poor public services and unscrupulous leaders – bordering on fraudsters, think cashgate. I believe Malawi can do much better and I believe the government and political leadership have a critical role in this. Yet, the most recurring point from commenters is that scribes, civil society and the intellectual community are fond of blaming the government while they contribute very little if anything towards national development. Others simply say Malawians are poor because they are “lazy”.

Here, “lazy” implies that Malawians always want their government to provide for them. The argument is in the similar lines to the former USA President, John F Kennedy’s (JFK) famous assertion: “… ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” It is a plausible view but only if taken into the right context. is concerned. There is only so much that citizens can achieve without what economists call ‘invisible arm’ of the state.difference
In her highly acclaimed book, The Entrepreneurial State, (2013) Marianna Mazzucato, economics professor at Sussex University, England observed that some of the most successful innovations of the modern world such as the internet, the web, GPS, algorithm search, which search engines such as Google and Yahoo! use, most of software used in slick Apple products and social networks such as Facebook all benefit from USA government’s huge investment in research and development (R&D).

The core argument of the book is that states have a key role to play in backing new innovations and entrepreneurship, through investment in R&D among other things. In this case, the USA, a home to all the aforementioned products, laid a foundation for success of its citizens and companies. Thus, JFK’s call to his fellow citizens to not only ask from their government but also contribute to its success is justifiable.

Has Malawi government invested enough if at all in R&D? Has Malawi taken right steps to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship? This is a question we must consider, carefully, before start labelling Malawians “lazy”. The “lazy” card must be measured against available opportunities. Majority of Malawians work very hard for very little. Poor Malawians do all the backbreaking farming and dreaded jobs in both private and public sectors. Yet, they remain poor because of unfair economic system at play. It is the political economy, stupid.

In previous column I argued that majority of Malawians have become fatalistic. One of the commenters insisted on “laziness” being the problem. He pointed out that though the majority of Malawians rely on agriculture, they only work about three to four months of year – meaning in their fields. It is a valid argument and I have come across it many times before.

Yet, this overlooks the fact that agriculture in Malawi is not mechanised, and it remains rain-fed – most of it. It is impossible that most Malawians can cultivate more than once a year. Manual farming work is backbreaking, there is only so much folks can do. There is a need for state intervention: investment in mechanised agriculture and make irrigation farming a reality, on a grand scale.

The lack of mechanised farming in Malawi goes beyond manual work in farms. It also contributes to land sales because as it is, land – the only valuable asset that majority of Malawians have, is labour intensive and not capital intensive. This is why most Malawians are happy to sell their land because they see no benefit from it – worsening their poverty. Farming is very expensive in Malawi and the state has done very little to make it affordable and attractive.

There is farm input subsidies programme (FISP) but this is a merely political programme. It is the gesture that matters. No one cares what happens once the subsidies have been distributed. Estimates show that postharvest loss in Malawi is at 30% annually. Yet, the state is not taking investment in technologies to cub these losses seriously if at all. Leaving everything to profit making multinational corporations. No wonder FISP has failed to reduce the number of beneficiaries. On the contrary, the number of beneficiaries has increased.

Calling Malawians lazy for their plight only is misguided and it is self-defeating. I know some who was keeping cattle for milk production. Around 2009 he started investing in equipment for cheese production. He was going to add five to his five and six permanent and seasonal workers, respectively. This would help reducing unemployment, extra tax revenue for the government and more utility bills for its struggling parastatals.

All these plans were abandoned around 2010/ 11 when Malawi economy nosedived, epitomised by dry fuel pumps, lack of foreign currency, constant electricity outages and frozen aid due the late Bingu wa Mutharika’s kamikaze economic policies and poor governance. This is why it is naïve to think that progress and prosperity can be detached from politics.

Any company, organisation or business venture needs healthy, educated and workers, it is the state that is entrusted with providing good health and education services. Businesses need reliable electricity, reliable communications infrastructure, good road networks etc. All these services are provided by the state. Where these services are patchy or absent entrepreneurship will struggle. This subject can take so many angles; this is one of them.

A country is as civilised as its most vulnerable citizen, where is Malawi on this?

In the last three weeks or so I have written few articles as well as commentary on social media, mostly on Twitter and Tumblr, on what I consider social, economic and political injustices in Malawi. I believe there is a silent warfare going on in the country, failure in governance, poor service delivery and security breakdown is mostly blamed on poor people, the marginalised majority of this country. Issues of selective ‘justice’ are not new but constant blaming of the poor people for government’s failures is becoming endemic. It time we have a serious discourse on this.
In the last month also we have seen a ‘security sweep’ by the security forces across the country’s major cities and towns, at least 2119 people were arrested. It is not known how many of these folks have been charged and given a fair chance to defend themselves in courts. The chances are that we will never know because those arrested are nobodies and even the media that reported on their arrest, of course without names, will not report follow-up stories on their cases. Being poor is a serious crime.

These arrests were justified by a number of high profile robberies in the country – including a break-in at the State Vice President’s house and an organised bank robbery in Mzuzu. It takes high profile cases such as these for the state to act, there are robberies happening through the country, in places without address where voiceless people reside and nobody gives a hoot about it. But when high places are hit, you go on the streets and arrest struggling folk in the name of strengthening security. Whatever happened to freedom of movement?

Does anyone serious think the organised bank robbery like that in Mzuzu can be carried by ordinary folks loitering the streets in a broad day light? Serious crimes in this country are committed by executives in their expensive suits, chuffer driven in SUV cars – release names in the cashgate forensic audit report and you will see the real culprits keep this poor country on its knees. As American rapper Immortal Technic aptly said, “poverty makes people do reckless things but [the rich] do worse to protect their [interests]”.

In a similar fashion, one year after cashgate revelations there has been only one conviction and the government still will not release names of those named in forensic audit instituted by the same government in order to bring all the culprits to book. If Malawi is struggling today, failing to provide social and economic security to its people it is because, among other things, government’s failure to curb corruption.

‘Zero-aid’ budget sounds good but in reality you might as well call it cashgate budget, a supposed solution to Malawi government’s failure address the issue of cashgate sufficiently and satisfactorily.

On Monday last week traders on M1 between Bunda Turn, or perhaps Bunda Roundabout now, to St John’s in Lilongwe went to their trading places only to find their goods stalls razed down to the ground by Lilongwe City Council operatives who came overnight, like typical arsonist, to burn the trading places apparently because it was illegal to trade in those places. I understand that Bunda turn off is even outside the jurisdiction of Lilongwe city country and the place where folks were trading is a private land, owned by someone I know.

These traders are simply there to earn an honest living. Those that frequented St John’s market will know that majority of these traders were hardworking women trying to feed their families. It is usually the case that when government is failing to provide basic social and economic services that it turns to the weakest members of the society in order to be seen as doing something. The problem is that this does not solve any problem; it exacerbates the problem if anything. You cannot guarantee national security by taking away people’s livelihoods. Where will these traders earn their living now? Have the authorities provided any solutions?

There is a class warfare going on in Malawi and the country needs a serious discourse on it. Academics and intellectuals must take lead on this. As Noam Chomsky noted, it is responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies. This sounds and straightforward but for the modern intellectual, adds Chomsky, it is not at all obvious. Chomsky quotes Martin Heidegger writing in 1933 thus: “truth is the revelation of that which makes a people certain, clear, and strong in its action and knowledge.” Adding that it is only this kind of “truth” that one has a responsibility to speak.

The deceit, distortion and false ideology entrenched in our society that poor people are the most culpable for social disorder should be publicly challenged and intellectuals should take lead in challenging this notion and set the record straight. People indulging in petty crime are themselves victims of often unpunished high-level corruption.

Yet perpetrators of cashgate are free to roam simply because they have stakes in higher society and can afford legal representation, justice for those who can afford it. Unless this changes I do not see how Malawi can move forward as a country. A country is as progressive as its most vulnerable citizen. Where do we position Malawi on this? A country can have progressive laws and structures but very little progress can be made in absence of social and economic justice.