David Mkwambisi

Malawi’s decaying societal morals

By

© David Mkwambisi

Few years ago, Malawi was regarded as the warm heart of Africa and was among peaceful nations in Africa. Our country had proper administrative structures, good infrastructure, high education quality and strong social relations and networks. A decade ago Malawi could not bother of security both in rural and urban areas. In those years even children could travel without fear and our women received the requires respect and support.

Despite that we have hard working individuals, well behaving politicians and bonafide organisations, majority of those given the responsibilities to manage, control, monitor national services and resources seem to lack the vision for the nation. As such, today, Malawi is among the poorest countries in the world with rulers and administrators failing to offer any alternative solutions. This article aims to offer some of the issues that are Malawi to have decaying morals and how such issues can be tackled at country and community level.

On the top of the list are politicians and their political parties. Since the dawn of multiparty politics we have seen how politicians plunder and destroy the economy of an already fragile country. Rulers have failed to observe the rule of law and have taken advantage of the sleeping society to litter the country. Today Ministers and Members of Parliament, General Secretaries and party spokespersons have no one to fear and are free to castigate anyone irrespective of age or responsibilities. Even though some politicians are working hard to bring peace among the fighting parties, the cold war is still intensifying with general elections around the corner.

Church leaders, traditional chiefs, judges and lawyers, human rights organizations have all been bulldozed by our politicians. Cabinet Ministers today are free to fire learned people on their platforms without looking at the social and economical implication. How can University Lecturers be asked to resign by one single person because he is a cabinet Minister? How long and how much does it take/cost to educate a Lecturer? Will Malawi be able to replace these people? As if this is not enough, politicians themselves have been fighting through the media and political meetings. Today even children do know that adults can become so low to castigate the opposition or ruling members. All these have made Malawi to stinking like a poorly managed dumping site.

Second on the list causing Malawi to stink are selected and few Chief Executives of key and important sectors in Malawi. CEOs who are still maintained in their respective positions because of relations despite poor performance indicators. The resultant thing has been on the impact of human capacity development, social and health implication and losses of government resources. I can not understand why education in Malawi has deteriorated to this level despite calls from the public to remove those in charge of our education industry.

Our human, natural and social environments have been affected for years and yet CEOs responsible for the improvement of these environments are still enjoying the full backing of the rulers. Why should land and resources for future generation be destroyed by CEOs who have no vision for the country be tolerated? Employees have been affected by the poor management and administration of CEOs, resources have been corruptly shared with foreigners and tax payer’s money is all going into their personal activities. Are we not aware of these short falls? Is this not solid waste ideal enough for the landfill sites? I have had the opportunity to visit some organization and their work is very excellent including that of Press Trust, NASFAM. You don’t require special training to understand the good work being implemented by these organisations. Why are other organisations failing to do them same?

Third on the list are business people and other high-income individuals who have decided to exploit the poor because of lack of policies and regulations. Today, Malawians are being charged high prices on any other single commodity from mobile air time to a bottle of water. I can not understand that there seem to be no one out there to rescue us from this bondage. The prices and poor commodity qualities are all signs of odours polluting the households and denying the poor their rights to freedom and access to proper goods and services.

Fourth on the list are organizations including some of which are faith based. Organizations that are using tax payer’s money to promote messages of hate. Organizations that are failing to appreciate that in a multiparty democracy, participation and freedom of expression is the right to all. Organizations that are cheating farmers on agricultural programmes, stealing from parent for poor education infrastructure; organizations that are misusing donor funds for their personal gains. Organizations that are mistreating orphans and other vulnerable people under their jurisdictions.

With such objects in a poor country like Malawi, the resultant thing is a derail in development, a waste of resources and negative impact on both humans and the environment. A society that has no morals or responsibility and/or vision for its own survival is just like any other municipal solid waste that has to be managed. Based on the waste integrated waste management hierarchy, it important for Malawians to start managing these issues. I therefore propose the following strategies to make sure that our country remains health for us and the future generations.

Firstly, there is need to prevent this waste. This could be achieved by recruiting the right people in key positions. Cabinet posts could be located to people who could support our president and not every chaff and weeds. Public awareness programmes could also help to prevent such type of organizations and exploitation. Secondly, all individuals or organizations that are polluting our society must be reduced to prevent the levels of their toxicity. In this case they must be removed from their current position or must be forced to close their organization following proper procedures. Thirdly, we can re-use some of these people by transferring them to other less important sectors of the economy. Some of these CEOs can be transferred to rural growth centres or estates where they can be useful rather than managing important institutions or they can be transferred to other departments within the organizations

Fourthly, we can recycle most of these individuals and organizations that are polluting our environment. This could be through further education. For organizations, internal training and human capacity programmes can help to change the mind set of these conservative conformists. Taking a study leave all attaching them to better managed institutions could also be an ideal approach.