REMARKS BY MSGR. DR. PATRICK THAWALE, CHAIRPERSON OF PAC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, DURING INTERFACE MEETING WITH THE STATE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALAWI, HIS EXCELLENCY, REV. DR. LAZARUS MCCARTHY CHAKWERA ON 25th AUGUST, 2021 AT 11:00 AM AT KAMUZU PALACE, LILONGWE.
Your Excellency, Rev. Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, the President of the Republic of Malawi,
It is with great humility and honour to be here again to address you on matters of national importance. It is a year ago, early August 2020, in the same boardroom, we deliberated on matters of national importance, and towards the end of our statement we raised some issues of governance that remain relevant today as they were then.
Your Excellency, times have changed and new challenges of enormous magnitude have emerged. The Covid-19 pandemic continues to destabilize economies and the world order has been transformed. Generations are different , coupled with social media that has brought opportunities as well as challenges in managing information. Transformative and dynamic leadership have become a must as people follow closely what their leaders promise. We live in a world where new generations expect swift decisions.
Before we go into aspects that have formed the main points for our discussion today , Your Excellency allow me to congratulate you on behalf of my delegation for a successful SADC Summit held in Lilongwe , Capital City of Malawi. Indeed, Your Excellency, the City of Lilongwe has been
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transformed as a result of the just ended SADC summit. It is our wish that the developmental activities witnessed during the past weeks could be the order of the day. Most of the institutions were at work. The hosting of the SADC summit and the transfer of power to Your Excellency to lead the regional body have made Malawi proud. We pledge our support towards regional integration through our participation in SADC National Committee and AU ECOSOCC.
Your Excellency , we further note a positive stride in the pursuit of Affordable Input Programme (AIP) . With all its challenges in the initial stages, the yield has been very good. This is an encouraging development in the Agricultural Sector.
Based on your campaign pledges, of significance also is Your Excellency’s commitment to appear before parliament to take questions. This has signified the spirit of walking the talk among several pledges you made. We take the view that the general political ambience has somewhat improved with Tonse Alliance administration. Strides have also been made in the general fight against Covid-19 pandemic and we hope your leadership will continue to improve mechanisms for arresting the pandemic.
However, Your Excellency, as far as decision-making in political and economic governance is concerned the ball is in your court as you are the torch bearer of the Alliance. The whole alliance may not make bold decisions – for the authority to act is vested in Your Excellency as the Head of State and Government. Take note that PAC would like to be honest with you because during our meeting of 9th June 2021 at Sanjika , Your Excellency requested us to provide key observations on political and economic situation . This therefore brings us to the three aspects – political governance, economic hardship and corruption – that form the main thrust for our deliberations today.
- Political Governance
Faced with lack of clarity on Malawi’s political governance following inaction on crucial political decisions, several stakeholders have voiced their frustrations and have failed to appreciate your leadership style. The debate on the inaction have focused on failure to reshuffle the Cabinet as pledged last year ; maintaining the same big size of the Cabinet ; and reversing your
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own positions on some crucial decisions that provided a ray of hope for enforcement in Malawi. Coupled with inaction and inefficiency at top level of the civil service and some political players who seem to have grip on your leadership form part of the major observations made by the public and your own political officials in private conversations. Your Excellency, the observations shared above do exist. We are confident that some may have raised these observations to you but perhaps there were some doubts in your mind over their existence. Your Excellency, take it from us. They represent true reflection of the conversations that are circulating on the ground.
- Economic hardship
Your Excellency, we are aware that matters of the economy are complex and very much influenced by external variables. You may not have control over such external factors. On this point, we don’t intend to criticize your economic models or approaches but rather to observe how difficult it can be to defend economic hardship in light of delays in making decisions on the cabinet and high echelons of Civil Service. Your Excellency, the fact of the matter is that Malawians are feeling the economic pinch at the moment in view of the impact from Covid-19 pandemic. With the rise in prices and having little income the cry is loud and clear. Once again, it may not be your fault, Your Excellency, as we alluded to in the preamble that times have changed in light of the pandemic.
In this regard , we note that you have already taken an initiative having recognized that the price for fertilizer will be so exorbitant for local Malawians to purchase such a strategic commodity. Your recent remarks on fertilizer prices are welcome indeed. Government intervention in procuring fertilizer could be a path to follow. Smallholder Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRF) and ADMARC may be avenues to be explored. The price for fertilizer is an unfortunate for a local economy like ours. Your Excellency, we are not naïve that in a market economy it’s difficult to control prices. It is inevitable to have price increases as a result of changes of prices abroad. However, let us be realistic as to whether such prices are in consonant with the levels of poverty in Malawi. Let us put the interest of Malawians first through Government’s intervention in terms of how fertilizer may be procured. - Corruption and enforcement of the Law
Your Excellency, of recently incidents of corruption have been in the media. PAC is aware that your government is working on these vices. However, the perception being created is that some political players in the current administration are on the rush to enrich themselves. While we are aware that legal matters are complicated, your leadership need to vigorously enforce the law in a bid to deal with corrupt practices. Arrests , both current and previous, should not be pursued for the sake of it. The public expects completion of the due process of the law once they have been initiated. This helps reduce the levels of perception that politicians go in power for their personal glory and enrichment. - Our Recommendations:
Your Excellency, we make the following recommendations not that we hate anybody else but we have to put the interest of Malawians above ours. We appreciate all efforts your administration has put in to turn around things. However, below are our honest recommendations if one follows public conversation:
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Reconstitute your Cabinet to reduce its size and remove the perception that appointments are based on blood relations. On this point, let us make ourselves clear. There is nothing wrong in the Tonse Alliance to have your relations in positions as long as they qualify and can perform diligently. As for the Cabinet, maintaining big size of the Cabinet contradicts the spirit of sharing pains of economic hardships among Malawians this time around. It might have made sense at first as you assumed power as alliance – but now with this economic hardship the status quo might not be in sync with people’s expectations and economic hardship.
The Civil Service is an engine for development. Reconsider acceptable leadership at the helm of the administration. Privately, you may know that they do a good job but if stakeholders such as NGO, Civil Servants themselves assess their leadership otherwise, then that also impacts on your leadership and execution of government policies.
Given that fertilizer is a strategic commodity , government should intervene and consider other channels for procuring such a commodity. Malawiisfacingeconomichardshipandtosuggestthat localfarmerscan afford buying fertilizer at such high prices may not be realistic.
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4 - Attempt to fix the economy through whatever means available at your disposal, Your Excellency.
- Improve on media management. We note that at times there is damaging social media in circulation against your leadership and it seems that the State House lack a team to promptly clarify matters.
With humility and matter of emphasis Your Excellency, let us be honest with you. Failure to honour reshuffling of your cabinet and appointing your relations in the initial stages was not in sync with voter’s expectations. Voters rated you highly to put Your Excellency in power. You may recall that we came from a background where we condemned the same practices under the previous regime. Even as Tonse Alliance you should have avoided these acts at all costs from the beginning. In many cases, appointment of close relations leads to deliberate disregard of professionalism; for those appointed feel they own the administration.
So too in the higher echelons of the civil service, Your Excellency may need persons with competence for the execution of decisions made by your Tonse Administration. Those allegedly to be very close to you and influence your decisions should be avoided at all cost in the pursuit of major decisions. At the end of the day it will be your failure that will matter.
Your Excellency, I wish to thank you for giving us an opportunity to frankly discuss with you issues of national importance. You deserve credit as far as engaging with stakeholders is concerned.
Finally Your Excellency, act now rather than later. You may be losing your supporters at a faster rate.
Thank you Your Excellency. God Bless.
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