“A Quest for a Better and Descent Malawi”
The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace Media and Advocacy Statement on the Contemporary Socio-Economic and Political Context.
10th August, 2015
1.0. Preamble
We, the Secretaries of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi comprising the National Office and Dioceses of Karonga, Mzuzu, Lilongwe, Dedza, Mangochi, Zomba, Blantyre and Chikwawa gathered at the Catholic Secretariat on 27th July, in our normal Commission’s periodic meetings to, among other things on our agenda, reflect upon our nation’s socio-economic and political context. We do as we fulfill our role of building a just and peaceful society that respects the integrity of creation, the dignity of a human beings, the right to life for all, whilst taking into consideration the preferential treatment of the marginalized and the poor.
Malawi is slowly becoming a nation full of anxiety, a nation that is becoming entrenched into poverty, a nation that is slowly forgetting peace, a nation that is growing impatient and is slowly sliding into disrespecting the sanctity of human life and a nation whose citizens are gradually emerging unpatriotic to the national values and needs.
We, the CCJP Secretaries, are inspired, first, by our national duty as Malawian citizens who have the passion and the responsibility for the thriving of our country. Secondly, we are inspired and motivated by our Christian duty and calling to be good stewards of our society and to be light and salt of the world. Our message therefore, is of encouragement, hope, and peace but also of discernment to all duty bearers, citizens and all people of good will.
2.0. Our Affirmations
We affirm that the following basics are highly critical in our country if, as a nation, we must attain the much needed socio-economic and political transformation needed 51 years after attaining independence:
- That Malawi can be a better and a happy nation for all.
- That in government’s striving processes to make Malawi a better place for all, its own citizens, neighboring friends, development and cooperating partners and the private sector must provide their unwavering technical, financial, moral and intellectual support for such a noble cause.
- That our Government cannot attain any meaningful success on any national initiative if it does not develop a nation vision and clearly defined development agenda that it rallies around all citizens, development and cooperating partners and the private sector.
- That healthy, well-fed, well-educated, well-secured and free citizens loyal, obedient, united and patriotic to the ideals of their nation are very important ingredients for an effective steering of the state to the socio-economic development of the individual citizens’ lives, families and the whole nation at large.
- That a nation, that is always at loggerheads, does not agree on anything, does not learn to dialogue when challenges arise, is a nation doomed to stagnation and is a nation bound to remain in poverty no matter how many good laws or elections it may possess and conduct.
3.0. Our Concerns and Worries
Having affirmed our understanding of the basics for our nation to attain socio-economic and political transformation; we, the CCJP Secretaries, seek also to highlight our painful realization that our society is not yet what we all desire. As guided by the Bishops in their 1st December 2013 Pastoral letter entitled “Strengthening The Vision of Our Destiny” in which they called upon all sectors of Malawi, CSOs, political parties, government leaders, development partners, the private sector and the general citizens to reflect upon and take positive strides to transform the current status of our development 50 years after independence We are worried and concerned that:
3.1. Shrinking or Total Lack of Financing for Public Service Delivery
Whilst government is trying to make sure that service delivery is adequately and timely financed, there are continued reports in many Government departments and public health facilities of low funding and supply of necessary resources to effect service delivery. For example, as a result of low or no funding at all, many district hospitals have scaled down their operations, their ambulance services grounded, their medical supplies drastically reduced to few essential drugs, provision of meals to patients reduced to only one meal per day from three. We urge relevant authorities to locate where the main problem is. If it is inefficiencies in different line ministries and departments, capacity building processes must be embarked on soon; if it is negligence from responsible officers, authorities must take drastic measures to sort out this negligence. This is because the right to health, development and a possibility of a descent life for many Malawians are hugely getting compromised.
3.2. Misplaced Priorities
Whilst the plight of lessened financial disbursements from many Government ministries are heightening, spending money for less important issues , a specific example being a banquet to celebrate the passing of the national budget is signal of misplaced priorities. Such bad signals in the face of growing poverty and frustrations among people continue to be a sad trend in Malawi.
3.3. “Cooked” Government Macroeconomic Indicators
The micro-economic indicators on the ground can not in any way prove the hopeful Government macro–economic indicators. There are growing levels of poverty, desperation, hunger and shrinking public service delivery that are untimely and quality compromised. As such, we suggest that it is high time our leaders gave the nation the right information so that diversified strategies can be explored to improve the lives of the majority poor Malawians. The right economic indicators would also assist in seeking international collaboration for Government to have the needed capacity to fulfill its roles.
3.4. National Insecurity
The nation is currently gripped with saddening experiences of sustained insecurity. What is more worrisome, in some instances, is that some police officers, who were supposed to be law enforcers, have joined hands with criminals terrorizing our society in an unprecedented manner. We are further worried that some communities have started taking laws into their own hands as they are torching and killing suspects due to perceived non responsiveness of our security and justice systems. We are also worried that this menace will chase and scare away prospective foreign investors whilst Government has been embarking on a serious drive to attract the much needed investors, a positive initiative for our country. We encourage a multi-sectoral approach that our Malawi Police must lead in seeking better ways of combating crime as it will not be possible for our Police to successfully combat this high level of crime alone.
3.5. Introduction of New Systems in Public Service Delivery Institutions i.e. Road Traffic and Safety Directorate
Whilst we applaud Government for facilitating the procurement, installation and utilization of the new system at the Road Traffic offices; the bottlenecks that all people seeking road traffic services are facing are worrisome and frustrating. We believe more could be done to sort out the problem of delays and unnecessary long queues. We think, if the software is the problem, the installers must come in faster; if the workers are not capacitated, capacity building processes should be embarked on soon and if its workers’ sabotage of the system let the authorities deal with such malpractice once and for all.
3.6. Continued National Food Shortages and Failure to Utilize our God Given Natural Resources
We are worried that governments have come and gone with little or no political will that would seriously allow a committed financing to irrigation agriculture, which in our view, is a solid answer to our perennial food crisis. Whilst our rivers, lakes and dams are full of fresh waters, we seem to be clueless to the importance of such natural resource. We urge the Government, development and cooperating partners including all people of good will to seriously adopt and finance irrigation farming now! Right to food is a social justice issue!
3.7. Contemporary Donors’ Position on the Malawi Government Versus the Socio-Economic Rights of Malawian Citizens.
Whilst Government is working at strengthening its financial management and social accountability systems; we are primarily calling upon it to swiftly clean up the systems and strengthen them to stop the corrupt tendencies that have led to the loss of much needed funds for public service delivery and that have, in turn, drawn away development partners. We also encourage the Judiciary not to relent in pursuing the cashgate and other related cases. As failing to do so, is a recipe for further suffering of ordinary citizens and the failure of donor partners in providing direct budget support.
However, whilst we make such calls to government we make a kind request, to Malawi Government’s development and cooperating partners, upon getting satisfied with government reforms and accountability strengthening efforts, to resume timely direct budget support to the Malawi Government, our Government, for it to effectively deliver the much needed public services. We believe with proper social accountability initiatives, such funds will not be subject to abuse any more. We recommend that serious talks have to emerge between the Government and development and cooperating partners for sustainable development of Malawi. We believe our development and cooperating partners are in Malawi for the betterment of the rural and urban poor people of Malawi who have been heavily affected by their decision to stop budgetary support.
3.8. Continued tensions and conflicts in Local Governance systems and structures.
We were happy that on May 20th 2014, we finally ushered in councilors to effectively make functional our local governance structures in Malawi. Sadly, few months later, we note mounting tensions, suspicions, mistrusts and conflicts among key players in Local government. We believe, if unattended to, the true meaning and relevancy of local government will be watered down and that in turn development and the ordinary citizens are the greatest losers. As such, we encourage Councilors, Members of Parliament, Council secretariat officials and traditional leaders to learn to work together whilst respecting their separate mandates and roles but also by recognizing their complementarities.
3.9. Malawi after the May 20th 2014 Tripartite Elections
On our journey to the 2014 tripartite elections, calls for transformational leadership across all structures of leadership (Government, Political Parties, CSOs, FBOs, Religious bodies, Traditional authorities) were very strong. However, almost a year after, we note with sadness some encounters that do not reflect this critical aspiration. We sadly note the very same old ways of doing things across political parties. We note the same way of governance styles across the divide. Sadly, we still encounter dwindling spirit of patriotism, lack of commitment to honestly build a better and happy nation. Yet, as we waste this precious time to transform mother Malawi, we are cursing the present and the future generations who will live and continue to wallow in poverty. We urge the Government, Political Parties, faith and traditional leaders, CSO and FBO leaders and all people of good will to build a nation that is honest, that loves peace, that is united, that is hard working and that values life.
3.10 Politics Versus Development
Malawians have complained more times that the campaign period during elections does not stop even if we have a ruling government in place. Regimes after regime politicians live as if they are in campaigning period. Consequently, time is wasted on politicking than on defining and implementing the nation’s development agenda by government or on providing alternative development agenda by opposition political parties. No wonder poverty is still pervasive in Malawi today. We therefore urge this administration to deal with developmental challenges Malawi is facing. We also urge political parties and people of goodwill to focus on development initiatives and leave retrogressive politics of campaigning when it’s not time for elections.
4.0. Our Earnest Appeal
We, the CCJP Secretaries, make few critical appeals to the:
4.1. Government: To honestly lead Malawi through consensus building and create an enabling economic and political environment for the transformation of mother Malawi. We further urge Government to thoroughly consult on national policies for the betterment of who those policies will serve.
4.2. Donor Partners: To resume direct aid to our ailing mother Malawi as not to do so is slowly aiding Malawi into a deathbed. This, only upon getting satisfied with the government reforms and social accountability strengthening processes. There are serious problems currently with accountability and financial management systems, we have already urged government to swiftly improve and we are keenly monitoring the processes. We are hopeful that once beaten twice shy, together we can come up with lasting solutions to avoid a repeat.
4.3. Political Parties’, CSOs, Media , Faith Communities’ Leaderships and the General Citizenry: To remember thatthis is our country and we have no other. Let us rediscover the vision of our fore fathers and strengthen our destiny to build a better and happy Malawi nation by being loyal, obedient, united, disciplined to the socio-economic transformation agenda of mother Malawi. We still have time to rework our public ethics and work ethics so that Malawi can be a better place for all. It is therefore time we take positive action for mother Malawi.
5.0. Conclusion
We conclude our message of encouragement, hope and discernment by quoting inspiring words contained in the pastoral letter from our Bishops “Strengthening the Vision of Our Destiny” that whilst we have just gone through our Golden Jubilee celebrations, “we as a country have a golden opportunity to re-examine our nation conscience, recover our original vision, re-define our destiny and forge ahead. Of paramount importance in this strengthening our destiny are the issues of quality leadership, citizen participation, national development agenda and national values”. We thank God for our independence and the strides so far in the democratization and emancipation project for Malawi and we realistically note that there is still a long way to go for this project to reach maturation. As such, the critical and significant roles of many stakeholders that include: state and non-state actors, local and international NGOs, political parties, the private sector, development and cooperating partners and of course the general citizenry cannot be wished away.
May God bless our leaders and bless our mother Malawi as we keep it a land of peace!
CCJP National Office
CCJP Archdiocese of Lilongwe
CCJP Dedza
CCJP Mzuzu
CCJP Karonga
CCJP Mangochi
CCJP Zomba
CCJP Archdiocese of Blantyre
CCJP Chikwawa.