Of course, I appreciate that the reality is more complicated, however, Malawi presents a complex and mixed picture of progress on economic independence.
The trodden path up to now has been neither perfect nor linear. In most times, the journey has been characteristic of a drunken man stumbling home in the dark, taking two steps forward, one step backward and three more steps sideways yet he keeps moving forward.
After 52 years of political independence, the country now needs economic independence. While being independent can mean different things to different people, there is a general agreement that independence refers to the state of freedom from external control and constraint or in other words, the state in which one is not subject to another’s authority or indeed a state in which one does not depend on another for livelihood or subsistence. If one uses this idea of independence, then it would not wrong to say that Malawi has been independent for some time but has yet a long way to go to claim full independence.
The battles that culminated in the 1964 independence and the 1994 multiparty politics were based on the social contract that the economic development of the country and indeed the living standards of its people would improve. In 2016, Malawi as a nation is independent and yet the majority of our people still live in poverty. I hope that the appearance of political independence does not lead us to be complacent with our economic independence. The truth is that Malawi has little control over its own economic realities and as such might not even have any solid control over its own internal affairs.
Since independence, Malawi’s national development planning has been largely disjointed and donor-driven. This lack of independence in developing our own growth trajectory has led delayed economic development. The implementation of such outside driven development planning and policies resulted in inefficiencies and inappropriate prioritisation in the allocation of government funds.
In the early years of Malawi’s independence, development planning was through 10-year plans focusing on economic growth but this shifted in 2004 to poverty-oriented development planning. These included the Medium-Term Economic Framework in 1994, the Policy Framework for Poverty Reduction in 1995, the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy (MPRS) in 2002 and, more recently, the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) one and two in 2007 and 2012 respectively. However, all these initiatives were largely externally driven by the donor community, rather than by national stakeholders, and tended to be disjointed. In addition, these initiatives have also been at most transitory and often short-term success-driven with less potential to bring about sustained growth and poverty reduction.
The development of an independent national economy and gaining of complete economic independence is of vital importance to Malawi in order not only to improve the lives of its citizens but a weapon to fight the basic interests of the external forces who want to retain their colonial rule and economic interest. One of the ways to be economically independent is to develop an independent national economy. The quest for the development of independent national economy unavoidably reflects itself in political struggle, in serious political struggle against those who have vested interest (both internal and external) in the natural resources endowed us.
However, it is important to understand that politics and economics are always in a delicate interaction, the first step in economic independence is political independence. A country that does not secure total political independence will have problems in attaining genuine economic independence. Unfortunately 52 years after political independence, economic independence is slowly and surely eluding us as we continue to depend on external interests and a host of internal factors that are acting against our progress as a country.
So as we remember 6th July every year, let us remember that when we freed ourselves from the British colonial rule, it was means to an end and not an end in itself. The battle for political independence was intertwined with the economic independence aspirations. After 52 years, it becomes crucial that citizens’ honest and objective participation is ensured. The institutions established to facilitate economic development should demonstrate total commitment in their duties to the state and government at all times. Let us use the independence celebrations as an opportunity for a deeper critical analysis of the economic and development policies that were being pursued and learn from them to determine the strategies for the next independence…. Economic Independence.
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