It is common to hear our leaders lament sabotage, corruption, vandalism of public property and negligence by some public servants.
During the recent meeting of Parliament, a report by the Trade, Industry and Tourism Committee of the House indicated that Malawi has for the last three years failed to secure $900 000 from an agreement with South Sudan to supply cereals.
Question: How do we afford to lose out on an opportunity that has potential to bring the much needed foreign currency? The report, among others, mentions “institutional challenges” as the cause of the flop.
On a couple of occasions, President Lazarus Chakwera has urged Malawians to refrain from damaging public property.
In May 2023, Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi reported that cases of vandalism in Lilongwe alone had reached unprecedented levels resulting in the utility supplier losing property worth K70 million in just a month.
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Lilongwe City Council, at some point, raised similar concerns, indicating that it was using K2 million per week to replace vandalised property.
Questions: Do our leaders really need to beg citizens to be responsible? Is sabotage really an excuse for a country’s retrogressive development? Does leadership really need to bend and crawl on its knees pleading with civil servants not be negligent in their duties?
Leadership is dynamic and complex. It is a direct reflection of the personality of the figure in front. Just as in a family, whoever leads sets the pace.
When Lee Kuan Yew, the first Prime Minister of Singapore, came into power, he took steps that gave a clear direction of where the nation was heading.
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In the first days of his administration, he cut civil servants’ salaries, employers and employees alike were threatened with imprisonment if they frustrated government policies on industrial activities, and any conduct that was perceived to be morally apprehensive was quickly banned.
Lee was a personality of leadership that unscrupulously abridged democratic rights for the good of his country. Consequently, the gross domestic product of Singapore more than doubled within the first decade of Lee’s regime.
My concern is on the effort our leadership is putting in place to induce in the citizenry the kind of fear that is capable of preventing them from engaging in acts that are detrimental to Malawi’s progress.
When people think that they can get away with their bad behaviour, they often do not care about being responsible.
This is why we see normalised corruption and laziness in the public service a way of doing business.
Our leaders are wary of being seen as cruel. As such, they are so fixed in scruples that they would rather watch the whole nation crumble into pieces than deal with wayward officers.
An antidote to this leadership style is a reset of consciences. Principles that do not serve people have no moral value.
Leadership should exercise authority for greater good. Let our ideals justify our methods.
Enabler Number One of Malawi 2063 is mindset change and one of the catalysts for this goal is a visionary and transformative leadership.
I want to believe that a leadership that lets itself be frustrated by its citizenry and clearly outsmarted by the saboteurs cannot transform anything.
What Malawi needs, to fulfil its 2063 vision, is a leadership with a changed mindset that can change the mindset of the populace.
