We have been told that Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world with more than half of our population living below the poverty line.
Some economists have even gone further to argue that, on world standards, even most of the working people in this country are extremely poor, for they cannot afford basic necessities.
This poverty is as a result of several factors including poor decision making, lack of inventiveness, corruption and selfish leadership.
What is worrisome is what our poverty has come to mean to most citizens and how that has shaped our mindsets.
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The first president of this country, Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, mentioned that when he was coming back to Malawi to fight colonialism, he had found some people literally naked. While his statement was meant to lay testament to our “backwardness”, such sentiments reveal that most Malawians have struggled with poverty from as way back as the colonial times.
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But Kamuzu made sure that, after independence, the country became self-reliant and that people were industrious.
Being the proud man that he was, the Ngwazi ensured that people had food, at the very least. We managed to have a reliable healthcare system, transportation, energy and some sound education. At least we were moving towards something.
Our attitude towards our poverty changed with the dawn of multiparty democracy in 1994. It is at that point that we begin to see a change in how most Malawians perceive themselves and the role of the government in their individual lives.
One would competently argue that the concept of freedom that Bakili Muluzi and his fellow democrats preached at the initiation of multiparty democracy was either misrepresented or misunderstood by most people.
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However, the message was sent and how it was received resulted in inculcating laziness and a syndrome of dependency in the citizenry.
The freedom that people celebrated ended up becoming freedom from responsibilities. It seems a good number of us thought that freedom meant to live for free and having food being put into our mouths by someone else.
The worst thing is that the philosophy of the United Democratic Front administration supported such thinking by promising free education, free healthcare services and several other absurdities that we could not sustain.
Later on, the politicians introduced free fertiliser and seeds and even went on to promise free pairs of shoes for everyone.
These are the kinds of ideas that corrupted the post-democratic society in Malawi and, up to date, we have failed to reconfigure our attitudes.
We expect to have quality things but at no cost at all. We have become a dependent society and this is one of the biggest contributors to our poverty.
Case in point, recently, public universities have announced fees hike – some even increasing the fees by 80 percent. As usual, there is an outcry from students, parents and other stakeholders. The cry is the same old one: “How can needy and poor people like us afford such exorbitant fees?”
Indeed, we have many poor people in this country, but is it true that most of those who go to public universities come from extremely poor backgrounds?
If you are just to consider the selection list, you will realise that most of university students come from private schools and other schools where their fees are way much higher than what they are required to pay at the university.
Only very few come from community day secondary Schools and the government has put in place a system of loans and grants for them.
As such, one cannot help but question: Are the outcries genuine or is it just the same chronic illness of wanting freebies?
It is time we realised that nobody is out there to save us. Malawi is our country and, as citizens, our survival depends on our initiatives.
The issue of mindset change, as preached by our political leaders, is crucial and we need to seriously consider it and put the same to practice.
There is no one who has ever succeeded by depending on another person. Those who want good things must work for them.
Yes, our government has failed on so many things, but what have we done as citizens to uplift ourselves? It is absurd to depend on a sick man on a deathbed when you have the energy to work.
