The year 2025 is almost upon us and the vultures have gone out hunting for prey. This past week saw most of the big political parties holding their rallies across the country, trying to convince the masses that they have the solutions to our problems. Interestingly, and to great disappointment, these people seem to be singing the same old songs and dancing to the same rhythm of mediocre politics. They have nothing new to say and they are stuck in the same narrative: accusing the other of being the biggest thief, citing petty projects as achievements and promising food to the hungry.
In 2025, our country will be 61 years old, and by all standards, our political expectations should have improved by then. But it seems like we are stuck somewhere in the dark, and politicians know it. They should be aware of this, of course, because they are the reason why we are here in the first place. Since 1964, we have struggled with the same issues, and these are mostly problems that have simple solutions to them. But for some reason, every successive regime does not want to address the root causes of our ailments because they capitalise on them as campaign promises.
In their political rallies last weekend, the two biggest parties in the race, Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), traded barbs, accusing each other of stealing from poor Malawians. Of course, it is true that corruption gets worse by the day in this country. It is as if we have no leadership at all as the national cake seems to be for thieves to share. One of the toughest statements that President Lazarus Chakwera made when he was campaigning for the presidency was war on corruption, but that has not happened. He used to call out former president Peter Mutharika for being the “prince of thieves” by “abetting corruption”, but now that Chakwera is in power, there is nothing that has changed. We are just here to see who will crown him.
The most irksome thing with this is that the MCP continues to point fingers at their predecessors for being thieves while doing nothing about their accusations. If this current regime has evidence of the thievery of the DPP, why can’t they bring those who abused their offices to justice? Malawians are not that foolish that they should just be listening to big men talking about how the other ate big moneys and clap hands about it. The money you have access to when you are in those positions is ours and it pains to hear of how you know of who stole what and you still do nothing about it. It is better to keep quiet than to ride on a wave that will take us nowhere.
Another thing that these political parties are doing when they go out there is to point at petty projects, which they call “developments”, as their achievements. The DPP is well-known for this, as reiterated in their “lozani zanu” rhetoric. In their hay days, they pointed at half roads as big achievements. They even lied to us about airports and a city in Mangochi, a university in Mzimba, among other lies. The MCP continues from where their friends left off and are citing small streets in Blantyre as big developments. They also lied to us about an airport in Mzuzu and a university, which they will never build by 2025. If this is how we conceive development, then we are in this ship to sink.
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Sixty years after independence, politicians in this country still think that politics is all about ndale. They believe it is some game where the biggest crook or liar must carry the day. It does not occur to them that politics is supposed to be the beam that holds the nation in place. Political decisions are what make or break nations, and we should not be surprised that we are a broken nation. By now, Malawians must be tired of hearing the same talk of development from politicians who don’t understand what that word means. The talk on fighting corruption has run its course and Malawians want to see action. Tell us something you have done that has significantly improved this country. Show us something different. Tell us news.
