By Wesley Macheso
There have been mixed reactions to President Lazarus Chakwera’s State of the Nation Address (Sona), which he delivered in Parliament a few days ago. The big man’s critics have dug holes into the speech, pointing out some inaccuracies that he wanted to make us believe were true. On the other hand, his supporters have hailed the President for delivering a thorough speech that took account of what is happening in each and every district of the country. And amidst all this noise, the real state of our nation remains uncertain.
While the top brass in Malawi Congress Party (MCP) want to convince us that the mistruths in the President’s speech are nothing to worry about, for they were minor inaccuracies, we still ought to be concerned. We cannot just sit down and watch the President tell us that there is a health centre where there is no health centre, or a road where there is no road. What this entails is that whoever is lying to the President is also cheating Malawians. Such inaccurate information may hint at the possibility of abuse and misuse of allocated resources for certain development projects. It is possible that somebody somewhere ate some money.
What is defeating is that this is not new in this country. We witnessed this during the past Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regime, where projects that never saw the light of day were being mentioned as the regime’s achievement. Some of these projects ended at the level of foundation stones and others were just 3D drawings on paper. We can cite Mombera University, a five-star hotel in Mangochi, and airport in Mzuzu, among other lies. As such, to see this government continue with that trail is an insult to Malawians. The one who said that all politicians come from the same family must have been right.
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One wonders what our politicians gain by lying to Malawians. We are one of the poorest nations on Earth and all we need is someone who is humane enough to empathise with the poor of the poorest when making decisions. Politicians can lie, laugh about it and drive off in their expensive cars because they do not feel the pain that we, as average citizens, feel. These are people who do not even understand when we tell them that living has become difficult in this country because of economic affliction. They have everything catered for them by tax-payers’ money. They are living in opulent suburbs where the only noise is the sound of birds.
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A politician who is in government today may be aware that prices of commodities are rising everyday but they cannot do anything about it because that doesn’t affect them. What they are looking at is how to win the next election in September and they cannot admit that the economy is in tatters for fear of losing votes. But come to think of it, pretending that things are OK may as well just cost them the vote. With the way prices are skyrocketing, if the government does not do anything, a bomb will have exploded by September.
One wonders what new lies both the ruling party and the opposition are going to tell us during their campaigns this year. Is there a lie that Malawians have not heard before? If there was a time we were hopeful, then that time was 2020 when Chakwera stormed the country, promising what seemed plausible. How they failed to deliver even the most basic of those promises is still a mystery. Today, those in opposition are finding it hard to convince Malawians because the wounds of the 2020 promises still burn. It is hard to trust again after such betrayal.
For politicians in this country, to lie is divine. Lies are what they survive on and deception is the golden rule in Malawian politics. But the question is; who are these people cheating? It is dumbfounding that our politicians act as if they are foreigners – like they are not Malawians. It is hard to fathom a group of well-educated people conniving to deceive their own country and watch it burn while they face the other way. Where did our politicians lose their humanity? Living in Malawi is like living in hell because our leaders do not love this country.
