Last week, President Lazarus Chakwera came out to address Malawians on the measures that his government intends to take following the 44 percent devaluation of the Malawi Kwacha.
His speech, of cause, came after the big man was criticised for handling the situation a bit carelessly.
To begin with, the massive devaluation was announced just after he left the country on one of his many trips abroad.
Apart from that, he left this heavy news in the hands of his assistants, something that left Malawians wondering if the father of the house really cares about them.
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In his speech last week, the big man tried to sound as convincing as he could, but very few people were impressed by what he said.
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By now, any Malawian who thinks with a clear mind knows that the Chakwera administration is more about talking than doing.
Over the last three years that this government has been in power, we have heard more speeches than we have seen action on the ground.
As the President himself keeps on saying, their ride in power has not been an easy one since they have met a lot of challenges along the way, most of which are not of their own making.
There was the Covid pandemic, the Ukraine war, Tropical Cyclone Freddy and many other excuses for failing to govern.
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What is interesting though is how this administration has approached such challenges. When the pandemic hit, the world economy became paralysed and nobody could breathe.
Amidst that, some well-wishers sent money to poor countries like ours, only for that money to be embezzled by some people in high offices.
When news of such misconduct reached us with no names, the President fumed and said that he was going to deal with the perpetrators, but that did not happen.
Following the same pandemic, our economy reached extremely low levels and the president came to the podium to announce strict measures aimed at cutting on public expenditure.
Lakeshore meetings were banned. Government vehicles were not supposed to be on the road after working hours.
The culture of allowances was going to end and the big men and women restricted themselves to not more than three foreign trips abroad.
As we all know, none of this was implemented and we continued to conduct business as usual. As such, when the president spoke tough last week, those who know better laughed.
It was the same script written by the same people trying to charm a tired audience. The measures that the president outlined in his speech will not see the light of day because there is no will in those who matter to see our country change for the better.
While the devaluation is killing us, common people, measures like cutting on fuel and allowances will affect the gods who rule us and they will not let that happen.
These are men and women who are used to swimming in milk and they will not let problems of the poor affect them.
Another strange thing in all this is that the solutions that our government, through the ministry of finance, is proposing are not sustainable at all.
Our poor government thinks that the solution to ending poverty is in giving handouts to poor people. This is a government that has no money and yet it is planning to be giving money to the urban poor and those who were affected by the cyclone several months ago.
The only money that we are banking on right now is from a loan that the IMF has promised us, and already, we are thinking of ways of wasting that borrowed money.
It is amazing how the decisions made by those in power always smell of poverty. When the Tonse administration came to power, one of their main slogans was that they were going to clear the rubble, but it seems like they have failed to do that.
The rubble that is to be cleared in still very much in the minds of our decision-makers. The decisions that our leaders make keep us where we are – in poverty.
We have always sung about mindset change but we are failing to change our minds, even on the most basic of things. As a country, we are trapped under the rubble of poverty.
