In a democracy such as ours, the voice of people should be every leader’s first reference point when it comes to making decisions.
Still, the leader must also exercise caution and discretion so that they do not end up just following everything that some people want.
The Latin phrase ‘vox populi, vox Dei’ must particularly make a lot of sense in our context, of course, because the opposite is happening.
Loosely translated to ‘the voice of the people is the voice of God’, the phrase is deployed when people talk about why leaders must always listen to what their subjects are saying and want.
The voice of the majority must never be ignored by a leader who claims to be a servant of the people.
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President Lazarus Chakwera has for the past three years that he has been ruling this country blatantly ignored the voice of the majority when it comes to important decisions in governance affairs.
And that is a very dangerous way of running a country.
Take this for instance: Last month, when everyone was talking about how improvident it was for him to travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly (Unga) in the midst of grinding economic challenges Malawi is facing, the President ignored the voices with reckless abandon.
You see, that assembly, no matter how Chakwera’s hangers-on will extol the virtues of attending it, is a meeting for the world’s big shots.
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That is why the ‘smaller’ leaders often deliver their speeches in front of empty seats, because no one is really interested in hearing anything from someone who is always begging.
It did not really make economic sense for the President to shift the little dollars that we have to New York when it was possible to delegate.
He ignored every voice of reason and stayed in that expensive city for two weeks.
Of course, we cannot rule out the idea of travelling to the United States for the Unga as a fundraising adventure.
But then, foregoing it at this critical time would make more sense than satisfying one’s appetite for amassing wealth at the expense of suffering Malawians.
Forget about whatever those employed to right the President’s wrongs are saying regarding the Unga trip.
Friday, Minister of Information Moses Kunkuyu issued a long and winding statement in which he was clearly at pains to justify the numerous trips Chakwera has undertaken since he assumed office.
Imagine a whole minister telling Malawians that they should be happy that their leader “clinched an enormous $100 million education loan package”.
A country already wobbling under the hefty baggage of loans—one of the factors that the International Monetary Fund is concerned about and has been pushing authorities to address—should be ashamed of acquiring more loans.
By the way, that loan deal was not necessarily clinched by Chakwera. We all know the technical aspects that go into such procedures.
Of course, the presence of a president at an important event may mean a lot in terms of a nation’s posturing, but the truth remains that most of the deals are already discussed by the technical officers before a president even knows about it.
By the way, it is not like those willing to give us money will hold it back if someone else, say a Cabinet minister, represents the President at a meeting where the two parties are discussing the aid.
The problem is that we have a leader who does not believe in delegation.
We have a President who finds so much pleasure in flying around the world when motorists are grappling with fuel scarcity back home.
Right now, we do not know when the fuel situation will normalise. The forex crunch is getting worse and the National Oil Company of Malawi itself seems to have no clue about how to address the problem.
That is why some of us find it ridiculous that Kunkuyu can issue a long and vague statement to justify something that is plainly difficult to rationalise.
Perhaps, the government spokesperson had difficulties to announce the President’s next trip, which is to Mozambique, and thought by first attempting to justify previous trips, the message would be less heavy.
Otherwise, even the Mozambique event itself is something that can be delegated to a Cabinet minister.
It would do Chakwera himself a lot of good if he spent some good time in Malawi and showed his people that he is with them in their suffering.
A leader must be empathetic to the feelings of their people. It is an important quality which, unfortunately, our President does not seem to possess.
By the way, Malawians, who are already being squeezed by the current economic challenges, are dipping deeper into the pockets to access fuel on the black market or pay more in bus fares.
These are the people who are pleading with the President: “Please wait, think, be kind and be present in moments of crisis.”
