As usual, Malawians have been asked to brace for tough times that lie ahead following the recent 44% devaluation of our currency. This seems to be the only language left with politicians after all their lies during political campaigns. The language of campaign is always very different from what the masters tell us when we usher them into those seats of power where they feel no shocks. But by now, Malawians must realize and understand that this is not the way to live. People in normal countries do not live this way.
Over the years, our politicians have worked so hard to make us believe that it is normal for a currency to always lose its value. Their response to devaluations and economic shocks has never taken the form of accepting any blame for the crises. They want to make us believe that whatever happens to the economy is beyond their control. But this is not true. The Malawi Kwacha fails to appreciate because those in charge of affairs in this country are failures. They have failed to grow or sustain the economy because they do not have the acumen to do that. Achieving economic stability is not something beyond the reach of humans, as they want to lie to us.
The Kwacha has not always been this weak. There was a time when it used to seat on the same table as the much-talked-about United States Dollar. But over the years, politicians in this country have concentrated on the wrong things and they have put very little effort in things that matter. President Chakwera and his vice, Chilima, need to come to us and explain why we are in this situation when they promised us better. These are people who said they had the solutions to economic woes during their campaign in 2019/2020. They told us that fertilizer would be selling at K4500. They promised us economic growth to such an extent that water and electricity connections would be free. And here they are, telling their lieutenants to convince us that whatever is happening is not their fault.
It does not take an economist to know that for a country’s economy to grow and be stable, that country must produce more than it consumes. Even in household economics, the breadwinner knows that they cannot spend beyond their means and expect to survive. Every day, people at every corner of this country wake up and go on the road to look for ways of making money. The simplest person ought to know that you reap what you sow, but the Malawi government seems not to know this. Our leaders have an insatiable appetite for spending and this is why we are here. They just want to spend without investing anything to cushion their vice.
As we speak today, the country cannot show anything that it is doing in order to lift us from the dungeon of consuming economies to that of producing ones. We have a lot of potential in agriculture here, but we just talk about it. Malawi is a gold mine in terms of tourism, but our efforts in that sector are mediocre. We don’t even have an airport, to begin with. There was a time when we manufactured textiles and assembled vehicles in this country, but politicians destroyed all that potential. There must have been a certain point along the path of history where we lost it. Maybe our love for storytelling has left us with an admiration for orators instead of having real actors in positions of power.
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The bottom line here is that, no politician should make us believe that our economic woes are beyond us. The Chakwera administration must accept blame for the tribulations that Malawians are going through. They have failed to find solutions to heal our ailing economy. And if you listen to the cushions that the Minister of Finance is proposing, you would agree that these people indeed have no clue on running a country. Giving handouts to the poorest families and those affected by Cyclone Freddy will not solve our problems. In fact, we are here because of the love of free things. Malawi’s economy is dying because our politicians have failed to find simple solutions to simple problems.
