Last month, we had our 44th independence celebration. They were as usual colorful. But just how much do we as a nation have to show for our 44 years of independence? My candid opinion is that, the attainment of independence carried with it an assumption of emancipation from the whims of poverty and oppression. Today, 44 years on, this still remains a dream in color as we still have very little to show for our independence.
Today, we still have a very weak economic base. Poverty is still haunting most Malawian families. People are still living in poor and leaking houses. A good percentage of Malawians still cannot afford a decent meal for the whole twelve months. Ladies and gentlemen, is it not disheartening that after 44 years we should still be crying for donor aid. Should we really be celebrating after getting donor aid?
In my view the tendency of thinking that we need donor aid to develop, has been central to our failure. It is very unfortunate that up to now, we are still clinging to the same poor attitudes that have failed us before. Today our leaders continue disempowering our communities by playing gods. Because our leaders think we need aid to develop, they believe even the communities need them to develop. Our political leaders, instead of helping the community realize their potential to develop, have been in the forefront making the communities believe it is the duty of the government to develop their areas.
The obvious result of this leaders’ attitude has been creating communities who think that without the government, they are useless. This is the attitude that has killed the community’s capacity to pull themselves out of the poverty trap. It is a result of this poor attitude by our leaders that our communities easily resign to fate and mostly lack the confidence they need to develop. This is the attitude that has completely turned African communities into passive recipients of development when they in real terms have a huge capacity to be active participants of the development process.
Ladies and Gentlemen, if there is any reason why the Chinese and the Americans developed so fast and we have not, it is because our leadership has taken away the confidence our communities needed to develop. We have heard that 44 years ago, Taiwan was at the same level as Malawi. Today Taiwan is much more developed than we are. Not that they are lucky, but that their leaders ensured that they built the confidence in the people. Malawians in honest terms are very hard working people yet without building their confidence; we will continue working hard in areas which make very little difference in our lives.
There is need to help our communities to fully utilize their potential. Communities should be able to use local resources to build schools and hospitals when they feel there is a need for one without waiting for the government to do it for them. It is very worrisome that much as we have a lot of skilled labor and other local resources within the communities, our communities would wait for two years for the government or an NGO to build a school for them. In my view, the duty of the government should not be to build people schools or hospitals. Rather, the government should exist to put in place policies that harmonize the operations of the different social sectors while at the same time helping to strengthen the community’s capacity. Government should only come in when the people have tried and failed with their own capacities.
Unfortunately, our political and religious leaders instead of strengthening the capacity of the community have been in the forefront making the community believe that the government has a duty to do everything for them. It is such kind of messages that have ensured that despite our hardworking ness we still remain one of the poorest nations in the world.
I am not saying that the government does not have a duty to its citizens. However, the government’s duty should be understood to be complementary to the already existing efforts by our communities. Much as governments have a duty to ensure that people are enjoying their respective rights, the responsibility of ensuring this rests with the people themselves. Development is a right. Governments have a responsibility of ensuring that people are enjoying their right to development. However, the ultimate responsibility of ensuring that this right is being enjoyed as it ought rests with the holders of that right and not the government. In this case then, the role of the government is not to push for these rights but rather to complement the right holders efforts to the enjoyment of the same by creating policies that support those efforts.
The Chinese and Taiwanese examples should enable us to realize that we do not only require hard work to develop. We need to build the confidence in our communities and help them to see the potential within themselves (ourselves) that we can be able to develop. Unless we are able to understand the capacity that the community has and positively build on it, we should be ready to continue feeding on what falls from the white man’s table.
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