In July next year, Malawi commemorates 50 years
of independence. There has been so many views from different sectors of our
society on what has been achieved and what has not. The consensus though has
been that what we have achieved is far too little compared to that what we
ought have to achieved.
I totally agree with such views. As we continue moving forward, the need to reverse the situation and move out of the
poverty trap has never been more imperative than it is now. In this article, I
would like to contribute to this debate by offering my views on why we are
still lagging behind and what could be done to change the present situation.
I would
like to make it clear here that I believe that Malawi is a country which has enormous
potential to develop. This potential is both on the human as well as the
capital resources front. In my view, what has held us back all this long is our
tendency to think in a socialist mode
when the world is moving in a capitalist direction. By this I mean, the greatest problem
affecting Malawi today is its own citizens who expect to get decent services
from the government without paying anything.
Think of it this way, In Malawi, 85% of the
population are in the rural areas. This leaves just 15% in the urban areas.
Looking at the tax structure of the Malawi government, it is clear that that
most of the taxes in the country are paid by the fewer people in the urban
areas. It is not surprising thus that the tax regime on the Malawian worker is
detrimental and does not support the growth of the one being taxed. Taxes in
themselves are not a bad thing, but when a few people are forced to carry a
heavy load on behalf of many people, then it becomes a serious problem. When a
nation in which only few pay taxes has a very huge appetite for
free things, then we are in an abyss.
In other words, in as much as the government may
try to raise the taxable figures for those in formal employment, the country
would still not be able to generate enough resources to adequately support all
of us. That is why in a country as poor as ours, it is illogical to have almost
all services being offered for free. One wonders, is it really justifiable for
the government to offer a completely
free primary education? Is it really plausible for us to have a
completely free health care system? Why should Malawians expect to watch free
TV and expect a High Definition (HD) pictures when they are not willing to pay for a TV
license. It is a fact that most of the
money that government uses is in the areas of Agriculture, education and
health. Given that these services are all offered mostly for free, it is not
surprising that the services are often poor
if that is not an understatement.
In my opinion, the country needs to reflect seriously
on what services it can offer for free and those which require to be paid for.
We must first detach politics from development and realize that it is insanity for us to expect to get all
the services from the government free of charge. Such a sick mentality is what
is crippling the services of institutions like the University of Malawi ( whose
students would like to get payouts in form of allowances that exceed the fees
they pay and expect the institution to operate normally) Admarc and most water boards. As citizens living in this country, we must
always take it upon ourselves to think of better ways in which we can help our
services to be operating in the way that we desire.
By asking the populace to be paying a little
something when they get hospital services or education, the government, would
not be asking too much from its citizens as that would allow the citizen to be
able to demand quality services from those who are supposed to provide them.
Unless we move from being a nation which expect everything to be free and play
our part in the nations development, we must expect that nothing, will change
in the next 50 years.
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