The recent pastoral letter from Malawian Catholic Bishops has sparked controversial debates on various social media platforms.
Some people have come in the open to pat the bishops for condemning the current regime over rampant corruption, nepotism, delayed justice, incompetent leadership and mismanagement of the country’s economy.
This was contrary to what President Lazarus Chakwera promised Malawians that he would take them to the biblical promised land Canaan where honey and milk would be flowing like water.
Four years down under Chakwera regime’s, most Malawians have realised that life has worsened than in the previous governments.
The plausible question that is relevant at this juncture is, what actually went wrong that Chakwera regime should abandon its own promises?
Firstly, President Chakwera has proved to be an incompetent leader. His appointments are mostly based on appeasement policy and are politically motivated. The resultant effect of such approach is that the mediocre take crucial public positions. By consequence, efficiency and effectiveness of public service delivery is highly compromised.
Secondly, President Chakwera as the leader of Tonse Alliance has failed to harmonize divergent political ideologies from various political parties.
The truth of the matter is that if President Chakwera was open enough, he could have taken advantage of various views within the alliance especially from experienced political party leaders such as former President Joyce Banda, Vice President Saulos Chilima, Prof. John Chisi, Kamuzu Chibambo and many others.
Thirdly, prior to fresh presidential elections, the Tonse Alliance chose to overpromise Malawians what they knew was unattainable. Perhaps, we cannot blame President Chakwera for it was a concerted or dramatised effort to lie to innocent Malawians. However, President Chakwera is partly to blame for leading an alliance of scammers.
Fourthly, Chakwera’s administration is full of hypocrisy and lies. It is pathetic that Reverend Chakwera is not ashamed of himself by lying to the nation.
For instance, President Chakwera lied to Malawians that he would stamp out corruption. However, once in power, President Chakwera is at the forefront promoting corruption by pardoning corruption convicts such as Chenji Golo Uladi Mussa.
We are trying to analyse the current situation why President Chakwera has failed to lead Malawi to the promised land.
The fifth reason is that like Jonah in the bible, Reverend Chakwera abandoned unashamedly his Christian values in exchange for political and dubious ambitions.
In a country where over 90% of the population is religious , President Chakwera was voted into power with the hope that a Christian president would serve Malawians with utmost impartiality and integrity.
What sort of a man of God blows millions of Kwachas globetrotting when his fellow Malawians are grappling with abject poverty and hunger amid economic woes?
Sixthly, President Chakwera failed to appreciate the role of the state President in the country. In fact, it was regrettable to hear the whole President Chakwera likening the role of the President to that of a traffic officer and not to the role of a driver of a vehicle.
How did Chakwera expect to stamp corruption when he was not on the lead to hold ACB accountable for its mission of cracking down on corruption?
Did President Chakwera expect that the business-as-usual tendency rooted in government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) would bring the anticipated change by miracle without presidential visionary leadership?
Seventhly, President Chakwera and the ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) abandoned the Hi-5 slogan that could have acted as a framework to guide the current regime.
Contrary to Hi 5 MCP strategy, most Malawians are not prospering together. Corruption is high. Selective and delayed justice has become the order of the day. Malawians are not united as there are more divisions across tribal and regional lines. It remains a paradox why Reverend Chakwera has failed to exude servant leadership as anticipated of man of God.
Eighthly, by abandoning the vision of clearing the rubbles in the government machinery, it is pathetic that the Tonse Alliance under the tutelage of President Chakwera has become the beneficiary of the inherited porous government systems.
It is against this background that no-one is surprised to see the senior government officials being embroiled in corruption and bribery charges.
Ninthly, the Tonse government cheats Malawians that it is following economic austerity measures when in actual fact they are looting government coffers behind the scene like nobody’s business.
It is pathetic that the Tonse government is so quick to borrow money which it carelessly squanders within a short period of time. It is therefore not a surprise that both Malawi’s domestic and foreign debts have trebled.
Lastly but not least, one of the reasons why Malawi has arrived at Bagamoyo instead of reaching the anticipated destination, Canaan is because Tonse government has focused on politics rather than on fulfilling its campaign promises.
In an attempt to stay in power forever, the Tonse Government has captured and taken control of all public sectors including the Judiciary, National Assembly, Malawi Electoral Commission (ME and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
In conclusion, Tonse Alliance administration has all the chances to steer the ship from Bagamoyo to Canaan if it expeditiously addresses the aforementioned concerns. Otherwise it will be an uphill for Tonse Alliance Government to win the 2025 presidential elections.
The way Chakwera is governing this country is not what Malawian’s were expecting.A lot of people are suffering in many ways eg,,lack of food,poverty jobless just mention a few.Even the project of mtukula pakhomo,districs like CHIRADZULU and BLANTYRE they are not receiving amount they were promissed…….