The need for real change

When I read the article: 'EU for soul-searching on poor indicators' by By Golden Matonga which came out in The Nation newspaper on the 14th September, 2015, I couldn't help but feel deeply about my mother Malawi.
Many articles have been written on the stagnation of development in The Warm Heart of Africa but this one hit me hard.

The article is on point when it says Malawi's neighbours are developing while we stay the same. There is remarkable development taking place just across the borders to the neighbouring countries.

Chipata in Zambia for instance has since the 1990s developed into a big town with international outlets such as Game Stores, Shoprite, PEP Stores and KFC setting up shop there.

Mchinji in Malawi, across the border with Zambia and just a few kilometers from Chipata still looks the same as it looked in the 1980s. There has been no visible development.

Another good example is the Songwe border post. On the Malawi side it remains a border post. It is still as it was in 1990 except that it looks a little dilapidated. It has even lost the little tarmac there once was due to lack of maintenance. Today on the Malawi side there is no tarmac road, no filling station, only a few dirty rest houses with "chiimile" food stalls.

The Tanzania side of the Songwe border has developed remarkably. Despite looking more or less the same as the Malawi side in the 1980s and 1990s the Tanzania side has evolved from just a border post to a flourishing border town. There are town houses, tarmac roads with high class lodging facilities and restaurants and a busy filling station.  The population on the Tanzania side has boomed with economic activity.

What are we doing wrong in Malawi?
Multiparty Malawi presidents have not enjoyed as much loyalty as they would like you and me to believe. The level of loyalty they are accorded is nowhere near that of the late president Hastings Kamuzu Banda who unquestionably rallied all Malawians behind him in every development agenda.

Multiparty Malawi presidents continue to experience resistance from citizens on the streets and in parliament. There seems to be little support for their efforts to develop the country.

What is Malawi doing wrong? Please don’t say we are poor because Rwanda, a landlocked country just like Malawi, is a rural country with 90% of its population engaged in subsistence agriculture, just like Malawi. However, Rwanda has had a war. That’s where we start to differ. Its economy is booming. The whole country is moving ahead in development and has had visible growth in the past 20 years. We can mention many countries with similarities to Malawi but are moving forward.

There have been warning signs for Malawi. No president has been elected in Malawi after winning majority of the vote. Multiparty elections in Malawi have never been won with more than 50% of the total vote. The closest that an elected president has ever come to a majority is in 1994 when Bakili Muluzi won 47% of the vote. The Muluzi era has been the most peaceful a Malawian president has ever known. He was indeed quite a "political engineer". He seemed to have sensed the tensions of disunity as he is the only Malawi president to have appointed a second vice president.

Multiparty Malawi presidents have been minority presidents who have only secured an average of 30% of the total vote. Meaning that only 3 out of every 10 people in Malawi approve of a sitting head of state and 7 out of ten Malawians do not approve.

This political landscape is not favorable for development. There is an invisible political stale mate. There is prolonged bickering between those in high places in government and outside. Those outside are using the disgruntled majority of citizens to disrupt government agenda whether It’s good or not. Those in government are using the abundant resources at their disposal to push their agenda no matter what.
The relationship between government and the people is like that of a man and his wife. They may set aside their differences to settle down for a meal or get through the day but real progress will be hampered by disunity. As a result there will not be meaningful achievement in the house in the long term as they will not be able to plan and work together towards a common goal.  Real achievement comes over the long term.
Malawi must seriously consider conducting a complete overhaul of its electoral system. If the status quo stays as is; Malawi risks further economic stagnation.
There is a great need for Malawi to introduce the runoff elections system. In fact the donors have been pestering the Malawi government to review the electoral system for a while now but there has been no will.

In the runoff election set up the leading candidate must get more than 50% of the national vote. If none of the candidates manage to get more than half of the votes the 1st and 2nd place candidates will run against each other. The 3rd place, 4th place and other candidates who have scored lesser votes will come together and unite to vote for the top two candidates. The winner of the runoff election will get more than 50% of the votes enough to comfortably govern the country as majority of citizens will approve.

Only then can we say majority of the citizens rule this country and only then will this country start to move forward.

We may say we are a peaceful country but peace is not necessarily the absence of war. 

Malawi may only move forward when there is a harmonized relationship between government and the people. We cannot do the same things and expect a different result. We MUST consider changing the electoral system.
Tangible development remains an illusion for Malawi as long as the core issues remain unresolved.