OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT MUTHARIKA

Mr President,

Our moral duty, as citizens of this Country is to hold leadership accountable — and no one is beyond critique including you. Failure to critique leadership is not an option! We can ill afford to let hero worship, personality cult, government media to weigh your leadership ability in view of Malawi’s downward spiral. Without a sharp critical assessment of leadership and the duties of leadership, we will only elect mediocrity and dictators as opposed to strong visionaries. So in place of redressing poverty, poor service delivery and empowering citizens. you have chosen not to listen to the pleas of Malawians. This is no laughing matter, because millions of people are suffering/dying for no reason other than because of the terrible choices you continue to make as a leader.

As someone said, “The blind cannot lead the sighted, the uninformed cannot lead the wise, the unskilled cannot direct the skilled. And those that are deaf cannot define the sound”

As with everywhere in the world, the current government rarely rewards merit. As President, you are squandering not only trust, but the potential of those you mismanage. You are not only wasting opportunities to develop Malawi, but the very future of this nation.

Corruption is not only about stealing funds for gallivanting with your sycophants at UNGA in New York. It is also about putting bad people in cabinet positions. People who have neither the passion nor the qualification to do the job. This form of corruption is SOLUTIONS TO LEADERSHIP
What can to be done? There is no denying the problem of leadership as one of the top problems in Africa, if not in the entire world. We have the capacity to end poverty, what really then is lacking is the will to do so. And that will is largely locked in the hands of those who call themselves leaders; business or political. And there is only one path–organize– use people numbers to create civil societies that hold leadership accountable. Have clear policy pushed into government. Peer review your peers and peer review your leaders. Make is so that any leader that has a hint of corruption, tribalism, nepotism, cronyism, Western choir boy-ism, non-Pan-African, or anti-Africanism on their breath– no hope of getting into office, or CEO of anything powerful. In all systems may they be sharia, democracy, or a socialist economy, people have the power to put pressure on leadership and shape the leaders that best represent their interest. The solution must come from the people.crippling Malawi’s development. Government is full of your village friends. None with the qualifications to do the work demanded of them other than being clan members. The price of nepotism causes a complete failure of a country to develop. Corruption is worse than murder. It kills innocent citizens; it takes resources meant to build a hospital or school and buys a private jet, condemning thousands of Malawians over multiply generations to extreme poverty.

Some rabid supporters of the party always react negatively to constructive criticism of leadership by saying “Oh Peter Mutharika has done amazing things; made amazing strides.” But If the government has built one hospital, where it had the potential to build 10000 (based on figures in the National Budget) then we as Malawians seriously need to ask what is this progress being measured against?
When President and his cronies become the richest people in Malawi by misusing political power to enrich themselves, we know that is not the type of leadership that will develop this country! When members of parliament award themselves annual salary increases, we know that there are just as bad as this President!

There is no denying the problem of leadership as one of the top problems in Malawi,. Malawi has the capacity to end poverty, what really then is lacking is the will to do to end poverty. And that will is largely in the hands of those who call themselves leaders; business or political. And there is only one path–organize– use people numbers to create a civil society that hold leadership accountable. Civil society is not Billy Mayaya, Timothy Mtambo, Martha Kwataine or whoever! It is every Malawian standing up for what is right! No one person can bring change. It is a collective effort! If any leader shows any hint of corruption, tribalism, nepotism, cronyism, there is no hope of them getting or remaining inoffice, no matter how powerful because in a democracy people hold the power. In a democracy, people have the power to put pressure on leadership and shape the leaders that best represent their interest. The solution to Malawi’s problems must come from the people.

Wakutsina Khutu ndi mnansi!

DZUKA MALAWI DZUKA!!