Where did Malawi lose it in as far as development is concerned?

* “Multiparty — people chose freedom of kutukwana over development”

* “Until plunderers came, democracy robbed us of all the good things we had”

* “Democracy is not bad but when it’s been managed wrongly, it’s dispensation doesn’t bring its enterprising results”

By Duncan Mlanjira

“There was a time when Malawi stood tall — a nation of order, discipline, and pride,” writes marketer Emmanuel Maliro on his Facebook page. “We walked with confidence, knowing that systems worked, justice was swift but fair, and the future was promising.

“Today, over 60 years down the line, we look around and ask ourselves — where did we lose it?”

His views attracted an avalanche of nostalgic comments and a sense of dismay at the state of the country, which currently is reeling from high inflation rate that has led to skyrocketing of prices of basic household commodities.

Maliro continues:

The law was the law

“Once upon a time, discipline was not just expected, it was a way of life. The Youth League, the MYP, the Police, and the Army were the backbone of law and order.

“Petty crimes were resolved swiftly by village headmen and chiefs, ensuring that only serious cases reached the courts. Justice was accessible, fair, and efficient. Today, our courts are flooded with trivial cases while some serious offenses remain unresolved. Where did we lose it?

A nation on the move

“There was a time when our transportation system was world class. Intercity buses operated on schedule, stopping at designated bus stops. Students had concession tickets, making education more accessible. Trains connected our cities — you could take one from Limbe to Blantyre with ease.

“Lake Malawi had well maintained, safe ships that carried passengers and goods. Our national airline had multiple aircraft flying to different destinations, including direct flights to London. There were even private planes owned by Malawians! Today, even securing a dedicated presidential aircraft seems like a luxury.

“Mzuzu Airport, once a hub of potential, has been overtaken by bushes. Our roads are congested, public transport is chaotic, and air travel is a distant dream for many. Where did we lose it?

“We also had efficient fire services. Every city had functional fire engines, connected to working hydrants, ready to respond. Today? A fire engine runs out of water within minutes, and city hydrants are more of a historical relic. When fires break out, we watch helplessly. Where did we lose it?

The mighty Kwacha

“There was a time when the Kwacha stood strong. It was at par with the British Pound, stronger than the Rand, the Yuan, and many other global currencies. People transacted with confidence, foreign exchange was accessible, and businesses thrived.

“Today, the Kwacha loses value at an alarming rate. The US dollar is as scarce as rain in a drought. Inflation bites hard, and the economy struggles to keep pace. What happened? Where did we lose it?

A passport to the world

“Once, the Malawian passport was a symbol of pride and access. We traveled freely, even to the UK, without the need for a visa. It was respected worldwide. Today? Even obtaining a passport is a challenge, with production delays and logistical struggles. Something that once symbolised freedom is now a source of frustration. Where did we lose it?

The land of milk and honey

“Agriculture was the heartbeat of our nation. Every home had a nkhokwe, stocked with food from one season to the next. Food security was not a political slogan — it was a reality.

“Kamuzu’s crop inspection tours kept farmers on their toes, and every garden flourished. Fertilizer was accessible; no middlemen, no inflated prices. Farmers simply bought what they needed. But then, someone saw an opportunity. Middlemen emerged, controlling fertilizer distribution, making it scarce and expensive.

“Livestock was abundant. Farmers took pride in donating cattle, goats, and chickens whenever the President visited their region. This wealth in agriculture reflected in our public hospitals, prisons, and security forces, where food was nutritious and sufficient.

“Today, even basic meals in institutions are a struggle. Public hospitals lack essential supplies, and food shortages are common in places where they were once unheard of. Where did we lose it?

When public schools were the best

“I went to a public school, and it was among the best. We played basketball, volleyball, chess, ping pong, and javelin — we even had a school bus! Boys learned craft and technology, girls mastered needlework and home-craft. Libraries were well stocked, and technical colleges provided practical skills that guaranteed employment.

“Even Cabinet ministers’ children attended public schools because the standards were exceptional. But today? A Form 2 certificate means nothing. The Standard 5 national exam was scrapped, and vocational training is now a privilege for the few. Walk into a public school today, and you might struggle to hold back tears. Where did we lose it?

A well-fed security force

“Our police officers and soldiers were once respected, well-fed, and well-housed. They had competitive salaries and decent working conditions. They served with pride and dignity.

“Today? Many struggle just like the citizens they swore to protect. Morale is low, resources are limited, and the job is harder than ever. Where did we lose it?

Hospitals of pride

“Once upon a time, even Cabinet ministers sought treatment at public hospitals. I was born at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, back when the maternity wing was affectionately called ‘ku Gulupu’ — it was a source of national pride.

“Public dispensaries were well-stocked, treating minor ailments so referral hospitals could focus on serious cases. But today? Medicines are scarce, and essential equipment sits idle, sometimes deliberately, to push patients into private hospitals. (You don’t allow doctors that work in public hospitals own pharmacies or private hospitals)

“To make matters worse, we don’t even have a single fully equipped ambulance in the country. What we have are vehicles with sirens that can transport patients, but these are not true ambulances. A real ambulance is a mobile emergency unit, equipped with life-saving medical equipment and staffed by trained medical personnel capable of stabilising a patient before they reach the hospital.

“In a proper ambulance, paramedics can administer oxygen, perform CPR, control bleeding, or even begin critical treatment en route. But in our case, patients are simply loaded into a vehicle and rushed to the hospital, often with a driver who has no medical training and no ability to assist the patient in distress. What we have today are not ambulances, they are merely transport vehicles with sirens.

“And then there’s the issue of medical referrals abroad. There was a time when our hospitals were so well-equipped that even the most critical conditions were treated locally. Now, we hear of patients being flown out for treatment that could have been handled right here — if only our hospitals had the right resources. Those who can afford it seek medical care in other countries, while those who can’t are left to fate.

How did we get here? Where did we lose it?

“We were once a nation of abundance, pride, and discipline. A country where systems worked, institutions thrived, and the people had faith in their nation’s direction.

“Today, we are left with memories of what once was. But instead of simply asking, ‘where did we lose it?’ perhaps the real question should be; ‘how do we find our way back?”

The responses were equally interesting with Deguzman Kaminjolo answering the question; ‘Where did we lose it’ as: “Multiparty. People chose freedom of kutukwana over development”, while another answered: Until plunderers, democracy robbed us of all the good things we had”.

Is democracy bad? — a question was asked, to which the answer was: “NO. Democracy is not bad but when it’s been managed wrongly, it’s dispensation doesn’t bring its enterprising results.”

Ronald Mpaso commented that the country “had well protected forests, national parks and game reserves. We had our own Mikolongwe chickens being sold all over the country. How about the manufacturing sector of the lines PEW, Lever Brothers, Nzeru Radio Company, NOIL, a thriving ADMARC, Malawi Railways, Mulanje Peak foods — blame it on 1994-2004.

“Emmanuel, if you remember, the democracy activists only told people about their freedoms and rights without telling them that these rights and freedoms have limits. They never told them about their duties.”

To which Maliro replied, saying democracy “brought laziness” and lack of patriotism and ownership, while reminiscing that back in the old days, people used to clean the towns during Youth Week: “Everyone was working; no one was just loitering in town — even the youths rushed to assist the elderly with their heavy luggage for free.

“But today, in everything the youths demand a payment (‘ndioneni kenakake’. I forgot to shut my trunk of my car the other day at Blantyre Market. Five strong guys jumped, struggling with each other to close it for me and then, they all came to my window, demanding money for their ‘help’.

“So, I simply opened the trunk again, stepped out and shut it myself. I told them, ‘I can’t pay for something I can easily do myself’”, he said, to which Mpaso rejoined, saying Malawians lost their humanity, adding that politicians add to this moral decay because they tell people: ‘Ndi ufulu wanu, wina asakuletseni (its your human right, no one should impinge on it’. So we have been and still are paying a high cost for that.”

James Zimba came forth to say “blame it on Bakili Muluzi and the UDF” adding that the other day, he heard the leader of UDF in Parliament, Ned Phoya, “attacking MCP for destroying the economy and praising UDF leadership for good economic policies”.

“I just laughed out aloud, I think the guy was on drugs or something. To be honest, all the problems we are facing today, the origin is Bakili and UDF. The guy destroyed literally everything that Kamuzu had laid down. He stripped the country naked.”

Owen Kamwendo joined to say: “It is also important to remember that we had regime-controlled media. So they cherry-picked on what to show the world. In my opinion these were good development but not enough. Further more of the parastatals were heavily subsidised — hence not sustainable in a liberal economy.”

To which Vincent Kaunda came in to say: “It seems most of us are commenting with limited knowledge of what exactly was happening on global scale. Things started going astray way before 1994. Actually the structural adjustment program came into being in 1986 to save the world economy.

“The world economy had gone through a series of global economic disasters during the 1970s: the oil crisis, debt crisis, multiple economic depressions, and stagflation. At the same time, USA had made a series of economic blunders and decisions that affected the world at large.

“We weren’t spared as Third World countries. For Malawi, tobacco prices dropped so much on the international market that ADMARC had become insolvent in 1985. This was the same case for most parastatals — they were underperforming, relying hugely on government subventions which further decreased fiscal space for other crucial areas.

“In essence, this world economic turmoil heavily impacted developing countries and led us to seek loans from IMF and World Bank; in exchange for loans, we were required to implement policies aimed at reducing state spending to create fiscal space, opening up our economies to international trade, and promoting privatisation, often with significant social and economic consequences.

“This structural adjustment program was shoved down our throats at a time when the wind of change was also blowing across Africa. This was the time when dictatorships were coming to an end in favour for democracy. Making it almost impossible to manage both concurrently.

“After the change of government in 1994, all our eyes were fixed on the political win, but not on the economic turmoil we were also going through. We set up the privatisation commission to sell government companies at breakneck speed to access funds from IMF and World Bank. Most of these companies had huge assets but were sold to political cronies at ridiculous prices as low as MK100,000.

“While this set us on a wrong path, the path was inevitable as required by the two Bretonwood institutions. Even if we had continued with one party system, the companies would still have been sold off to different political cronies.

“We really couldnt have avoided these crises. The underlying problem was the structural adjustment program itself and the way it was handled. IMF and World Bank screwed us over when in real sense the culprit was USA and its Vietnam War, the severing of ties to the gold bullion in 1971, their agreement with the house of Saud in 1971 and 1973 to trade oil only in US$ and the changing of the world order that ensued forcing countries to trade in US$, a currency that had and still has no value in itself.”

To which Maliro commented: “If, as you put it, this was a global crisis that affected everyone, why are other countries doing better than us? Take Tanzania, for example — they are now the second-largest producer of maize in Africa. Were they not affected by the same crisis?”

To which Kaunda responded: “My analysis ended at 1994 — selling the companies was inevitable. Coming to present day, can you choose a fellow agricultural landlocked country without minerals to compare with? Tanzania, even without globalisation, would still be ahead of us holding all factors constant.

“I agree with you with fresh waters, arable land and man power, we are not supposed to have hunger year in and year out. Agriculture coupled with irrigation is very much possible to pull us out of poverty, but we are too corrupt to pull ourselves up.

“The ‘system’ AKA civil service has kept us behind and is not responsive to change. People running this system are well educated by UNIMA, but are incapable of turning it around because of its complexity, self agrandizement, and lack of enough political will since 1994.

“Where we are now is our bad choice of leadership. Politics gets in our way of development because we are too divided along tribal lines, regions and religion to come up with a single way forward.

“We have been going astray on a roller coaster from 1994 to date. We failed to implement Vision 2020, and now we have horribly failed to implement MW2063 vision within 4 years much that according to the National Planning Commission, we are trailing by 15 years!

“We can blame these politicians all we want, but they are a reflection of who we are as Malawians. Changing governments gives us the same results. We are all to blame. We are doing the same things expecting different results.”

Having gone through the comments and responses, Lemani J. said:  “This has broken my heart many times. Izizi ndi zowawa, we need to start holding our leaders accountable. We are seriously going backwards in a forward global village.”

Franklyn Mbewe added that democracy came with a chronic disease of corruption “that has attacked our bone marrows, that even the blood being produced by these marrows’ is corrupted” and when put across to him that other countries have democracy too, Mbewe said: “If you watch closely, there’s an element of dictatorship in their democratic system. I fully blame the Muluzi and company for the mess that we are in, they enacted laws to protect thieves (themselves), impunity!

Gondwe Samson said Maliro’s narrative has pained him, saying: “This is something we have experienced in our lifetime in Malawi, now it’s like a distant dream never to be achieved any more — not with this unbelievable mediocrity.”

Ba Malaga said he strongly feels the transition from autocratic/single party to democracy “was poorly managed [in that] we lost it there and will struggle to recover and regain our position”

Another observed that “democracy is good if people also know how to look after their country and not destroying and stealing their own public properties. Look at how the public is destroying new developments.

“Most of these politicians that want our votes, not even 90% of them are for the good of the country. They want it for themselves and we’ll say again the government has failed. Every government administration we have has failed — shame on them for that greedy act”