All hands-on deck in a democracy in our land

BY Janet Karim

¹⁵Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. — Colossians 3:15-17

When I treat other people with kindness and love, it is part of my way of paying my debt to God and the world for the privilege of living on this planet. – Ben Carson, brain surgeon, member of Trump one cabinet member (Housing Dept.) 2016-2020

In a democracy “the people have the responsibility to take care of the indigent in our society. It’s not the government’s job. You can read the (or any) Constitution all you want; it never says that it is the government’s job…” that’s because it does not have the capacity to do this. Democracy means everybody having a role to play in the running of the affairs of the country like Malawi. Everybody must do their part to make the country a success. On its part, the government (elected officials in the executive branch, the judiciary, the parliamentarians, and civil servants) are employees of the people. They are elected or employed to serve the people, by among others providing services such as education, health, transportation, security. This is a “making smooth the playing field for all citizens and residents.

It is regrettable that many citizens were made to think, accept, and expect the governors to be a one-stop shopping centre for all the needs of our problems. All 22 million of us. That is not the government’s job. It is a sad development that after the 1993 road to establishing a multiparty system of government, the Malawi nation removed the self-help spirit we had under Kamuzu Banda. And in these past 30 years, Malawians have wrongly looked to, blamed and expected the government as the solve-all Trojan horse. Many times, it has been the politicians joined by non-government and other civil society players, continually telling the people this viewpoint: that government players owe the citizens answers to their needs. What are the roles of these two sides?

Before tackling the role of the people, it is important, paramount, that the people in the government as employees of the people, continually work to help citizens by informing the people their roles in the democratic environment. This must be on the agenda of all governors, people in governing positions, or those desiring governing positions either employed or elected.

The role of the people

The first and vital role of the people, the citizens, is to participate in elections by voting in leaders that will follow through with working with the people to usher in development projects that will be beneficial to all Malawians, including routing out corrupt practices and tough on crime (corporate and small criminal activities.

The second is equally important, is that of at the local, village, city levels to work with and or help around you that need help. Instead of expecting or telling the government to do something to help destitute people in our areas, let us help our neighbors.

God’s answer to “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is a resounding “Yes, you are your brother’s/sister’s keeper! You are to be the good neighbor that is talked about in the scriptures. It is a lie that people must wait for the government to help destitute people. By the time the government comes in with relief aid, it should be on the heels of local efforts to “help each other.” This was part of the beauty of the “self-help spirit” that was advanced and worked beautifully.

All Malawians must embrace and run with this democratic belief and principle.

The role of the government

Apart from leveling the playing field for all the people in the country, the government is there to secure our borders through the defense force, and give local security through the police in a non-political manner. But most important is for the government to “do its job,” stop eating up the coffers from taxpayers, and ensure that essential services are delivered in a timely manner. Two examples suffice for this exercise. Passports and the Electoral Commission work on election issues.

On passports, there are numerous passport officers from around the embassies that were recalled last year. Up to today, their replacements have not been dispatched to the embassies. This has meant Malawian who’s passports have expired are having to travel back to the homeland to renew such passports in person in Malawi. This is not something all Malawians living outside the country can afford.

“Even if we could afford this, it is presumably that such vast amounts of forex can be put to better use, such as boosting the country’s forex levels,” one Malawian in the US told me anonymously.

It is a travesty of justice to withhold passport renewals to one’s citizens living abroad. A current, unexpired passport is a crucial document when one has traveled or resides outside the country. The introduction of immigration officers stationed at Malawi embassies, was an ingenious and helpful assistance to one’s citizens by the government of Malawi. It is unhelpful and in fact throwing one’s citizens living abroad under the bus. And the government “not doing its job of protecting all its citizens everywhere.”

The second concern is of the Malawi Electoral Commission. This is a constitutional entity that, like the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), is supposed to operate without being politically beholden to the ruling political party. Since Malawi became a multiparty democratic nation, it has struggled with political party occupants of the Executive wing of government to leave its clause from the powerful agencies and other non-political wings of the government.

It has one sad story after another of the MEC bungling on its elementary to-do list such as registering voters. This inability or paralysis of the MEC becomes suspicious when it predominantly surfaces only in strongholds of opposition parties. The politicization of these non-political agencies has been the norm since Malawi became a multiparty democracy, with very little exceptions.at every bungling of strong-arm wrestling the CEOs of this independent agency.

The Executive branch of the government must stop treating the MEC as a personal chattel of the political party at the State House. The independence, neutrality and professionalism, and freedom to operate according to the MEC TOR, are essential for preserving our democratic culture.

Quoting Ben Carson again: “We’ve been conditioned to think that only politicians can solve our problems. But at some point, maybe we will wake up and recognize that it was politicians who created our problems.” Their close ally in the mix in our country are the non-governmental activists; they have or are given a megaphone to blast out messages against the politicians, requesting citizens into protest marches.

Regrettably, none of the two groups (politicians and NGOs) put food on people’s plates.

Giving or allowing citizens to learn how to proactively help themselves and others around them (part of the self-help mantra), have certainty of putting food on plates, citizens ability to build their own shelters, and lastly buy clothes for their families.

Ironically the three essentials during the first 30 years of Malawi’s independence, are STILL essentials in democratic Malawi: food on plates, having decent housing, and clothes to wear!