Malawi: Politics and speed of implementation

BLANTYRE – January 13, 2012:

I am following with keen interest the wrangles in the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) because in my view, there are four parties that have high chances of winning the 2014 presidential elections. The parties are the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, the Malawi Congress Party, the People’s Party and the UDF. My biased opinion is based on the structures these parties have at the grass-root level. Since I consider the UDF to be one of the major parties, I take interest in their wrangles.

As the two factions are battling it out for supremacy and leadership, this week I reflected on one statement from the Friday Jumbe faction.

It reads in part: “The fighting you are witnessing is not personal as some people would like us to believe. It is not a fight between UDF and Atupele Muluzi or between UDF and Dr George Mtafu or between UDF and Kennedy Makwangwala.

“The fight is higher and nobler than that. It is a fight about principles. You are witnessing a fight between selfishness and selflessness, between hero worship and human dignity, between individualism and collectivism, between authoritarianism and democracy, between anarchy and order, between lawlessness and legality – and above all between politics of exclusion and politics of inclusion.”

The powerful statement adds: “Where we are trying to give every member of the UDF an equal opportunity to have a shot at leadership, you will see them doing everything possible to turn UDF into a personal enterprise that serves the interests of one single family, one tribe.”

I regarded the statement as powerful because it sums up the dirty and nepotistic politics practised on this continent. This is a continent where leaders do all they can to surrender power to their sons, brothers, sisters, daughters, cousins or their handpicked minions. Strangely, when the handpicked sons and brothers or surrogates are introduced as presidential candidates, bootlickers and hero worshippers come in abundance. What baffles me is that some of the bootlickers are highly educated politicians, who elsewhere would have been opposing the nepotistic and dynastic succession plan.

Examples on nepotistic and dynastic succession on the continent are numerous. It is claimed Egyptian ousted leader Hosni Mubarak groomed his son Gamal to be his successor while Muammar Gaddafi wanted to be succeeded by his son Saif.

Even here in Malawi, the trends are the same. If all goes by their plans, Peter Mutharika might succeed his brother Bingu and Atupele might snatch the UDF leadership from Muluzi’s successor Friday Jumbe.

Whilst people hate nepotism, tribalism, dynasities, personalisation of political parties, I have observed with eagerness how do handpicked bloody minions of those in power manage to succeed their fathers, brothers, uncles and relations.

The Twister believes several factors are exploited and used to the fullest to achieve the disgusting and detested succession deals which paradoxically get supported. Politics of financial favours and handouts, nepotism buttered with tribalism and speed of implementation are some key strategies that are used.

Those who support the bloody relations of presidents are great beneficiaries; and hate the idea of losing their lucrative contracts or handouts if they oppose dynastic succession. Handouts become in form of multi-million contracts for the politicians’ business allies or even mere K50s, which women dancers get.

The nefariousness of nepotism buttered with tribalism is well known and this is why the UDF statement talks about “politics of regionalism and tribalism.” Some politicians have even formed tribal groupings to consolidate their grip on power.

 Let me wind up by commenting on the third factor which is speed of implementation.  In my view, the handpicked surrogates easily beat the principled and well experienced rivals because of speed of implementation.

Take it or leave it, the fact remains that Peter Mutharika has been speedily and extensively marketed even before his rivals within the DPP have identified their candidate to challenge him. Likewise, if you ask the Jumbe camp, who will be their presidential candidate, you will not get a straight forward answer. Instead you will be offered a lecture on party rules, regulations and policies, the eligibility criteria, the convention and the need to follow all principles and procedures in identifying the presidential candidate. Ask the same question to the other camp, the answer will be automatic – Atupele Muluzi.  The trick lies in the speed of implementation strategy.

One blogger Richard Wilson wrote “increasing your speed of implementation means making decisions faster, receiving feedback faster, and adjusting and growing further more rapidly as well.

“With everything in life we move through learning curves whether it is starting a new career, starting a new business, or launching a new product.  Speed of implementation is about moving up that learning curve 3x faster than your competition.”

Wilson adds: “In short you can evolve faster, meet your goals sooner, and over a short period of time out-pace everyone around you in your industry by just taking massive action.”

I find Wilson’s argument plausible because while the Jumbe camp are right in their observation about principles, selflessness, collectivism, legality and democracy, Atupele despite ignoring party rules and even flouting the UDF constitution will draw most supporters to his side because of launching his campaign early. Democracy is about numbers and Atupele’s numbers might prevail over Jumbe’s adherence to principles and rule of law.

One of my mentors at University of Malawi’s Management Development Centre once said: “If there’s anything that matters most for entrepreneurs, it’s getting things done and getting them done fast.” I believe in political entrepreneurship, the rule is the same.

If you ask today who will be our next president, the names that are mentioned are those of Joyce Banda, Henry Phoya, Atupele Muluzi, Peter Mutharika, courtesy of speed of implementation tactic. Never be surprised in 2014 if one of them becomes our head of state, unless other powerful gurus in our society team up and devise a powerful strategy which can overtake the early campaigners.

Economic jokes

I recently took an interest to check the type of schools, which are sending most students to our national universities. Figures for the past three years revealed that most students who are qualifying for university studies are from national secondary schools , then those from private secondary schools and high schools.

Most district secondary schools and community day secondary schools send few students to the public universities. The reasons for such trends are well known and they include availability of well qualified teachers and well-resourced facilities in national secondary schools, private secondary schools and high schools.

The facilities in most district and community day secondary schools are inferior when compared to those of national secondary schools, academies and high schools, hence this is even reflected in the MSCE results and the number of students these different categories of institutions send to universities.

Guess my concern? While in government boarding secondary schools each pupil pays about  K10,000 per term or K30,000 per year and at private secondary schools each student pays about K50,000 per term or K150,000 per year while  in high schools and academies, the fees range from K100,000 per term to K500,000; strange development happens when the students qualify for studies at public universities.

All of a sudden a student from a government national secondary school whose parents were paying K30,000 becomes poverty-stricken that they have to queue for a loan of K25,000 from Malawi Savings Bank.  Even students who qualified for the university after studying at private secondary schools where their parents were paying K150,000 as fees for three terms line up for loans. There are even those whose parents were paying K500,000 per term in high school who also queue for K25,000 loans for university education.

I don’t know where else in the world do students who used to pay secondary schools fees pegged at either K30,000 or K150,000 per year fail to pay K25,000 for their university studies; and have to stage strikes over loan schemes. In Malawi, this is not just a joke of our time, but reality on the ground.  

Is this the only joke in the country? Nay! Go into some of these shops and find out the stuff we are wasting our forex on? Sometimes, I wonder why we grow lots of tobacco and whine at low prices at auction floors where we sell the raw leaf? I thought the best cigarettes and cigars in the world would have been manufactured here in Malawi, since we have the raw materials in abundance and all we need is tangible investment.