HRDC asks Chakwera to meet expectations of Malawi citizens

The Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has stressed that Malawians are eager to see President Lazarus Chakwera and his Tonse Alliance administration deliver on a number of critical issues  as they begin 2021.

In a seven-page New Year’s message, HRDC  reminded the Tonse government to fulfil their promise of serving Malawi better.

The Tonse Alliance government has made short and long-term promises to Malawians, including achieving food security, fighting unemployment, corruption, reducing presidential powers, promoting quality education and infrastructure development.

HRDC expressed its worry on Chakwera’s administration slow pace in acting on major decisions, saying is effectively overshadows its achievements and affects people’s sense of hope.

“We commend the government for the various strides it has made since June 2020 and extend our appeal for the  administration to widen, deepen and sustain these initiatives towards the Malawi we all want,” reads the statement in part.

HRDC continued: “But at the same time, we remind the Tonse government that Malawians  have suffered enough from broken promises before and now look forward to this government to reward them for their sacrifices and trust by quickly meeting their expectations.”

On corruption, HRDC noted that the Tonse Alliance administration brought a lot of early promises by arresting a number of high-level corruption suspects, but has “dampened this hype by suddenly slowing down on investigations and prosecution of cases.”

The coalition said it is “disappointing” as it said non-action is equivalent to government’s acquiescence to the abuse of public resources, which is unacceptable.

“Malawians expect that in the year 2021, the government will speed up processing of corruption cases to deliver a strong statement that abuse of public resources will no longer be tolerated in this country,” said the statement.

HRDC further zeroed in on the creation of one million jobs which the Tonse Alliance trumpeted during the fresh presidential election campaign. The grouping observed that so far, there is no clear roadmap on how the administration will achieve the promise.

“The youth of this country look forward to government to deliver on this promises and we expect an appropriate roadmap on the program,” reads the statement further.

Chakwera has been touting his achievements – merely ceremonial – in his past six months in office but  observers say there is no concrete outcomes of campaign promises.

The Tonse alliance has been asked to stick to servant leadership in leading Malawi.