Malawi leader lacking in sophistication – Professor Chijere
A renowned social political commentator and historian Professor Wiseman Chijere Chirwa has described President Mrs Joyce Banda as not sophisticated for failing to fix the economic problems facing the country.
Professor Chijere Chirwa joined the chorus of chairperson of Consumers Association of Malawi (CAMA), John Kapito, and criticising President Banda that she has failed to provide protections to the people effected of the recent currency devaluation of about 50 percent.
University of Malawi researcher and lecturer of social history, Chijere Chirwa justify his argument that Banda and her government are not sophisticated by giving 10 reasons as a sample.
His observations are contained on internet discussion forum of civil society ( Civsoc) and accessed by Nyasa Times from the Misa-Malawi forum where journalists debate on various issues.
Chirwa writes as follows:
- If you cannot foresee that certain economic measures such as devaluation have negative effects and therefore you need to put in place mitigation measures to ease the hardships – You are probably not sophisticated enough.
- If you come to power and it takes you six or more months to come with a policy statement to guide the direction of the country – You are probably not sophisticated enough
- If it takes you six or so months to convene a “crisis cabinet” to plan a recovery process – You are probably not sophisticated enough.
- If your recovery plan coincides with election times and runs the risk of becoming an election issue and you are not mindful of the possibility that the plan might fail and therefore might cost you the election – You are probably not sophisticated enough.
- If you start picking up petty quarrels with your critics instead of you concentrating on meaningful solutions to the issues you are criticized for – You are probably not sophisticated enough.
- If you keep on changing statements day in and day out and in the process displaying your lack of vision and direction – You are probably not sophisticated enough.
- If you keep on dwelling on the past and emphasizing how you were victimized, forgetting that you were not the only victim – You are probably not sophisticated enough.
- If you keep on trusting that the solutions to your problems are going to come from outside, through donations and handouts, and not paying adequate to the technical, human, social, political, and financial resources you have internally – You are probably not sophisticated enough.
- If you cannot listen to simple advice like: “can you reduce on travelling”, devote more time to working with your technical teams, advisors, meeting people from different sectors to get their views on some issues – You are probably not sophisticated enough.
- If you cannot come out clearly on what type of government/state you intend to put in place, who the key players in your economy will be, which key institutions will take the lead and what their roles, duties and functions will be – You are probably not sophisticated enough.
