In a country where top government officials can influence the admission of unqualified students into secondary schools without being prosecuted by the Anti-Corruption Bureau; where the ruling party dictates the distribution of public funds and positions; where peculiar discounts are offered to peculiar buyers, the fight against poverty is just an attempt in futility.
We will always embrace the sting of poverty as long as we allow corrupt men, disillusioned octogenarians, inconsiderate legislators and fearful murderers to decide the fate of our progress. Freedom will only be enjoyed by those in power if we don’t rise up and change the course of our nation’s progress.
Ask the state president if he is feeling the pangs of the poorest villager in Chididi in Nsanje who cannot have her millet ground because the only mill in the village has run out of diesel. Ask him if at all he is concerned with the soaring prices of basic commodities. Better still, let the president give his opinion on the increase of maize price at ADMARC by 50 percent.
Well, if at all we haven’t reached a point where we can be described as a failed state, then no country has ever had. Even Zimbabwe has the audacity of asking those who think it is a failed state to check with Malawi first. That is how ironic state affairs tend to turn out. The very same country that was on its knees, asking anyone to assist it – including Malawi – is now placing itself above us.
The end of this year is closing nigh but there is no single hope for Malawi, for the poor, for posterity. In fact government officials are not promising any improvement: we should just brace ourselves for more problems. They are problems experienced in Malawi and not Zambia or Mozambique; problems hatched by this administration and not our neighbours or our donors. We are rolling in inequities masterminded by a regime that feels Malawi is a laboratory where political and economic governance can be researched.
That is why the poor will always be there. They will even increase in number. They will be here with us, always there to remind the happy octogenarians that there is someone in the village who can’t afford a packet of salt and hasn’t been able to buy the subsidised fertilizer because it was never there.
We will only reduce poverty if the majority of us decide to side with the poor. After all, that is the class where most of us belong; therefore, we should fight a good war for ourselves and posterity, for our parents and our friends. We should fight for those who can’t rush to the streets because there is none in their location; to those that can’t boo the president because he never visits them.
The pangs of poverty are becoming irresistible. The poor man is dying because there are no drugs at the nearest public hospital and he can’t afford to buy them at the nearest pharmacy. Yet, those top government officials will not hesitate to fly their sons and daughters to South Africa the moment their throats itch.
The poor will always be among us if we let things take the course they have taken. The poor will not see any light at the end of the tunnel if we don’t take to task this insecure and pessimistic regime. The poor will continue being trumped upon by the oldest men we keep where they don’t belong if we don’t care to take a leading role in realigning the way things are moving.
No comments:
Post a Comment