Why Malawians Can't Rise Up

It has been suggested by George Bernard Shaw that a democratic election gives a nation the government it deserves. Nowhere do I find this to be more true than in my own country, Malawi. The government of His Excellency Bingu Wa Mutharika has come under heavy criticism over the last two years for its failure to address the economic troubles and unsound policies that have led to fuel and food prices rising astronomically high, fuel supplies dropping low, forex reserves drying up, unemployment levels skyrocketing, draconian taxes choking businesses and enterprise to death, and souring of relations between government and EVERYBODY. And as the criticism has come piling up from local entities like Non Governmental Organisations, Churches, and Civil Society Organisations, the government has exacerbated matters by responding poorly, becoming more defensive in its rhetoric and playing politics of intimidation and misdirection, the most recent example being the Head of State's recent public address in which he issued a directive to the young cadets of his political party to use every means necessary to thwart anti-government demonstrations that don't exist and silence his foreign critics who don't live here. This ludicrous and deteriorating state of the government is alarming, but I submit to you that it is not nearly as alarming as the fact that this is precisely the sort of government our nation deserves. But allow me to make a case for this with three simple examples.

It is public knowledge that Bingu's performance in the elections of 1994 was embarrassingly dismal, and that his rise to power a decade later would not have happened without the political maneuverings of former president Bakili Muluzi who single handedly side-stepped the democratic process and bull-dozed, campaigned, propoagandaed, and bank-rolled Bingu into office.Intriguingly, this seems to be the very playbook from which the president is getting the tactics he is currently using to get his brother elected president in the next elections of 2014. But before you criticize the legitimacy of Bingu's ascendancy to power, explore the political and corporate landscape of Malawi and you will see that the number of positions of authority and influence to which people are appointed by dubious means far outnumber those to which people are appointed fairly and on merit. So Bingu's rise to power, its flaws notwithstanding, is a reflection of Malawi's widespread culture of favoritism and back-door dealings. We got the government we derserve.

In a secret cable to London that later leaked to the media, the former British High Commissioner to Malawi described Bingu's leadership as "intolerant" and "autocratic". And you may remember how humorously Bingu himself proved the criticism true by intolerantly and autocratically kicking this highest ranking British diplomat out of Malawi. But here I say that before you take the speck out of Bingu's eye, examine the log in Malawi's eye, for you will find that almost every chief in a Malawian village, almost every principal of a Malawian school, almost every manager of a Malawian company, almost every owner of a Malawian business, almost every pastor of a Malawian church, and almost every head of a Malawian home is leads autonomously and is intolerant to having their leadership criticized by inferiors. As a case in point, I recently got in a long line of cars at a fuel station and waited for hours when a wealthy gentleman with a new Mercedes Benz arrived and cut to the front of the line. When I criticized him in front of everyone, he respectfully asked me to shut up, arguing that I had no right to criticize his actions. This sense of self-importance and bwana spirit that doesn't want to hear criticism from people who are considered inferior is spread throughout the fabric of Malawian culture, and is the spirit in which we raise our children, treat our women, manage our employees, talk to the poor and illiterate, and rule over domestic workers. There is a common Malawian idiom which says, "Wamkulu saalakwa", which means "A big person or an older person is never wrong". And no one should be shocked that our leaders and elders act like this. So again I say, we got the government we deserve.

Lastly, Bingu has been accused of presiding over a government of corrupt officials, putting economic policies that either favor the rich who can bankroll and support a political party bankrupt of ideas, or empower members of his Lomwe tribe with influential positions where they are enriched overnight as they serve as his loyal watchdogs, or give opportunities to businesses belonging to Chinese entrepreneurs who have no moral incentive to question his human rights record. But is this corrupted behavior of putting trust in the power of money really an isolated phenomenon? Is it not just a reflection of the corruption widely entrenched in the Malawian psyche? Do you know how many regular Malawians are paying bribes everydato either to get ahead or bypass the system at Road Traffic Offices, Police Stations, Fuel Stations, Immigration Offices, Border Customs Offices, and every other office you can think of? The mindset of making a quick buck is well set in and making an honest gain is widely seen as a vice. If this is how it is in government, then we got the government we deserve.

And this principle could be applied to the government's failure to make decisions, failure to cummunicate an inspiring vision, failure to confront its opponents directly rather than at political rallies, failure to tell people the truth, and you'd get the same result. You'd find that it is irrational to expect these virtues from a government consisting of citizens who were chosen from a culture that largely does not hold these values in high esteem. So the sad truth is that in some twisted sense, Malawi is being accurately represented by this government. This doesn't mean that Malawi likes the way things are in government, but it does mean that Malawi is like the way things are in government. And even if there are exceptions, those exceptions are more sufficient to prove the rule than they are to change it. And it is this reality, this fact of sharing and participating in the same vices we see in our government, this nation-wide guilt, that makes us too complacent to rise up and fills us with fear of repercussions and reprisals for doing so. Our guilt makes us loudly condemn these vices in government officials, but it is also makes us hesitate to punish them for them. So I know that the president has fears of Malawians rising up against him, but I believe those fears are unwarranted. An uprising can only be born where the values and pursuits of a government clash with the values and pursuits of the majority of the citizenry. This is not the case in Malawi. The number of places in Malawi that have leadership values and standards similar to the government's far outnumber the places that practice a philosophy of leadership that opposes that of the government. Even the opposition parties in Malawi have no moral authority to claim that they emulate values, methods, and goals of leadership that are counter-cultural to President Bingu's. I do not say that this widespread culture of leadership is good, for I don't believe it is; nor do I say that it is sustainable, for the world is changing too fast for government to keep it the same. But I do say that if the national anthem is right in calling Malawi a Mother, then President Bingu is as true a son to her as are the rest of us. This means that the only ways for us to get a better president is either to pray that God gives us one that is better than we deserve or to become a better people from whom such a president can be chosen and cherished. And as a Christian, I have the unique opportunity of doing both.