PREAMBLE

The Council of NGOs in Malawi (CONGOMA) within its mandate as a representative of the collective interests and concerns of all NGOs in Malawi feels duty bound to provide its voice and opinion on the emerging politics, the state of national development and the democratic tenet of Elections. This has been motivated by recent developments in the country with respect to the national budget; energy sector; intra-party democracy; drug and alcohol abuse, social development outcomes and corruption among others which have a big bearing on the lives of ordinary citizens and the work of NGOs in complementing Government.

OUR VIEWS AND OPINIONS

1. COMMENDATION

We commend Government for:

1. Allocating adequate funds in the 2018/2019 national budget towards the 2019 tripartite elections. This is the first time in the history of the country’s multi-party elections for Government to fund almost in full its national elections.
2. Allocating specific resources in the 2018/2019 national budget for the youth on Internship and Tree planting programs.

We also commend the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) for introducing biometric voter registration and being on course in the implementation of the electoral calendar for the 2019 tripartite elections.We further commend MEC for committing to deploy National Registration Bureau staff at every voter registration centre to cater for those who have not yet registered for the citizenship cards but would like to register and vote in the 2019 tripartite elections.

Again we note that MEC will only allow to register those who will be 18 years and above by 4^th October, 2018 which is the last day of the voter registration exercise. While this is a constitutional requirement, practice in past elections has been to register prospective voters who turn 18 on day of polling. Would MEC consider this as well to avoid leaving out majority of the youth that will turn 18 by May, 2019?

2. EMERGING POLITICS AND DEMOCRACY

It is interesting to note that during the one-party era, the ruling party then used to have party Conventions every year to build the nation. Much as there were limitations of free exercise of democratic rights, as a way of life, this was a good practice. Today, it is the reverse order. Much as we are in a democratic dispensation with fully fledged and enshrined democratic rights in the Republican Constitution, these rights are rarely put to practice and are a way of life as:

• (i) Almost all the major political parties are paying lip-service to intra-party democracy where there is limited space for fair and open competitive process for all willing to lead political parties in various positions.
• (ii) Almost all Parties hold conventions every five years, not to build but to settle scores and to “finish off” political competitors. As such, rule of law is being trampled upon, rights of other contestants are being violated, and the voices of ordinary party members are completely ignored. With such trend of stage-managed party conventions; most political parties have lost touch with realities, they have split up into two or more camps almost rendering the party identity and sense of direction and commitment more confusing to most political parties’ followers.
• (iii) Noble values of healthy political competition and choice are rendered useless as most political parties impose candidates on the voters and ask the same voters during a national election to make a choice from among the imposed candidates. It is like choosing between death by hanging or by firing squad which at the end of the day is still death whatever way. One result from this is voter apathy because voters choose to stay away since the electoral result is precluded conclusive whoever is the winning candidate.
• (iv) Political party infighting and violence to get political power, leaves out women participation and strongly fails to attract female contestants who cannot afford such antagonistic contests. Most Malawian political parties as such, are continuously paying lip service to the 50-50 campaign and our democracy is less and less representative as 52% of the population are women who are largely left out.
• (v) Issue-based civic and voter education campaign started in 2014 is threatened by largely unfunded but accredited Civil Society Organizations to conduct civic and voter education; monitor electoral stakeholders’ compliance with electoral laws and instruments at National, Regional and International levels during Voter registration, Campaign, Candidates nomination ,Polling and Announcement of results. This will affect the credibility and efficacy of the electoral process.

3. SELECTED NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ISSUES

• Power outages

It is sad to note that after commissioning of diesel powered generators by the Head of State, promising a goodbye to blackouts, power outages remain the order of the day currently. Malawian households, businesses and manufacturing companies are failing to enjoy life and returns on investments because there is erratic electric power supply. This puts to question not only the motivation for hiring expensive generators but also the efficacy of reformists agenda of unbundling ESCOM to give rise to EGENCO because at the end of the day there is no change on the ground in the life of a manufacturer or business unit from these reforms. In turn this affects even tax collection based on outputs, negatively affects job creation with already high unemployment among the youth and affects public service delivery in hospital and schools.

• Public Service delivery

According to Oxfam, 2015 (Inequalities in Malawi – A dangerous Divide) poverty and inequality is high and increasing in Malawi as a result of weak and wasteful public service delivery machinery. There is also overwhelming evidence showing that the social sector spending has priorities that are upside-down that have led to:

• Persistent high pupil-teacher ratio
• Continued high patient-doctor ratio
• Perennial absence of basic medicines and supplies in public hospitals
• Poor teaching and learning conditions where pupils learn under trees and sit for national examinations seating on the floor while teachers prepare lessons seating under trees on the ground

These are pathetic situations to hear and see take place in a country which is 54 years old with almost half of that age being a democracy. If we can take a census, CONGOMA bates if there could be even a single pupil of a Cabinet Minister schooling in Malawi public primary or secondary schools. Is this why Government and Cabinet do not take public schools seriously? If we take the age of most Cabinet Ministers, it could show that they went to school in public schools then and they were well educated. Why not invest in public schools even more today?

• Drug and alcohol abuse

Civil Society Organizations had tried hard to work with Government to develop the National Alcohol Policy to guide efforts in the fight against drug and alcohol abuse in the country. But alas, the drug abuse situation has gotten worse over time. Media reports are awash with stories of young men and women dying of drug and alcohol abuse related effects.  What is more worrying is that the authorities have kept a blind eye to the crisis which is turning the learners in schools and colleges into young drunkards and drug abusers to the doom of the future generation.  CONGOMA is aware and appreciates that there are some few law enforcements agents that are very vigilant against this vice but they face poor working conditions and in some instances threatened with dismissal and transfers from the top officials for doing a good job of serving the interests of Malawians. Malawi should learn to reward good performance and sanction laxity accordingly and not the reverse. Again we ask: have the reforms worked?

• Corruption

It is pathetic to note that perceptions on the extent of corruption in Malawi are high as the poor Malawians persistently and hopelessly watch their leaders amass wealth over night; Malawians wake up to dragging corruption cases and questionable court judgments involving the rich and high profile figures while the poor languish in jail for petty theft among numerous inequalities. This is no surprise as Government pays lip service towards the fight against corruption and no wonder our ranking on Corruption Indices has worsened of late. Can Malawians see for once a Government that is serious to the letter in the fight against corruption? Or is it difficult to fight corruption in Malawi because those spearheading or giving cause to the fight against corruption are the most corrupt themselves?

WAY FORWARD

Considering the numerous challenges highlighted above and the consequences of the same in failing our fledgling democracy and development outcomes, we propose the following:

1. President of the Republic of Malawi: should address the nation on the issue of blackouts and generators which were commissioned because Malawians have not seen the benefit as blackouts are back and here to stay.
2. Parliament and Minister of Finance: provide adequate resources in the budget for Constitutional bodies and accountability institutions including Parliamentary Committees to fight corruption.

• Government: address once and for all the issue of absence, inadequate and dilapidated infrastructure in public schools and hospitals and address welfare of Teachers and medical Staff especially in the rural areas. At this age we cannot afford to have our children learn under trees and patients being send away without medication.

1. Minister of Home Affairs: Ensure that the Police have adequate equipment, supplies and transport and are well remunerated and motivated if fighting drug abuse, crime and corruption is to succeed. Reward good performance and sanction laxity and not the reverse where performing officers are threatened with dismissals or transfers under the pretext of normal Government transfers.
2. All political parties: to place the rightful role of party convention and intra-party democracy and respect peoples’ power and right to choose their leaders in an elective manner. If democracy as a system of governance where the people are deciders and beneficiaries of their choices; all leadership positions must be decided by the people through the ballot and equal and levelled campaigning must be encouraged and not to gag people from expressing their choices.
3. All political parties: to specifically create an enabling legal and praxis environment that allows for the participation of women and the youth. Our society is incomplete without the women and the youth. So, if political parties are looking forward to forming government, then they must reflect this balance in their composition and structure. Time for all male dominated governance processes is gone!

• Malawi Electoral Commission: to use resources in a transparent and accountable manner and only for the activities of the 2019 tripartite elections.
• MEC: to consider maintaining registering prospective voters who turn 18 on poling day until our electoral laws are harmonized. We feel more youths will be left out if age eligibility is at 18 and above by 4^th October, 2019.

1. Development partners: to support the accredited FBOs and CSOs with financial and material resources so that effective civic and voter education and independent monitoring of Voter registration, Campaign, Polling and Announcement of results are done to provide checks and balances to protect the universal suffrage rights recognized by the United Nations. Failing to provide timely support is a serious omission in the process of entrenching democratization in Malawi.
2. All NGOs: unite and be focused on serving the people of Malawi. Do not suffer in silence but document and report any policy or operational challenges you face for collective policy advocacy and reform
3. All women in politics or intending to take up leadership positions in political parties: let you be not discouraged. Whilst we acknowledge the challenging context of male dominated politics today, Malawi is not a patriarchy. Jointly we must fight for the space and the enabling environment for your role in politics

• All Malawian citizens and people of good will: Malawi is our country and must not be left to politicians alone to define its future. Let us become proactive and say NO to predatory politics; let us stand up and call for accountable and transparent intra-party electoral processes. If we choose to be divided, confused and abused, we will perpetually cry for transformative leadership which is becoming pervasive. We better know that transformative leadership is ONLY possible when we have active and informed citizens who meaningfully make a deliberate choice to choose what is right.

We call upon all prospective voters for the 2019 tripartite elections to take advantage of the upcoming voter registration exercise and register as a Voter.

Signed

Steven Duwa

CHAIRPERSON