Chakwera Says Malawians Are Suffering

Lazarus Chakwera

Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, Lazarus Chakwera says Malawians are living in badly affected economy and quite different from what President Peter Mutharika has recently told Parliament that economy is slowly making progress.

Malawi Congress Party President, was responding to State of National Address this afternoon in the National Assembly.

Chakwera who themed his speech Dzukani A Malawi [Malawians Rise Up] said the President Mutharika speech was clear that he wants to keep Malawians waiting for the recovery and development of the country yet people wants results now.

“Mr. Speaker Sir, Malawians are desperate. They feel that their country has literally fallen apart.” Said Chakwera pointing out challenges like rising cost of living, cases of corruption in Government, poor electricity even shortage of food in ADMARC depots

“So even though the President claims that the economy is stabilizing, I am here to tell him that the only place where that claim is true in real terms is in the State House he occupies, where all his bills and living expenses are paid for by Malawian tax-payers. But for our people, who pay their own bills and living expenses, there is nothing stable about this economy.” he emphasized 

Most part of his speech Chakwera spoke about sufferings people are experiencing and at one point he emphasised "People are suffering in this country"

He also attacked point where president indicated in his speech that austerity measures and fiscal policies are bearing fruit as International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved the resumption of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF). Here Chakwera argued that IMF approving resumption of its programe does not make difference to the common person in the village whose life remains unchanged when comparing before and after the resumption of the ECF.

Chakwera even noted that international development partners are not coming back to resume direct budgetary support to Malawi because Government has failed to restore donor confidence for its "failure to change its wasteful way of doing business" and not that because of changes in developed countries.

Chakwera said “To put it bluntly, the Mutharika administration is a failed government!” because he said nothing is getting better adding “This is unacceptable!” 

He also advised Government to stimulate the economic activities of ordinary Malawians first in order to stabilise the evonomy of the country. He extended his advice to the need to ending the unaffordable and unrealistic interest rate policy of the Reserve Bank, which seems to base its rate on the price of maize.

"You can’t claim that you want to get Malawians out of poverty when the money they need to start business can only be borrowed at interest rates above 20%. As a result, the levels of default are very high and Malawians are losing their homes to find relief from the shackles of debt by which their own government is enslaving them. This is criminal." He observed 

Chakwera also observed that the President speech was grand claims without substance or specifics "This is called Hot Air.” he said

For example, he said there were no specifics in areas of; plan to turn the economy around, on the proposed commission to oversee national development issues, on the links between the performance of different sectors and national economic performance targets, even on actions the government will take to end its irrational dependence on such external forces as the weather.  

Commenting on Agriculture and Food Security which was greater part of his speech, Chakwera said the National Agricultural Policy (2016-2020) is a key strategic document for Malawi which is an agro based economy. But he said the country needs a clear roadmap to adequately address the current and future challenges facing the sector by adopting a broader framework designed to shift the agricultural sector as a whole towards a commercialization agenda.

He also highlighted problems facing the health sector as well as issues on rule of law among others.