Nestled in southeastern Africa, Malawi remains as impoverished as it was in the mid-1900s. Although the bordering nations of Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique have grown to become significant regional powers in recent decades, facilitating scientific research and improving overall economic and health conditions, Malawi has struggled to ascend the ladders of social indicators. The country’s tattered state is largely a byproduct of successive negligent governments, a fact which has reared its ugly head once again this week as the country’s 2019 general elections were annulled by the Constitutional Court of Malawi, citing electoral fraud.
In 1993, Malawians voted almost unanimously in favor of shifting from one-party rule, which it maintained after its independence from Great Britain, to a democratic and bipartisan government. This was motivated chiefly by Malawians’ disdain for Hastings Banda, the leader of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) during the independence movement, who faced murder charges and was linked with draconian censorship policies in the 1990s. Similarly, Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was found guilty of embezzlement after reports were leaked from Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau three years ago, while Saulos Chilima, a politician originally affiliated with the DPP, started his own political party due to a personal vendetta against Mutharika. Corruption repeats each presidential term, irrespective of the incumbent party. The issue, then, is not with policy but rather with the governmental framework as a whole.
We should not view Malawi through a monolithic lens. The country’s over 18 million citizens comprise nearly 10 ethnic groups and speak over a dozen languages. This diversity has existed in Malawi for centuries, yet political factions often transcend it. In the election that took place last May, Mutharika won over Lazarus Chakwera of the MCP by 3%, a victory which was later revealed to have been facilitated by election tampering involving the usage of correction fluid on ballots.
Party supporters are growing increasingly weary of continuing to invest in politicians who are more concerned with prolonging power and feuding with rivals than serving the needs of the people. Increased deforestation and overfishing hurt Malawian livelihoods. The country’s literacy rate was reported last year to be less than 63%, with a majority of the literate being male. The country also has no women in government, despite 56% of Malawi’s registered voter base being female. Poverty and the inaccessibility of education plague Malawi’s rural areas, while the AIDS epidemic, hepatitis A, typhoid fever and malaria continue to affect Malawian communities, most of which have little access to healthcare.
While the country’s everyday people struggle with these issues, individuals in positions of power in Lilongwe, the nation’s capital city, view politics as mere entertainment. Malawian parties’ political stances are analogous to those of the Democratic and Republican parties in the U.S., yet the parties’ legislative efficacy is not. Lobbyists have immense power to sway elections and curb bills. Opinion pollsters in Malawi, according to the nation’s electoral commission, can also be easily influenced to alter reports. The nation’s democracy is wholly nonfunctional and is undermined by both major parties, whose agendas are seldom synchronized with the concerns of the Malawian people.
Malawi has produced some of the world’s most brilliant minds, spanning the fields of art, science, athletics, writing and activism. The disconnect between its governance and its constituents, however, perpetuates its penury and socioeconomic circumstances. Malawi’s aforementioned 1993 transition toward a democratic system exemplified the spirit of its people and marked a desire for accountability and genuine change. It’s time the Malawian government starts taking that vision seriously.
