Malawi Business press

One weak aspect of our new democracy is the press. Democracy demands an informed electorate and this requires an informed press.

Taking one aspect of our political debate – the economy – our press is singularly uninformative. Usually news consists of press handouts from the PR departments of the private sector and NGOs: “Toyota gives away two minimum buses” . There is no critical examination of these handouts (often dished out during a luncheon or cocktail) and no follow up.

 

Numbers matter in economic analysis.  Now try and make sense of this excerpt from The Malawi Times:

“In 2005 cotton farmers covered 88,535 hectares (10,000 square metres) which resulted in 506,363 metric tonnes of production while in 2008 area coverage was 69,826 hectares representing a downfall of 18,709 hectares.

Cotton production has been peaking that 2006 recorded 56,563 metric tonnes- increasing considerably to 62,233 in 2007, 63,290 in 2007 and 76,761 during 2008. Production is expected to improve this year following some relatively improved pricing at last year’s markets.”

Quite often economic news on Malawi appears in the foreign media but not in our local press. Ironically, the foreign media reports are written by Malawi journalists attached to the international media. So it is unlikely that the reporters for the domestic market are unaware of all this. It seems they do not belive it impoart for the locals.

 

The poor quality cannot be blamed on poor finamces. Our local papers allocate more space to advertysing than is normal  in African countries. Indeed there seems to be no norms about how much space can be taken up by ads in Malawi.

2008 MCSE results Malawi

The new MCSE results provide interesting reading. Firstly, the failure rate is ridiculously high. It points  not only to  the need for better teachers and facilities for our schools but also to the need for strict regulation of these schools. Secondly, the performance of our so-called “community schools” is shameful and a betrayal of the young people who have to go to these places in search of knowledge. If there is any case for empowering local communities, then this is it. We need to enhance the pride and competitiveness of local communities to improve the situation by giving communities a greater say in the affairs of these “community schools".

Thirldy, the league table of the top performers is also revealing about the perfornace of different institutions. Likuni Boys tops the list followed by Phwezi. The list also suggests the important role being played by missionaries (especially the Catholics). Of the top twelve (with at least 3 students) 9 are Catholic. One is Anglican. The shameful part is that only one of these is government (Euthini). The performance of Phwezi suggests that well run private schools can compete.

The success of the Catholics raises questions about the role of the many sects that have blossomed in Malawi some of whom are running schools. Can't they allocate as much time to their followers' minds as they do to their souls and pockets?

If the Catholics put in the same effort in their university as they have in their Secondary schools, then UNIMA better wake up.

School	Students	Affriliation
LIKUNI BOYS	10	Catholic
PHWEZI BOYS	9	Private
MARYMOUNT	8	Catholic
ST JOHN'S	8	Catholic
LUDZI GIRLS	6	Catholic
CHAMINADE	5	Catholic
MARIST	4	Catholic
STELLA MARIS	4	Catholic
EUTHINI	3	Government
MALOSA	3	Anglican
MTENDERE	3	Catholic
ST PATRICK'S	3	Catholic
CHARLES LWANGA COMMUNITY	2
LIVINGSTONIA	2
NANKHUNDA SEMINARY	2
VIPHYA (Pvt)	2
ARMY	1
INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	1
BLANTYRE	1
CHICHIRI	1
CHIPASULA	1
CHISAPI (Pvt)	1
El SHADDAI (Pvt)	1
KAPHUKA (Pvt)	1
LIKANGALA	1
MULANJE	1
MWANZA	1
NAMITETE	1
NEW ERA BOYS' (Pvt)	1
NKHAMENYA GIRLS	1
PIUS XII SEMINARY	1
PROVIDENCE	1
ROBERT BLAKE	1
ST MARY'S	1
ST MICHEAL'S GIRLS	1
PAUL THE APOSTLE SEMINARY	1
UMBWI	1
WILLIAM MURRAY	1
ZINGWANGWA	1
ZOMBA CATHOLIC	1

Mzuzu and apartments

According to a recent report from Mzuzu the city council has expressed displeasure at people having flats in the central business district. Presumably only offices and hotels are allowed in these areas. This is an obviously bizarre regulation that actually only exists in Southern Africa. It obviously would liven up our dead cities if people were allowed to build apartments in our city centres. And we would serve money. Imagine that an important part of our infrastructure is actually left unused at night because of thoughtless demarcation of urban space. - If Mzuzu really wants to be a different and interesting city it should encourage apartments in the city centre.  This would not only enliven the city but would lead to a better use of existing infrastructure

Trust and institutions in Malawi

As we approach the general elections we are reminded of the fragility of our institutions which since their establishment in 1994 have weathered extreme testing. However the fundamental problem is not with our formal institutions but with our “political class”. No democracy relies entirely on the formal institutions of governance. Non-formal institutions matter. These include “gentlemen’s agreements” (to use an obviously gendered notion), norms, parliamentary traditions and basic trust. In the absence of these we have resorted to injunctions. Take the case of trust. For much of the last five years our politics has been mareked by deep mistrust among the political class. The cat and mouse games over the budget are a good reminder that we have a long way to go before creating a truly democratic political culture. The government has been afraid that the opposition will use its numerical strength following the expulsion of those who had crossed the floor to initiate impeachment proceedings. The opposition, in its turn, feared that once the budget was passed the government would chose to adjourn the parliament until further notice. And in some way the opposition's fear seemed vindicated renegade on promises to take up the Section 65 issue after the budget had been passed. Neither of these fears may have been justified but where there is mistrust they pose serious barriers to dialogue. The stability of formal institutions does not depend only on their mere existence, constitional legality or internal coherence but also on the self-restraint exercised by those using them.

We are already seeing how the injunctions mania is eroding the credidility and integrity of the judiciary.

Malawi's elections

This coming election will be Malawi's fourth election since the end of one party rule. The rule of thumb in studies of democratic transitions and consolidation is that the holding of three elections suggests signficant progress forward and reduces the risk of reversal. But we should not be complacent. Reversal of our democratic gains still remains a possibility.

One of the factors that makes our democratic transition fragile is the constitution. The "first past the post" constitution we adopted completely fails to take into account salient features of our society and political landscape and creates the feeling in some parts of the country of being marginal. What we obviously need is a constitution that reflects our ethnic and religious diversity and that encourages coalition builing. When one talks to key poltical actors in Malawi one is struck by the gaps between the recognition by all of them of the danger of our current arrangements and action to change matters and introduce proportional representation. And even in the current election none of our parties has addressed the issue of changing the constitution to address the issue.

It will be sad if our democratic experient grinds to a halt because we are saddled with a wrong constitution.