Bingu's New Tasks - a Partial List

Bingu begins his second term under more auspicious conditions than the ones that prevailed at the beginning of his first term. He does not have Muluzi breathing on his neck with a list of UDF heavies as he thinks about his new cabinet. He has a comfortable majority in parliement so the budget delay nightmare want reappear, although the ease of passage of the budget should not obviate its scrutiny by parliement. The economy is in good shape although the global crisis poses a threat. There are new mining activities that will contribute positively to the economy. He is head of democracy that has earned itself much respect during the last few days. And Malawi is now considered stable by investors and increasingly known to be peaceful.

He however faces daunting tasks.

• Malawi is still an extremely poor country that MUST grow more than 7 per cent for many years if poverty is to be history in Malawi. We may need even more than this given the high social and economic inequality in our country(in terms of social class and region)
• The country’s agriculture still relies too heavily on the whims of nature. One or two droughts, the economy goes in reverse gear.
• Our health system is stretched by the HIV/Aids pandemic. Too many of our people are malnourished and the stanting of our children is simply unacceptable.
• Our educational system needs major revamping if we are to produce the human resource needed for the ambitious vision that Bingu has promoted.
• Our civil service needs strengthening in both size and efficiency.
• Although much progress has been made on infrasructure, large parts of the country are far from the national road network and are therefore unlikely to engage in economic activities that might reduce their poverty. Access to new sources of energy by the rural population (coal and electricity) is important if we are to stem the devastating deforestation of our countryside.
• The allocation of public investment is highly skewed and and ultimately politically divisive. Correcting past patterns of resource allocation is therefore an important item on the agenda.

Addressing all these issues is not the task of one man or woman. It will require that Bingu imbues his population with the same “Yes We Can” spirit that has thus far driven him. This will require that he extends the circle of people he can trust and to whom he can delegate some of the tasks. Given his confortable majority and his the vanquishin of his nemesis Bakili Muluzi he should be able to deal with his team in a more colleagial and trusting manner.