BY FOSTER F. FUNDI
I am dedicating this year’s New Year Message to fellow Malawians living outside Malawi. I sincerely and strongly urge you to reflect on my advice below. Do not fight other people’s battles. Do not let politicians use you in the name of patriotism for their own political interests.
If anything 2020 has taught me to practice wise not blind patriotism. Speaking from experience if I may add. Malawian politicians are like psychologists. They know what triggers us to fight their wars. They’re aware we don’t like to see our fellow citizens languishing in poverty.
They’re absolutely crafty. They create a monster and a boogeyman for us to fear. They point at the monster and boogeyman for every problem our country faces. They then convince you that them alone are the solution to our country’s problems if only we can vote them into power.
Surely like false prophets they promise Heaven and deliver hell. Many of us have sacrificed our personal savings in the name of helping our country only to be betrayed by these manipulative politicians once in power.
We have well qualified and experienced Malawians from Washington DC to Pretoria, London to Tokyo, Beijing to Paris, Jerusalem to Kigali, Moscow to Brasilia who are connected and with networking abilities to advance Malawi’s foreign policy and diplomatic representation.
But alas they bring their nieces, uncles, brothers, sisters, politically connected cronies as bench warmers to these capitals. I am urging all of us to work together and speak with one voice to advocate for issues we care about.
We must demand seats on the decision making table. We have to organize and create a powerful force that can’t be ignored by politicians back home once in power.
There are no free lunches in life. We help sponsor their campaigns with cash or in kind. It’s time we reap what we sow. We can’t be cheerleaders anymore.
We are partly to blame for Malawi’s perpetual economic woes because we don’t take our rightful roles. They use us as foot soldiers to fight their battles while they wine and dine in high end restaurants and once the war is over, they send us back to the barracks every five years.
They bring their cronies and give them Mipando yonona. They change their phone numbers till next elections when they need you and I again.
We only exist during campaigns according to them and not at the time they share lucrative positions. I am very disappointed that we have no representation in Tonse Administration despite all the promises they made to us.
We must demand a third of cabinet seats, boards and diplomatic appointments.
Frankly speaking DPP administration was equally as bad when it comes to reaching out to the diaspora community for opportunities. We need friends who would mention our names in a room full of opportunities even when we are not there.
Select wisely who you support going forward and let’s advocate for our full representation in deeds not spirit only.
Happy new year to you all.
When I sponsor any politician I personally don’t expect any personal favours in return, other than that those politicians should make and operationalise policies that will make a difference in the lives of my people, ordinary Malawians back home.
To that end, am so disgusted that after lobbying politicians on both sides of the aisle to approve the dual citizenship bill, the bill has not been operationalised up to now 12 months down the line after parliament approved the same.
This clearly shows that though the diaspora community makes a good contribution to our country’s GDP through remittances, we are in their view second class if not third class citizens.