THE BOTTOMLINE –
MAESTRO’S BIFOCAL PERSPECTIVE
OUR MALAWI OUR ECONOMY: THE ROADMAP TO RECOVERY, STABILITY AND SUSTAINABLE
SELF-RELIANCE.
BY
MARISEN MWALE [LECTURER AND RESEARCHER – MZUZU UNIVERSITY]
It does not require that one be an Economics engineer,
Maestro or Super-genius to appreciate that our esteemed nation is wallowing in
economic dire-straits and is in a crisis situation that needs ingenious and
judicious policy reform to avail ourselves. Fair and fine, the IMF and the
international community of western donors have injected their infamous so
called recovery ‘bitter pills’ but the million dollar question that crops to
mind when we reflect upon our situation remains whether such structural adjustment
proposal bring us any glimmer of hope to economic recovery not only in the
short term but even in the medium and long term. When we project into the
future do we see our nation prospering once more in economic terms or are we
forever trapped in a vicious cycle of causation and poverty. Developmentally
are we really forging ahead or rather backtracking and retrogressing? Where
actually do we forecast our economic growth within the next 10 or 20 years?
What policy direction in developmental terms do we really need to realize our
breakthrough to sustainable growth and economic self-reliance? When we sit back and reflect
do we see the IMF structural programmes translating into sustainable economic
development and tangible progress?
The bottomline from the Maestro’s perspective is rather that
the IMF policies might not really be a deliberate ploy to keep Malawi and other
developing economies underdeveloped but the fact remains that the structural
programmes as advocated by the fiscal body and its partners may be drawing us
deeper down the abyss of economic deprivation and western donor dependency. The
programmes rather keep us skirting around the same economic problems and
challenges in a vicious cycle of perpetual causation. It is however not the
purpose of this analysis to debate discarding or sidelining western reliance
since the west has been our godmother and traditional donor since time
immemorial. The gist of this postulation is rather that it might make more
prudent economic and developmental sense to turn our focus east toward such
economies as China and Japan and to model our developmental reforms toward such
if sustainable economic progress is to
be our goal and sole prerogative. The fact remains that modicum short term
injection packages of economic reform and growth as are typical of the IMF
programmes do not necessarily translate into sustainable economic progress. I
strongly do believe that we have more to benefit and learn from the eastern
economies than from the west. Further to that, traditionally we rather share
the same political and economic ideologies and philosophies such as are locally
developed networks and socially based traditional communal philosophies that
have seen most eastern economies avail themselves from the pangs and syndrome
of western donor aid and dependency.
It is rather paradoxical to note that in most of our African
political economy, the state has since been utilized as an instrument of
exploitation, repression and oppression by classes modeled toward the western
bourgeois with the system of law, justice and the economy originally bound up
in such precedence. Whatever resources are at the state’s disposal – economic,
jural, political, social or otherwise – have been perennially utilized by such bourgeois
classes to keep themselves in power by hook or crook. Such scenario are rather
peculiar to and reflective of an earlier stage in western civilization and
economic development that has since been transferred to and has found its roots
and nurturance in Africa and other developing economies possibly as a resultant
of earlier colonization and subservience to metropolitan states. It has been
alluded to somewhere that such political ideology was hitherto inclined toward
the subjugation of the inferior classes and the masses to basically bolster
control over the developing economies in general and Africa in particular. It
might not be an overstatement therefore to further speculate that such
political guise has been perpertually maintained and fostered in ways discreet
or otherwise to burgeon Neo-colonialism.
Given such a political, social and economic landscape the
question that we might pose further is as to what our judicious solution would
be to such ploy – overt or otherwise – to salvage our developing economies from
perpetual subjugation and repression. Do we need gradual reforms in our
development philosophies or rather reactive cataclysmic and dramatic sweeping
policy realignment? Whatever approach we adopt we need to bear in mind that it
is expedient upon us to have a panoramic or bifocal view of ‘where we are
going’.
Without this foresight we lack viable resolve for economic
recovery, no roadmap to competitive advantage vis-à-vis our neighbors, no game
plan for improving upon the welfare of our destitute and most vulnerable
citizenry and least of all prescriptions for achieving sustainable economic
progress. There is urgent need to chart prudent and tenable long-term pathway
to follow that is locally friendly and sustainable and in tandem with our
developmental needs and level of economic development. I do not think that we
need ‘one-fits-all’ prescriptions such as are dictated upon us by such fiscal
bodies as the IMF and are not specifically designed for and tailor-made for our
unique situations. We need not be tamed to drift aimlessly but rather there is
need for locally designed developmental beacons or blueprint that suit our
immediate circumstances and developmental level not only in the short run but
such as are future oriented. It needs further be appreciated that considering
the economic plights currently afflicting the nation it is not an option but an
imperative that we craft stringent mitigation economic measures to avail
ourselves. What immediate locally viable prescriptions then do we propose for
Malawi? The most expedient and pertinent leeway to economic recovery even in
our skepticism but with due respect to the IMF boss – Christine Laggarde –
would be to increase our export base and thus mitigate the negative
misalignment vis-à-vis our import base. That however cannot be achieved
piecemeal or overnight but it is a mountain that we can surmount with prudent
forecasting and planning. It is rather unequivocal to appreciate that our
economy has been dominantly agro-based for a period too long and it is high
time we seriously considered diversification into such sectors as mining and
tourism.
Fundamental to the
thesis is the pertinent need to realize that we cannot rule out the fact that
our immediate short-term prescriptions might not overrule the need to stringently
realign our agricultural sector whose sustainable role as the backbone of our
economy we cannot underestimate. The question we might pose further is as to
how we could go about realigning our agricultural sector. The most prudent
alternative would be to consider stringent commercialization and mechanization
of the sector. We could for instance redevelop the schemes that used to
flourish during the Kamuzu era. We could work the schemes all year round
through rain-fed and irrigation mechanisms. There is a pool of under-employed
and unemployed youth who are idling all over our cities and rural areas some of
whom have invaluable skill in engineering and other vocational skills having
gone through TEVET or other such programmes yet they have nothing tangible to
do or are involved in insignificant piecework that does not directly benefit
the nation. Such a pool of youthful underemployed and unemployed laborforce
could be tapped to man these schemes. Such commercialization can also gradually
trickle down to the generic small scale small-holder rural agricultural areas
where we could improve upon our traditional techniques and tools to maximize
production on these small scale pieces of arable land. It is worthy noting at
this juncture that an economic model driven by the agricultural sector is not
only sustainable but ecologically viable since it is grounded on progress that
realigns economic activities and consumption with ecological realities. Further
the lake and the vast array of perennial river networks across the nation which
by all standards have hitherto not really been utilized to spearhead the
agricultural sector may be taken advantage of for perennial year round
irrigational commercial purposes.
Schemes such as were in the nature during the Kamuzu regime’s
young pioneers could be re-introduced but this time around with no emphasis on
militancy but rather skills development and economic progress. It is the gist
of this proposal that rather than abusing the youth politically, they could be
utilized to positively and directly contribute toward the development of our
ailing economy. Such large scale agro-based commercialization through what late
president Professor Bingu wa
Mtharika dabbed the ‘Green belt’ initiative is achievable and it could be done
best by integrating the under-employed and idling unemployed skilled and
unskilled youth who are gradually being transformed into militia by greedy and
unscrupulous political zealots as well as taking advantage of the irrigational
potential of the lake and perennial vast river systems.
Further by gradually trickling down such commercialization
and mechanization of production to rural areas with prospective aid from our
partners from the east –China and Japan- we could eventually scale down on the
subsidy fertilizer programme that has been unprecedentedly unpopular with our
western donors and alternatively scale up on an agricultural input revolving
fund and credit facility targeting the pool of generic small-holder farmers.
Such policy reform and direction has been self-sufficient and sustainable
before and could be easily supported by the western donor community due to its
fiscal viability and sustainability. To strengthen such an initiative and
improve upon its credibility our small-holder farmers could be integrated into
co-operatives as was the case during the Kamuzu era.
Through these
co-operatives we could gradually scale up production by means of commercialization
and mechanization hence increasing returns on the small holder pieces of arable
land. Agricultural equipment and
machinery such as the tractor and combine harvester and such other locally
appropriate technologies as may be necessary could be placed in centers akin to
the rural growth centers directly accessible to the co-operatives. These
centers could be distributed across the nation and act as access points from
whence our co-operatives could rent and utilize the machinery. The maximization
of production that could emanate from such initiative could lend feasible
credence and accord credibility to the one village one product [OVOP] Japanese
experimental project. The Japanese OVOP initiative per se could be incorporated
into this complex integrated commercialized rural development agenda to add
value to the products in the agro-schemes and rural co-operatives before the
output could be exported. That could afford such agro-products competitive
advantage on the international market. The pool of our under-employed skilled
youth could be utilized to man and run these proposed OVOP agro-industries. It
might as well be emphasized that the TEVET vocational training curriculum could
be revisited and tailor made to target and suit such policy initiative and any
other diversification direction the country might be moving toward such as
expediting the mining sector.
The whole proposed endeavor will not only ease and stabilize
our economy in the short and medium term, boost food security once more, mitigate
the rampant unemployment, curb rural-urban migration but above all else instill
positive externalities toward curtailing and eradicating gigantic social ills
in the guise of pauperism, disease due to malnutrition, and ameliorate the
perpetual starvation. Not only that, vices typical of status discontentment and
economic asperities and inequality such as crime, prostitution, gambling and
such other negative externalities could be curtailed. We could also curb the
hand-out syndrome and over-dependency on the government and the western donor
community to sustain rural livelihoods. By affording such help through
practicable opportunities of self-improvement for all regardless of whatever
disparities – social, economic, political or otherwise- such humble initiative
would go a long way in healing the wounds of economic affliction the country is
currently experiencing, in stabilizing the balance of payment and above all
else in revitalizing our agricultural sector which has since been neglected and
underutilized. The pool of underemployed
skilled youth could further be integrated into infrastructural development in
these schemes by working on the rejoinder roads and refurbishing the factory
buildings and machinery to promote the OVOP initiative not forgetting
structures for the mining sector whose potential for growth in Malawi cannot be
underestimated or overlooked. The proposal might be a dream far-fetched but the
recovery addendum might be our ultimate pis-aller in the road toward economic
recovery, stability and self-reliance. It is pertinent to not only appreciate
that resigned pessimism will not avail matters but above all else that there is
always cause for optimism for our esteemed developing nation.
BY MARISEN ‘MAESTRO’ MWALE
