By Chikumbutso Mtumodzi
As Malawi commemorates 59 years of independence on Thursday 6 July 2023, it is the best opportunity for Malawians to reflect on how far the country has come and how Malawi Congress Party (MCP) rule under the chairmanship of Dr Lazarus Chakwera fits into the sum total of our social and economic progression since 1964.
The CCM belongs to the League of Revolutionary Political Parties that fought for independence in Southern Africa such as the South West African People’s Organization or SWAPO in Namibia; and the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) in Zimbabwe.
In South Africa, there is the African National Congress (ANC); the Kenya African National Union (KANU) in Kenya; Kenneth David Kaunda’s United Party for National Independence (UNIP) in Zambia and Julius Kambarage Nyerere’s Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) in Tanzania.
These are the political parties whose indelible mark on the face of liberation history in the countries of southern and eastern Africa will be difficult to erase for many years to come. They played a key role in the liberation struggle from colonial imperialism.
In addition to the undeniable liberation of their countries, those political parties have also heralded a new socio-political path in their countries towards economic progress that has been largely a set of successes and failures.
In Malawi, the difference of being the first and only liberating political party is the CCM. And that legacy will remain with us for many years to come. It is Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda along with some liberation heroes like Kanyama Chiume, Orton Chirwa, Henry Masauko Chipembere, Yatuta Chisiza, Dunduzu Chisiza and others who fought valiantly against British colonial rule in the 1950s and 1960s.
It was also MCP and Kamuzu who guided Malawians on the first genuine path of social and economic progress after independence. To this day, the party’s footprint of progress remains visible. In fact, most of this country’s revealing and iconic infrastructure is the manual. paintings of Kamuzu and his MCP. We just give it to them.
Since the advent of multi-party democracy in that country, Malawi’s economic and social progress has gone 3 steps forward and five steps back. Under the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Malawi pursued widespread structural adjustment programs under former President Bakili Muluzi, ostensibly to delegate more money to the personal sector and revive immediate economic development.
MPAs have seen maximum state-owned enterprises such as the Malawi Development Corporation (MDC); David Whitehead and Sons (DWS); Brown
Thousands of others have been fired; Malawian kwacha has lost a lot of price due to high taxes and runaway inflation; And corruption has been endemic, stifling small gains that may have been made.
Efforts through successive governments to bring about an economic revolution in Malawi’s economy in a steady livelihood have been rare and, at best, insignificant in making a dent in the jaws of poverty.
Ironically, more than 25 years after the replacement of the government by a multiparty government, Malawians have to return strongly to the CCM under the leadership of President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera, who became president of Malawi after the 2020 presidential elections resumed. It was a classic case of “let the one who started finish it. “And true to this adage, Dr. Lazarus Chakwera wasted no time but threw himself to the task.
Despite a triple whammy of mistakes such as the Covid 19 pandemic; With the war in Ukraine and the collapse of the world economy, the Chakwera government temporarily announced a series of measures for Malawi’s economy in the face of external shocks and injected enough fuel to put it on a path to growth. The measures included spending cuts through strict budget measures to impose the spending field within the government and ministries.
In November 2021, President Lazarus Chakwera unveiled Malawi Vision 2063, a progression plan designed to consult Malawi’s short-, medium- and long-term progression timeline. The aim is to make Malawi a middle-income country by 2030 and a full-fledged economy. until 2063.
As we speak, Malawi is lately almost a site of structure with structural projects sprouting up and down. Currently, negotiations are at a complex level for the government to qualify for an Extended Credit Facility (ECF) with the IMF, a progression that deserves to help stabilize the economy by making the currency easily accessible, among other things.
In the bigger picture of things, it turns out that once the CCM government, through the current president, Dr. Lazarus Chakwera, is in fact destined to bring genuine and practical social and economic progression to Malawi through an enablement. vision announced through Malawi’s founding president, Kamuzu.
It is therefore fitting that as Malawi celebrates 59 years of independence, Malawians will also need to use the area to reflect on the role that the country’s first revolutionary political party, the CCM, has played in the overall social and economic development of the country.
They say that time is the most productive judgment of all and it turns out that time has judged and that the CCM and the president, Dr. Lazarus Chakwera, will have to continue to advise this country on the path of social and economic change. progression in a faithful and traditional quest to lift the masses out of poverty.
[. . . ] Post Tracing MCP’s legacy since political and economic liberation made the first impression in Malawi [. . . ]